Institutionalized!

"I went to your schools!"
"I went to your churches!"
"I went to your institutional
learning facilities!"

"Institutionalized"
Suicidal Tendencies 1983

In my opinion the album that made hardcore accessible to many metal-heads. A landmark album, smart, tight, crisp, culturally relevant, it still sounds KickAss! Mr.666 and I saw them in a warehouse in the desert for like a $6 cover and all the keg beer you could drink must have been '86? Dudes were skating plywood right in front of the stage and the mosh pit kicked up so much dust we hacked for a week... Good times!


On my recent sojourn home I drove around a bit and took some pictures of the places that molded me. Places that set me on my way, where I learned the three R's and (double RR's). Learned rules, broke rules, fell in love, out of love, hated, fought, partied, got sick, passed, failed, achieved and eventually got the hell out of!

Schools today look like shopping malls! Well lit with breezeways and food court style cafeterias; you can have pudding without eating your meat, hell you can get Sushi or browse the salad bar! Library's that make most public libraries seem like a Goodwill.

Their facades inviting, like Macy's or a fancy hotel with manicured landscapes. Teachers with Love and Logic, positive reinforcement, no dark sarcasm in these classrooms! I wont even start on the sports facilities,suffice it to say Jerry Jones would be envious! You get the point.

So as I drove around my old stomping grounds, I of course was drawn to my old schools and hangouts, some have changed, hell some are gone. The Dairy Cup has been gone since the early 90s! Others are just like they were..

My first taste of institutional learning was at St. Joseph's Catholic Elementary! An ancient red brick building made with narrow halls, wooded floors, plaster, stucco and granite! I only went for kindergarten but wore the white button down and navy pants, girls in the pleated plaid skirts and white blouses, just like The Wall or a strip club near you. Nuns were sweet kind women
(they are only cruel if you're a standup comedian) my teacher wasn't a nun at all but a lovely young women, the second women I ever loved, after my mom.

Here is St. Joes in authoritative repose, built to last. Looks like a no bs kinda place hu?


Next on my list was Crockett Elementary were I spent 8 glorious years! I walked two whole blocks up hill both ways! I was one of a handfull of kids who did not speak spanish and the first few weeks were sketchy but kids roll with chit and so it wasnt long that I had a dedicated posse of fellow Longhorns. The main bldg. remains unchanged as if in a vacuum or time capsule, a monument to the 1920s, austere ,serious yellowish brick with gothic archways of smooth white granite like concrete, a place to learn, plain and simple.
Sadly much has changed on the outside, there are virtually no trees in the park directly across from the once tiny staff parking lot. And the fields of gravel where I once had flag football and wiffleball glory are covered in asphalt and yellow strips.... The b-ball courts remain the same though. I honed my ball skills for hours on blacktop so hot it literally melted your Chuck Taylor soles and burnt your feet, but so deep was my addiction to "the sport of the streets" and the only "shooting, stealing and running" I ever did was on those courts.
I often played to nightfall until my old man would come looking for me with a flash light!


This is as close as I could get to the front, a summertime lock down is in place mustn't have the empty lot used during the summer when not a soul is around! Jeez.

Last but certainly not least Austin H.S. were I took my skills. The first time I ever shot a basketball indoors was my freshmen year!
Glass backboards, level wood floor (the varsity gym had this freaky rubber floor)! I thought I'd reached the big time, but seems I wasn't the only ball player in central EP and I had to make the team the old fashion way by killing free throws! See for me one of the great things about basketball is it can be a solo game almost therapeutic, sinking jump shot after jump shot, free-throw after free-throw. Thinking and shooting, muscle memory in action. I had a routine were I wouldn't leave the court until I sank ten free throws in a row this paid off and got me a spot on the team! Anyway like all of us HS had it trials and tribulations mostly it was easy, my cavalier attitude and heavy use of err organic substances helped me avoid any awkward John Hughes moments. Besides I had Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath,along with a steady girl and friends made HS fairly fun, not glory days or any crap like that but bearable. The changes at AHS are remarkable but the tower and front archway remains unchanged it seems to say leave happiness and fun at the door this shit is serious! It was and wasn't, is and isn't.


I may have learned even more valuable life lessons in this alley,it is right across from school but light years from her reach, a literal stones throw from my Grandmother's house but a comet's journey away from family...Things better left unsaid but unforgotten.


So schools may look different today and most weren't built before WW2 but one thing that hasn't changed is that summer ends, school begins...doesn't matter I'll probably get hit by a car anyways...

The "obscure reference-a-nator" Tank
Out!
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