Story Behind The Photo 7

Back when I was in junior high I attended this school called Mid-City Alternative. It was a very tiny and strange school on Adams and Arlington. If you live in L.A and know that area you know the school was built on a damned hill. Anyhoot, the school had classes like swimming, gymnastics, African dance (that’s for a whole ‘nother blog…), bowling, and hiking. I had hiking like three times. This is for all the people out there that try and get me to go hiking acting like I’m not a pro at the shit. I’ve probably hiked more than most of the people reading this unless you’re a professional hiker in which case: get a real job.

There were two teachers. My favorite was David. He was this bearded guy that also did photography. This is the main reason why I even have pictures from junior high. In this one I am posing triumphantly in a jacket that my oldest brother gave me. I lived in that jacket. I didn’t care if it was hot I wore it because it ruled ass. I also noticed that my shirt is tucked in which is very uncharacteristic of me. Guess I wasn’t too concerned with my junk being exposed. Or its because I had an awesome belt with a “D” on the front! Yeah, that must be it.

The hiking classes were fun and I would get filthy as hell by the time we got back to school. Oh, and I didn’t bring dried fruit and water on these trips. This was the one day of the week when my mother would give me $5 and I would lose my mind. Before getting to whatever dangerous place we were headed we’d stop at the super market where I would get salt & vinegar chips and a two liter bottle of soda to hydrate. No wonder I had tits.

In this picture is me, my old best friend Maurio on the right, my cousin Tremaine wearing his Karl Kani shirt, and this fucking little girl I couldn’t stand. Why is she there ruining the picture? I don’t know! But the spots on my pants are from her dumb ass opening a soda that had experienced a bumpy ass hike. Its so weird remembering when I didn’t have glasses. This was one of the trips when our P.E teacher Ernie was leading. Ernie didn’t play that shit. He would take us on the hardest trails whereas David would aim more towards beauty. He even had my ass get lost once with a kid I hated. We didn’t see anyone for almost two hours until we spotted them as dots in the distance heading towards the bus.

Once we went in the snow. Did he warn us that we were going in the snow? Nope. We just went. I had on a Bill Cosby sweater, tight jeans, and steel toed boots. No hats or gloves for me! We went and someone hit me with a snowball and I said fuck snow for the rest of my life. Haven’t been back in it since. On the dangerous way back with the bus driver Mr. Baldwin who was known for his deadly ass skills on regular roads we sat shivering because I forgot that snow melts into ice cold water. Good times.