Junior High has one more important story to tell. For gym class, Mr. Hogan loaded us in the bus and drove us out to Lion’s Park. The schools of our small town share one football field and good track that is close to the High School. For the next few days, we’d be coming down here to practice funny jumps into piles of sand and belly-flopping huge mattresses.

The guys and I were too cool for that. We asked Mr. Hogan if we could do our own thing as long as we stayed in the park. He grunted something about “free country” and “failure at life” but we took that as an answer in the affirmative.

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