Mark Hawkins:  

Life I have always been fond of my high school years; in fact, I value my friends from the time I was born. Today, I am fortunate to have my earliest friend - Joey Stoddard as a "neighbor" in nearby Pasadena CA. He lived around the corner from me on Kit Carson and we met at the Woodlawn Shopping Center when we were 4 years old. Next came Chris LaForge, who moved in a few doors down from Joey (Joey's family moved after 7th grade at Euclid) and we became friends at that time. Chris and I met up with the "Newton crowd" around the summer of '69 -- met the likes of Charlie Burton (passed away 5/09), Jim Stone and Gary Bang (whose dad worked with my dad at United Airlines). And so that wonderful summer between Jr. High and AHS delivered great music and a lot of sun at the Southglen pool. High school started and I immediately broke my back playing football and Mr. Sigler flunked me in Geometry even though I missed about a month. Go figure. Asshole. Anyway, Jim, Charlie and I joined Key Club. Gary ... well Gary kinda joined up with John Russell, Don Ewy and friends and did their thing. Even then, I would spend the night at Gary's house and we would sneak out his bedroom window and meet a bunch of girls at the bridge that connected Orchard Rd. with Cherrywood Circle. We would most likely be drunk (on a few beers) and would end up puking at some point that night. I was involved with the people who DIDN'T get in to the Jethro Tull concert at Red Rocks. It was cool, but some asshole with a bugle charged the crowd into the police and that was all she wrote: teargas. Red Rocks wasn't the same after that. Sorry! At any rate, I was on the cusp of cliques. Wasn't a jock but wasn't a nerd either. Don't know what you would call me. There were a bunch of Claudia's and a bunch of Mark's in our clique. When I started AHS ...Expand for more