Old classmates

The front of Kubasaki High School

I went to Kubasaki High School on Okinawa. Unfortunately, my father got transferred to Fort Benning the summer between my junior and senior years. I ended up graduating from Columbus High School in 1971.

Having always gone to Department of Defense schools, I never realized how far ahead I was educationally until we came here.

First, I had to learn "Southern." The first week of school, one of my teachers told us that we had a test "Tuesday week." I had no idea what she meant. I looked around to see if anyone else knew what she was talking about. It looked like everyone did.

I finally raised my hand and asked when "Tuesday week" meant. She said, "You're new?" Duh!

She said it means next Tuesday.

So why didn't she just say next Tuesday?

The next thing was the apparent ignorance of my fellow students.

During English class, we were discussing Shakespeare. A guy in the back of the class asked, "Hey, does Shakespeare have a first name?"

Again, I turned around to see if this guy was serious. He was dead serious!

I went home and told Daddy I was surrounded by ignorant doofuses. He said get used to it.

That said, for the past few years, I've been on an e-mail list from Kubasaki alumni.

Since I left "The Rock" in 1970, I've met, face-to-face, only two Kubasaki alumni. I really didn't know Hirome Fujio at all. Nor his wife, Cindy. But I knew Hirome's sister, Takako. Hirome was stationed at Fort Benning (it was in the early 1980s) when I saw his picture in the Bayonet. After several phone calls, I tracked him down. He and Cindy had two small daughters then. We had dinner several times and then he got transferred.

Hirome retired and ended up in Huntsville. His daughters went to Auburn, and one of them got married last year.

Anyway, I got on one of the chat lines last night and I got a call from a '71 Kubasaki grad. David Turgeon now works for the CDC in Atlanta! He said he travels a lot because he tracks epidemic diseases.

So he's the first to contact me. I hope I hear from some more.