In
September I started eighth grade at again at Westwood. I was doing
good in math class that was taught by Mr. Lancaster who I really
liked and doing okay in English taught by Mrs. Grose who I always
having a green tongue which we thought were from breath mints but I
never saw her have one and so there was speculation as to why her
tongue was green. Surprisingly I started out poorly in science with
Mrs. Cannon making a F and a D the first two sessions but then B’s
the remainder of the year. I had Mr. Cline again for P.E. and made
A’s and B’s the whole year. I had to choose an elective, so I took
Agriculture taught by Mr. Cake mainly because they had a nice
woodworking shop in which I made a spice rack which Mom used for
years afterwards. My sister on the other hand, a year ahead of me
in school, took Home Economics which they did all sorts of
interesting things, sewing, cooking which seem interesting to me,
but it was only for girls. In Agriculture, or just Agg as it was
called, we learned sort of things about farming, different types of
cows, Holstein, Hereford, Angus and so on not real useful stuff to
me who wanted to be a scientist. One of the most memorable things
from Agg class was joining the Future Farmers of America, or just
FFA as it was known with the real farm boys wearing denim jackets
with the
FFA
emblem proudly displayed on the back. Although farming wasn’t my
thing, I was in Agg class, so I decided to join. Joining the FFA
required an initiation that took place one evening at school in
which all the new boys had to go through a series of initiation
tests in which we were blindfolded and were led though a series of
test we had to do in which a person would tell us something kind of
gross and we had to do it . There was eat something rotten
(Lemberger cheese), stick our hand in cow poop (warm Jell-O) and so
on. I passed and officially and joined the ranks of the Future
Farmers of America but never to eat Lemberger cheese again. I made
some new friends in eighth grade Lee Porter, Jimmy Carpenter, Ed
Moulton, Bill Ritter , Brent Blomendal, Will Stewart, Mike Ponzio
and still was friends with Hank Weaver that I new since I was five
years old. There were a few girls I liked Phillis Wiltbanks, Diane
Correll, and Sandra Robinson but none of which I would call friends
as I was to shy to talk to them much less ask out on a date. Fifty
years later I became Facebook friends with Phillis Wiltbanks and
told her how I had a crush on her in Junior High School. The
replied telling me she also liked me but thought I was part of the
“popular” kids in school and she had no chance of dating me. I
found it interesting that she thought that for I never considered
myself part of that group.
In September the Gator football season started with them beating Northwestern then losing to Mississippi State. October was better with the Gator winning the next three games beating LSU, Ole Miss and North Carolina State. On a roll, in November the Gators beat Georgia and Tulane but lost to Miami. On Thanksgiving giving weekend the Gators played Florida State which was in Gainesville, so Dad went to the game with Billy. They came home happy after the Gators beat FSU 30 to 17. The Gators did well enough to play in the Sugar Bowl which Dad watch on TV but was disappointed when the Gators lost by two points.
Updated: 09-08-2022