Papa has never been big on gambling. When I was young I did of course play Sheepshead for nickles. 5,10,15 cents double on the bump. Years later, after Kiwanis meetings, the stakes were the same. Have gone to Vegas twice and its tables were too fast for my style. I prefer to lose my money slowly without a frenzied pace that reeves up anxiety levels. Pace reminds me of the one gambling I have enjoyed for many decades. Pacing horse races at the Inverness raceway.

Everything is slow and easy at this track. It’s a community event as much as it is serious racing/gambling. Nothing frantic. It is one of the most comfortable venues for entertainment to be experienced. I don’t recall anyone anxious about a race or betting. There is no scurrying to place bets. Every now and then there might be a bit of a cheer for a win by a hometown favorite. After each race a few up to 20 or 30 people cross the track for a photo with the winning horse. Occasionally I will do what my dad did and place bets based on specific, meaningful numbers. On my last day at the races my mind was on high school so I bet a trifecta on my homeroom number and won. Good old 245.

The thought of high school was naturally on my mind. Two of you are juniors this year and one starts his freshman year. On crutches, after a broken ankle sustained at soccer practice. Papa thinks of all the soccer moms who were so happy their sons didn’t play football and avoided getting injured. My memory of high school remains vivid. The transition from freshman to senior was anything but seamless. It remarkably was one of floundering confidence at its start and overhyped vim by graduation. Solid formative years in retrospect. The last reunion of our class is history but I was fortunate enough to have the same 4 friends/ mates at the table as when we were at a school event fifty-five years previously. Not too common an occurrence at our ages.

I have limited insight what high school is like today. I simply hope it is as fun and rewarding for you as it was for me. Whether via our face to face interactions or modern device conduits I suspect there will be moments of social anxiety for you. It will not be serious in the long run. More like annoying speed bumps. Hormones are bouncing around inside and some days will feel like the entire student body woke up one fine morning and decided to judge something about you. Clothes, complexion or uncontrollable hair. Don’t let things get under your skin or too deep in your brain. It will work out. I hope that friendships develop that will bring fond memories as well as reunions.

What is different today is a phenomenon I can never understand. School violence. Crazy kids acting out with guns. I think the difference isn’t the guns part of the equation. We had plenty of guys in high school who hunted and had guns. Jerry, who sat near me in home room, often talked a lot about shooting his rifle over a weekend. He didn’t participate in any school activities. Never saw him at a sporting event, dance or clubs in high school. Shooting/hunting and working on cars is what I remember about him. He wasn’t fully engaged in high school as I thought one should be. Yet, at graduation I was surprised. He received one of, if not the only, perfect attendance pins awarded.

We all got sick and missed some school. But, there was no hard core truancy. Central High had a truant officer. It may have been one or two and done in those days. Mr. D. and a kid’s parents would have put a stop to that. I also do not remember thinking of another student as being any more dangerous than having the capacity to launch spitballs. There was a bit of talk about tough guys but no one that created fear of life or limb. Violence in school was best depicted by a movie of the times, The Blackboard Jungle. Insolence by smarty pants boys who defied classroom decorum while a gang was up to no good. It created quite a stir at the time mostly because of the effect of its rock and roll music. (Sorry, it’s a black and white film.) Even then it was hard to view Sidney Poitier as menacing. Much less “Klinger”. The movie was somewhat shocking at the time but not in the sense that it reflected the reality of my high school. We were in a very traditional blue collar, Midwestern environment.

it’d take a host of experts to know what has happened in the ensuing sixty years to create the madness of school shooters. Perhaps the failure to treat or separate mentally ill individuals that started in the sixties. Or, the dismissive attitude to the value of fathers in a child’s upbringing. ( In the 1980’s I was at a custard stand window and overheard two teenage girls talking about one’s pregnancy. The mother to be enthused about money to be received, rent/transport subsidies and freedom to live alone. Not a word about the boy’s responsibilities. What struck me was the reaction of the friend who didn’t say “whoa but for the grace of God go I” but rather that it was a way to independence. A very unlike reaction to the girls I recalled in high school.) How unfair was my other thought that the newborn faced high odds of doom? Tolerance for antisocial behaviors for years in schools may play a long term role. Consequences can be good for the soul. Glorying guns in movies/videos filled with gore can’t help. Political theater seems to divert from going after root causes. Limit the number of bullets seems akin to saying there is an acceptable level of dead people. No guns owned per some foreign countries results in stabbings.

You’ll be long out of high school before solutions are found, much less addressed. I would not count on either of our major political parties to step up on the issue. It’s too good of an issue to allow solutions. Beat the other party over the head with simplistic pros and cons. However, it’s not simple. I hope and pray that your school is not visited by such hate/craziness. Keep your eyes open is best advice to give. You and your fellow students plus teachers are the ones who may observe and know who is a danger. Don’t be afraid to speak out about legitimate concerns.