Today we're quizzing Curt Dixon:
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| Grade A student |
Curt: I went to Amon Carter Riverside High in Ft. Worth, TX. A nice enough public school, not too big with a very community feel. Most of the kids had grown up together since elementary school.
B: Who were your friends? Were you part of a clique?
C: It was interesting to actually go to school with most of the same people from second grade all the way through middle and high school. The dynamics pretty much stayed the same throughout. The major clique were the kids with money that lived close to one another. I was friendly with most of them, but I was literally the weird kid from the other side of the tracks. Train tracks. Real, actual train tracks. My parents had been very low middle class when I was born but started making more money soon after. But my father refused to sell the old house they had despite my mother wanting to "move on up" as it were. But he managed to get me into a better school away from our not-so-nice neighborhood. So I was stuck away on the other side of the tracks and only interacted with kids from school during the school year. That meant summer away from everyone and the awkward feeling of coming back for a new school year and being clueless as to what everyone else had done for the summer.
My best friend was a kid named Dwayne Davidson. He was the most popular kid in school which made me part of the main clique. In middle school, Dwayne moved away and a few weeks later we got the news that he had been hit by a car while riding his bicycle and killed. For years after I had dreams about him being alive. After Dwayne's death I drifted from the clique - he was my only real connection to them - and pretty much ignored the social scene at school.
I was the kid who talked to everyone. It didn't matter if they were popular or not, I really didn't care. I was focused on school work - always an "A" student - which made me popular with everyone around test time. By the time we got to high school I had grown pretty much tired of the cool kids and their fakeness. I was still friendly but really couldn't care less about them and was ready for school to end. During my junior and senior years I was on the yearbook staff which gave me some power over the clique. I discovered this when a couple of them tried to use me to make them and their friends the stars of the yearbook which I refused to do. And when two of the most popular boys got pissed at me for not letting them cheat during a test (the teacher was staring right at us when they were trying) I decided that they were scumbags. At that point I was over the whole clique thing for good and tried my best to make sure that any pictures of them that made it into the yearbook were unflattering.
B: Did you ever get bullied/picked on by someone?
C: I didn't get bullied or picked on because I think most of the kids were a little scared of me. Remember, I was the weird kid from the other side of the tracks. But I do remember a boy getting bullied during middle school. His name was Byron Earwood and his nickname was Queerwood. For some reason everyone always picked on him. One day during lunch someone had trapped Byron behind one of the doors leading to the back of the school. It was the perfect trap because the door opened to a brick wall which left an empty "v" space between the door and the wall. There were two glass panels on the door which gave a perfect view of poor Byron as he just crouched down while the older kids laughed and threw food and drinks over the door while laughing and yelling, "Queerwood, Queerwood!" I remember it vividly.
B: Did you ever get sent to the Principal's office?
C: I never once got called to the Principal's office. I was a model student. Always on the honor roll, always teacher's favorite. Which made some of the kids not like me. Especially my home room class. Mrs. Taylor made it very obvious that I was her favorite student. Always pointing out how well behaved I was and how the other students should try to be more like me. I loved Mrs. Taylor but I really wanted her to zip it sometimes because the other kids really resented me for being so popular with the teachers. But I also used this to my advantage. The kids knew I was not the person to mess with because I could turn the whole faculty against them if they really pissed me off and they knew that I was crazy enough to do it.
That was great, Curt, thanks.
Check out The Clique Saturdays August 3 - 17 8:00 pm at
Gotham City Improv
48 West 21st, 8th Floor - Buzzer #801
New York, NY 10010
212-367-8222
Tix: $6
Reservations: IRTEinfo@gmail.com
Special Discount!!!: $3.00 for High School / College Students with advance
reservation.
$3.00 for groups of 3 or more with advance
reservation.
