Matthew Kelly:
CLASS OF 1989
Platt Regional Vocational TechnicalClass of 1989
Milford, CT
Mathewson Elementary SchoolClass of 1985
Milford, CT
Matthew's Story
What can I say I never left Milford. I did do 2 years in the trade but I love being out side and feel like I am dying when keep in doors. So I started landscaping when I was 18 or 19 been doing it for I guess 31 years now. Started my own company in 2003 Kelly's Landscaping. Been at it ever since, you probably have seen our black ram 4500s with the carved wooden signs on the dump beds.
No Kids never been married. Not sure I ever grew up I still move and feel like I'm 30. Machine tool wasn't a total waste I do fix and weld a lot of metal on mowers and trailers and even trucks from my work. But mechanics might of been a better choice.
Still prefer metal and hard rock music that never wore off. Was even at wood stock 99. Never got the corvette I dreamed of in school but I did have a nice red Trans Am for the 90s.
Unfinished dreams now is I want to retire and build a home or 2 the way I want them.
I do not do social media so I am thinking why not write about a few of my experiences in high school. Everything shapes your life in some way and the brutal reality that platt was sure shaped mine. I tried so hard to fit in. I wasn't one of the countless drug addicts or smokers or alcoholics. I worked hard to put in 0 effort in school work. I hid my intelligence and deliberately tried to get bad grades. Mr Fusco proved harder to hide. I don't retain what I read that well but anything I hear I have close to total recall. He use to grade on the curve so if someone got say a high grade of 90 then everyone would have 10 points added to their test grade. Turns out when you score 100 they get nothing LOL and worse still was he would put extra credit questions on the tests and one such test I scored a 107 and so everyone lost 7 points yea that went over well.
Gym class I couldn't stand but figured out you got an A if you had perfect attendance. You lost a letter grade if you missed a class. We had 3 semesters so if you missed 3 classes you had a D and 4 classes you would fail. So you could miss a total of 9 classes a year and if you missed 10 you failed for the year. How ever you could get 2 As in a row and then just not show for the entire 3rd semester. 6 weeks times 3 classes is 18 classes you can miss and still get the D I opted for that for 4 years.
In my entire 4 years of high school I never completed one single homework assignment. I could ace all my tests and quizzes and still get a easy C or B final grade. The only thing I did was an English term paper as it was a requirement and no way around it.
Freshman Year wasn't so bad. Sophomore year I hated the Upper classmate bulling in my shop was off the charts stuff that would get you charged with felonies today was turned a blind eye too then.
I got to be a gladiator in the precision tool room once. The seniors gave me a trash can lid and a 2x4 and gave the other kid a rubber hose and they forced us to fight. Well I wasn't going to hit someone with a 2x4 but he had no issues using the rubber hose. Those things leave some nasty black and blues.
I got invited to a Jonathan Law dance by some cashiers at my job while there 4 or 5 of the seniors from my shop where there and began to shove me around. That's when Sue and Robin came up behind me and each took and arm and led me to the dance floor. The following day I could hear them freaking out to each other shouting 2 he had 2 girls wtf how could that be.
Carl Rainey and Tom were complete jerk offs I remember one day I'm walking to lunch from shop and 3 of them including those 2 were behind me. It was too crowded to get away from them and they refused to let me stop and get behind them. And so for the 1/4 mile of hall way I got kicked in the ass over and over as hard as they coul...Expand for more
d. Eventually I made it up to the offices and the glass windows allowed me to see which one was lining up for the next kick. It was Carl I sided stepped and grabbed his foot and pulled up as fast as I could he went back and cracked his head on the concrete floor it was glorious. Course he got up furious and I knew I was going to get hit so moved into it and made him hit me on the forehead. He crack the skin a little and then I pretended it hurt it really didn't and went down and played dead. That ended that and they all got suspended so that ended a lot of their bulling anyways.
I learned Courage at Platt I don't enjoy taking crap from anyone. Bob Owen in my shop and a few of his followers liked to act like bad asses and he would often be a dick. One day he came up to me and gave me a quarter and said it was for my mother last night. So he and his 3 or 4 followers laughed. My reaction obviously stunned them as I took the quarter and thanked them. I then reached in my pocket and took out a dollar and said I almost forgot I never settled up with your father last week. Now this steroided half wit is fuming and saying we have a fight at the end of the day. Now I could of turned right when shop got out and made it to the bus the long way. And everyone was pleading with me to do that. I went out into the parking lot and as I was bent forward to place my book bag on the ground he sucker punched me with everything he had and broke my nose. Moved it a good inch blood everywhere I turned and he leaped on my back I tossed him off like I didn't even notice him I then picked up my back bag and walked to the bus. Well he took one look at me and said oh hell no. So I turned and walked back in school and found a Men's room and saw the damage. That's when the door flew open and a teacher said your the guy I'm looking for. Apparently I was leaving large blood spots on the floor about every foot or so and he followed the trail. I got to see the Nurse and then I got to wait for my mother. Now it wasn't all bad I had a deviated septum my whole life and always struggled to breath through my nose so this ended up fixing that. As I got to get plastic surgery over a Christmas holiday.
When I came back sometime in Jan I noticed the most beautiful girl I ever saw in Platt. She was second floor of B wing in a Bon Jovi white T shirt and I just had find out more. Over the next few days or weeks I no longer know which I found out she was a senior and her name was Patricia Blake and she was in food services shop. She noticed me every time I saw her and always smiled back. Despite the fact she was 2 years ahead of me I still asked her out. To where I have no clue I was making it up as I went I just wanted to talk to her. She amazingly said maybe. Now this was from the counter in the cafeteria So I ate lunch in a daze and then had to go back to machine tool My feet never once touched the ground I floated the entire way back. Now the following week it became a no sadly but I do not regret that or the guts it took to even ask a upper classmate.
When I turned 18 my Jr year In May I started working 3rd shift at my store that summer. I was night crew in a grocery store and was full time. That was 11 pm to 7:30 am they liked me so much that when school started up my senior year they changed those hours for me and made it 9:30 pm to 6 am. I worked 3rd shift full time my entire senior year of high school and still passed every class with no effort. In hind sight I would not have and instead went back to summer camp as a counselor as I did the year before would of been a more memorable time with my choice of dozens of girls vs a job that had none. Story of my life I guess. Anyways I hope you enjoyed reading this.
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