Alison Powell:  

The question at the top of this page asks, "Who are you really, Alison?" Classmates, thanks for asking! Is this where we write to bio so that anyone who looks here from any of my schools will be able to say, "Yes! This is the girl I tormented/stole from/ditched with/asked to braid my hair/shared her Hostess cupcake with me." Actually, if someone thinks I shared a Hostess cupcake with them, it's not me. I never shared cupcakes. I still don't. Here's the capsule version and then we'll take it from there. I was born in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, then moved to Toronto. The school story begins with Move #3, to Detroit, where I attended pre-school at Echo Park. I actually met a guy at an LA party who had gone there too, if you are out there, good times with the hokey pokey, right? Then on to a half a year of kindergarten at either Baldwin or Adams Elementary in Birmingham, Michigan. I will sort that out soon. My brother attended both of those and I can never remember which got me for a whole 6 months. Then off to London in 1968 and six months in a hideous Victorian hellhole of an English school not listed on Classmates (stygian detention centers must be on some other site). Finally, in the fall of 1968, BONANZA! I get a place in first grade at what was then the Overseas School London. By third grade, I think, it became the American Community School, ergo two names on that list two. That was bliss and happiness until fourth grade, and allowed me to count the AWESOME Wendy Rasmussen as best my London best friend. She and I reunited in LA in 2003 and it was spectacular. Shout out to sister Stacy! But the London paradise ended abruptly when we were sent (by the UK government, I believe) back to the states the day the Coal Miner's Strike ended. Timing is a Powell strength. We landed in Berkeley, California, where I finished fourth grade at Franklin Elementary. 1972, Berkeley, communes, Zodiac Killer at large, Nixon in office. America was more foreign that England had seemed four and a half years earlier. Then, before school started again, we moved to Irvine, California. Fifth and sixth grade were pure Over The Edge at University Park Elementary. If you haven't seen the movie, it's a classic of seventies suburban teenage ennui and Matt Dillon's debut. Things get good again in seventh grade when I am installed at Vista Verde, a year round school. Kids, this was IT. Vacations in October, a school with no walls, class on big pillows, credit for learning to make won tons. I hoped it would never end. But it did and then we all traipsed up to University High School (Irvine) for more teenage suburban ennui, only this time with beer and cars. And guys old enough to wear a mustache to home room. Four years of running twice a day for my role as back of the pack non-performer on the Uni cross country team and tragic, bored, two-miler during track season, defined most of high school. But there was the school paper, reading books not on the AP list, and broiling my skin into rinds while watching All My Children. It was close to perfect in many ways despite the teenage moroseness and bad hair. I got to go to the prom with Ralph Sutter, making me a hero to the entire freshman class. We ran in many illegal places and got to go to running camp and not bathe for a week and eat canned noodles. Now that is bliss and I am not even joking. So...Expand for more