Kirk Leonard! Of course, I remember you! How could I not? You were that kid who got in trouble a lot with Mrs. Goodwin and was sent to Mr. Quayle’s office on probably more than one occasion.
YES! lol
Maybe you were (are) ADHD and weren’t diagnosed or medicated like my Ritalin-dosed older sister. (In fact, I was recently diagnosed with some ADD.)
BINGO! Mom realized by 3rd grade that I was struggling.
She took me to psychiatrists, counselors, doctors and even had specialists come to get on the school bus with a carbon monoxide detector! I was prescribed a low dose of Dexedrine in the 4th grade, don’t remember it being all that helpful…
By 5th grade, I was EXTREMELY hyperactive, bouncing off the walls, one time I grabbed the broom out of the classroom closet and played air guitar on it, to the dismay of the class and yes, Mrs. Goodwin… (I referred to her as “Mrs. Bad-Lose”)
The even bigger memory which I hope you find as amusing and ridiculous as I do is when we came in from a lunch break and you called out in class, “Larry said the f-word.” It turns out that some kids didn’t let me in their basketball game, and I said something like, “Fuck you guys.”
I would have said that too, lol
I was such a good-two-shoes, “I cannot tell a lie” kid that rather than simply deny it, I ‘fessed up, and our Mrs. Patriot, uptight teacher sent me to Mr. Quayle who decided that there should be an after-school meeting with him, Mrs. Goodwin and my mom. There I was, sobbing with my head in arms, ashamed and apologizing… brother! Anyhow, the “punishment” was that since I was the student body president, I would give an apology speech at the next student council meeting which I did. During the car ride home after the parent-teacher meeting, my mom was completely unfazed by any of it, telling me to give the stupid speech and forget about it. It was a total “nothing burger.”
Your Mom is cool 😀
Do you remember any of this?
I don’t remember that… I ratted you out to that monster???
That’s horrible. Cheesy move. My apologies!
So, what happened to you after 5th grade?
Around 5th grade Mom took me to a Dr. Walker in San Diego, where we did an EEG and other tests (Clockwork Orange?) He recommended eliminating sugar and food colors. That seemed to help a lot, and things improved through 6th grade at Malaga Cove, but I was still struggling emotionally with a distant father and a distraught mother (they had separated, he moved out, and I felt like I had caused it). By 7th grade I met a gal in Mr. Grantham’s class who smoked pot. I was hell bent on experiencing that, and it was pretty much all downhill from there. Dysfunctional family situation (very sad) bickering with my young and older sisters, and after all the problems I’d had, I pretty much gave up on myself and life. Angry, sullen.
What do you do? Tell me something about yourself. Just curious. I went to Malaga Cove, moved to the Napa Valley in 8th grade, went to music school in Boston, Miami and L.A., coming back in ’88. I’ve been a full-time musician and music teacher with a side profession in photography. My wife and I with our adorable doggies (no human kids) live in Encino.
Managed to learn some guitar, had a couple of lessons, pretty much self-taught. Got a job in ’85 repairing consumer electronics, then got started on a crack cocaine addiction, ended up in Van Nuys in ’87 at a friend’s place (Bob Davis, you may remember him, his dad played in the Lawrence Welk band for many years)…
Ended up in a Scientology-based rehab in ’94, which surprisingly was extremely helpful! By ’97 I moved to Idaho to help my younger sister through a divorce and have been here ever since, managing to stay out of trouble in a small town with lot’s of loving and kind people. Opened a TV repair shop, then moved into Computer repair and service around 2000. Lot’s to be thankful for 🙂
So glad to see you two thriving and living your best lives, Larry! <3