High School Memories From Iowa

The human brain is truly an incredible gizmo. For instance, I was watching National Geographic on television last evening. The info on the guide caught my attention immediately: 'Flora, Fauna And Wildlife Of The Amazon Jungle'. I ask you, who doesn't like mammals and reptiles? My appreciation of these shows goes back to the early Eighties.

My youngest son and I used to watch jungle shows on a nightly basis hoping to see a monster anaconda swallow a deer whole.

The more I watched this hour long colorful extravaganza my mind flickered back to the fall of 1963. It was my senior year of high school and I was seated in Bud Schroeder's Advanced Placement English class. That in itself is a story because I deserved to be in an AP class as much as Charles Manson deserves a parole. Needless to say I wasn't close to Einstein in my studies. The way I figured if I received a B in Social Studies, a C in English and a D in any math class it was a win-win for all.

On the day of my recollection we were required to step to the front of the classroom and give an oral report on any subject. I suppose mine was on Henry Aaron but who knows. I was talking to a high school buddy this morning and told him what a joke it was I wasn't sent down to the minor league of English at Boone High School.
'
One time we were discussing Victor Hugo's Les Mis'erables and Bud(she was a guy----don't ask me how she got the nickname but, hey, it was in Iowa----called on me to explain the character, Jean Valjean. Of course, being the rube that I was I pronounced his name the way it looked to me; sort of
how one would say Gene, Gene the dancing machine. And everybody laughed and I yelled out, "WHAT, WHAT"?

There is a point to this blog piece so here goes. One of my classmates, either Dennis Rucker or Mary something or other,  gave an eloquent talk about the Amazon Rain Forest. The main premise of the speech was and, get this, in fifty years the entire Amazon Forest would be gone. All the trees would be cut down and what remained would look like the Sahara and the entire worlds population would be dead due to a lack of oxygen------unless, we took dramatic action immediately. GASP!

Well, I told you I wasn't very good at math but by my amateurish calculations we are into 55 years  and beyond since that earth shattering revelation and yet not only are we still here but the Amazon is thriving. Did you know there have been over two hundred new species of wildlife discovered in the past twenty years not to mention numerous plants and grasses? I do believe they breath O2 through their nostrils but I'll need to check with Charles Darwin for confirmation.

As I look back it's quite embarrassing what is shoved down the throats of gullible young people and depending on who says it it becomes gospel. I don't know who the social justice warriors were in the early Sixties except for one. Her name was Rachel Carson and she wrote a book titled Silent Spring detailing the dangers of DDT and how it was destroying humanity. And the result of the book? It, DDT, was banned around the world until we realized its after effects. Twenty million people, black, white, brown and yellow plus a few colors of the rainbow in between died of malaria. Rachel Carson, social justice warrior. Mosquitos? Who would have figured?

I'm wondering why I would remember such a trivial speech about the Amazon from five decades plus. I'm clueless because it had absolutely nothing to do with sports and we all know sports is the most important part of Americana.

As for the Amazon Rain Forest cut down trees folks. People need homes and the citizenry in Kentucky need new outhouses.