Hey You, Up There!

Except for Debate my freshman year, I did not participate in extracurricular activities. Therefore, I tend to remember personalities rather than events, or maybe students as they fit into the events of everyday school life. I have chosen a few to write about, school mates I watched from a distance, as they established themselves as forces around me. This morning's personalities belong to John Ebiner, Jeff Ruch and Greg Berg.

For the most part I came into contact with the students in my immediate classes, known back in the day as the Honors Group. Never in the history of the universe was there a more poorly designed educational model than this one, but that is fodder for another post. It saddens me that as I go through Tusitala ’70, there are so many names and faces that mean nothing to me.

 

This is one reason why the period of time in front of us is so key: It affords us the opportunity to connect again, or for me, to connect for the first time. How much more meaningful the gathering in October becomes, when I consider this approach.

 I got many a ride in this '59 Plymouth...

Having attended St. Martha’s from its inception, when I entered as a third grader, two students on my list also went here. I’ll begin with John Ebiner, whose parents had the same first names as mine, Pauline and Robert. John had more siblings than my eight, so we obviously could identify with a lot of life’s offerings. We were both boy scouts, first in Troop 433 (St, Christopher’s) and then St. Martha’s very own Troop 708. As freshmen, we were partners on the school’s debate team.

John wore an armband throughout our senior year, in support of Cesar Chavez and the struggle of the Mexican migrant workers. OK, I am not sure specifically how long he rocked that band, but it didn’t matter. In ten thousand kid years, I could never have had the confidence to stand up for my convictions to that level.  

John 

In point of fact, I also supported Mr. Chavez. My father’s close friendship, akin to family, with Mexican workers at the shop where he worked, and my family’s own connections with Baja, California, made me feel a strong level of sympathy. 

Plus, as students at St. Martha’s, we received instruction from nuns who were tossed out of Cuba in 1962, joining us in the winter of 1963. They appeared in our classrooms as TA’s, pero no puedan hablar ingles (…but they couldn’t speak English). The following September they were installed as our teachers. Whereas it was not a bilingual situation, the nuns who taught me always included in the curriculum some rudimentary instruction in Spanish.

John’s political statement, eloquent in its simplicity, was not only bold, it came at a time when social upheaval may have been teeming all around us, but it was certainly not at Bishop Amat, so I admired him for his stance.

Jeff, obviously at the
pinnacle of success...

Jeff Ruch and I were bff’s in grade school and I spent a lot of time at his house in the summers. Heck, we danced together at our eighth grade graduation sock-hop, complete with record player and 45 RPM records. Two straight dudes dancing… Hard to envision that scenario in today’s middle school system.

As we journeyed through our high school days in the same classroom, even being on the debate team as freshmen, it was obvious that he was soaring high above the rest of us, while I was still trying to claw my way out of the mud. I viewed our past friendship as an unspoken bond between us that nothing could change. Whereas in grade school we had been academic equals, as high schoolers, he left me far behind. 

Still, I considered it clearly a matter of success through association: Because we had been such good buds, there was a part of me soaring up there with Jeff. I admired him for being able to establish himself academically in such a broad field as Bishop Amat.  

My cousin Greg Berg is on this list. We spent time together as little kids at my grandparents’ home in Wilmar, so we were already family. Greg was never part of that faction of kids who tormented me; he had too much loyalty for that. At the time we graduated, there were only five dudes in our class shorter than I was, and one was Greg. Did he let his height interfere with his success at Amat? 

Against Blair

To watch him on the gridiron was electrifying. Sure, McKay got his share of the headlines, but Greg’s stature on the team was undeniable, making him more than worthy of my admiration. 

It wasn’t just the athleticism, it was the fact that he mingled with the powerful and popular on campus, and even if I did not, it was another case of success through association. 

Besides, Greg also competed academically because he had that Berg intelligence that was so responsible for my own abilities. My mama was a Berg. 

OK, that’s three of six but I am off to don my chef’s cap to prepare lunch for the crew here at HappyDayFarms. The other three will have to wait until tomorrow. There is plenty of grub if any of you happen to be in the neighborhood. 

I’m only five miles up a dirt road, here in northernmost Mendocino County, but will be down in SoCal in October to share memories, both old and new. Here’s hoping to see you there!

That's Greg on the left, voted most inspirational

Jeff