A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

So, I really wanted to become a film director. But even I, as a naïve high school senior in 1969, knew that one doesn't just become a film director. And I would have to earn a living somehow. Besides, I was already friends with the guys at the town's larger (of two) radio station and I wanted to also be a radio station disk jockey. But to be a disk jockey, one needed to have an FCC Third Class Radio Operators' License; and the tests for that were to be given in Jacksonville. Now, they also had tests for going to college, the ACTs and SATs, given in Jacksonville; and the dates matched. So I decided to do both.

The FCC test, for which I had seriously studied, was easy. It was certainly easier than deciding which of the two college tests I should take.

I guess the SATs and ACTs were competitors, and they weren't cheap; so I couldn't take both. The ACT was known to be more straightforward and curriculum-based, focusing on what students learned in high school. It included sections on English, Math, Reading, and Science, which might have aligned better with my academic strengths. In any case, that's the one I chose, and I did pretty well. I didn't even realize I was entering a competition.

But then I was told by my school that I had become a finalist in some sort of scholarship thing called the STAR Student. It came with a small monetary award to be applied to whatever school I went to; but more importantly, both the student and his favorite teacher would be honored. And I had to select the teacher.

There was never a question: Mrs. Kaye Forson (the newspaper article got her name wrong, as well as being confused which of the tests I took—they mentioned both!), who'd been my teacher in sixth and seventh grades, as well as a couple of high school classes, would be my selection.

Anyway, here's the text of the article:

Can you believe that they printed my home address in the newspaper?! Well, it was a simpler time. But it's funny that that's one of the few details they got correct!

As it turns out, I didn't go to ASU. (But my daughter, Karen, did!)