Junior High Memories

Self preservation. Whatever it takes.

Kids are survivors. These are kids that survived a school year that was interrupted by Hurricane Ike back in September of 2008. Going back even further in 2005, Hurricane Rita interrupted their 5th grade year as well.

Survival of the fittest. With the fittest being those left standing which includes we parents and the teachers.

Thursday. Today. The next to the last day of school for my son. I come home and find out through casual conversation that tomorrows original scheduled half-day of school was...WAS going to be a 'free-dress' day and not the mandatory school uniform.

Seems an impromptu round of an eighth grade food fight at lunch took that freedom away from the eighth grade class of 2009. I figure if you were to line the kids up and ask them, they would say it was worth it.

I laughed so hard I cried...my visual interpretation of this action took over as I pictured the group of students all scrambling for shelter and hoping to avoid the flying ammunition of beans, milk, dipping sauces, and the obvious chicken nuggets that were witnessed to be soaring overhead.

My son described the first item he recognized from his vantage point at 'ground-zero' lunchroom, a carton of milk resembling a comet with a white billowy spraying tail of vitamin D.

On his quick step journey of ducking, dodging, and looking for cover, he spotted someone (who remains nameless at this writing) who had grabbed a complete tray of assorted lunch and heaved it backwards over their head.

I am happy to report that there were no fatalities among the students, but cannot say for sure about the status of the innocent bystander pair of teachers that were on lunchroom duty.

There was still some final exams to be taken so order had to be restored.

With the years of hands-on experience and in-depth training of organized chaos gone bad in 30 seconds or less, the rowdy crowd of eighth graders were quickly disarmed and aligned along the edge of the lunchroom walls.

Deep down, the teachers might have enjoyed this melee a bit more than the students did. If there were any security cameras available, there just might be some evidence of a quick rub of dipping sauce in an unsuspecting students hair or ketchup down the shirt collar.

Having been around many of these kids during Little League baseball and soccer games for those formative years prior to junior high school, I can assure you, there was no harm intended, just living out their youth like we did. Making memories for themselves. Just their version of stress relief.

The few, the proud, the food fighters.


Have a great summer guys. High School is just around the corner.

Jake