Warren Spies:
CLASS OF 1962
St. Barbara's Elementary SchoolClass of 1962
Brooklyn, NY
Warren's Story
I was told to transfer to public school from St. Barbara's for my own best interests, after the nasty-nun, Sister Denis Patrick, determined she did not want me in her 7th grade classroom, ever, because I could not, and would not, write a ten thousand (plus) word essay on "how to explain the color red to a blind man." My school work at St. Barbara's was just barely passing, and I was unfortunately in the middle of a dispute between this Denis Patrick 'creature' and my father who worked for St. Barbara's as their chief and head custodian. Some of you may remember him as John Spies or just "John."
Once in regular (and normal) public school my grades, my mental acuity, and my attendance-participation improved dramatically. I went on to pass with honors from a Technical High School of my choosing getting a "Regents Diploma" - one of only two in my graduating class.
After a brief time working after high school, in Ridgewood/Glendale, NY I went into the USAF, and eventually served in the Vietnam War for 2 years, three months, and 23 days. I was discharged from the USAF, in Oregon at McChord AFB with an Honorable Discharge; I was paid extra for my overstay in the Air Force, well decorated for my service in South East Asia, albeit not very ready to face the world as it had changed significantly while I was away from my home and family and old friends. I served with the USAF a total of four years and five days - the five days over my contractual agreement with the military was "at the convenience of the government," because of an unforeseen travel hitch and a subsequent short delay while returning home from South East Asia. Basically, I had to volunteer for a bush mission to Alaska on a special courier flight, in order to get back to the States, after being delayed in Okinawa, Japan.
After a short stay in New Jersey with some old friends from the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, people who had moved to "Jersey," I tried living on Long Island for about 17 years (unsuccessfully in my view - too much hustling and rushing around, traffic congestion, etc.). I left Long Island on January 2, 1991 for the "Silicon Valley" area of California (in Santa Clara County). I've lived here, near to San Jose, Ca. for about seventeen years or so... I've more or less enjoyed the change from New York, once I got adjusted to the cultural changes that I felt and experienced. There is a culture shock just like if you had moved to a foreign country - California is very different. I think the difference is for the better, but it took me about five or six years to "get it."
While here in California I received a degree in graphic design, graduating with "high honors" (on the Dean's List) and I also got a "certificate" from a neighboring college in Technical Communications - this was also achieved at or about at the same time as my graphic design degree.
I currently live in the hills of Cupertino, Ca. at about 2000 feet, overlooking canyons on the San Andreas earthquake 'fault' and the entire "Silicon Valley." I'm about to, or looking at, retiring and starting another career. ...Something more leisurely and involved in "the arts" and/or serious writing.
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Some personal factoids:
My first job was at Bethany Deaconess Hosp., in Ridgewood, NY where I got paid meager wages to wash dishes and set patient trays. What I remember most about it is the nice girls who worke...Expand for more
d in the diet kitchen - especially one girl in particular.
I share my home with a stray calico cat, which I find very loving and attached to me, for a cat. I don't really like cats all that much but she's a sweetie.
I dress pretty frumpy most of the time. But when I do dress up a little the change is pretty remarkable. People I know are usually very or mildly surprised.
My best friends would tell you I'm a very 'giving' and loving sort, but people who don't know me very well would probably describe me as kind of cold and somewhat reticent.
I like to play golf each week, and go target shooting every month or so.
My first crush was on a girl from Jr. H.S. named Pat. As odds would have it, she really liked me too (and she was very pretty). This scarred me silly, and despite her attempt to get something started between her and I, I found myself rejecting her constantly. She finally in a huff gave up on the whole idea one day in Prospect Park Brooklyn. This only furthered my adolescent shyness, and it bolstered my belief in just how acutely weird I was.
My current age is 61-62. When I was 12, I thought that people my age now would be dead or nearly dead. I was so completely wrong. Life seems to be just beginning from my timed perspective on things as they stand.
If I won $100 million, I'd give a small but significant part of it to some of my closest friends, then spend the rest on living independently, free, and as close to nature as I could get and up in the deepest redwood forest, many miles north of here.
I'd love to see Sister Denis Patrick again, just to tell her she was so damn wrong about me. I think she's either dead, or close to it, with one foot on a banana peel the other in the six foot hole.
Children are the sweetest and most nonjudgmental creatures we know in our world. I was, until recently, very close to a young girl, the daughter of a very close friend. She taught me many things. First and foremost to not take others so seriously and not to take myself even half that seriously. But she's older now, in her early teens, and doesn't want to know "old people" like me anymore. But when she was a toddler and a little girl she had a lot to teach, and she taught me more than I ever realized.
The one person from my past who I'd most like to see again is that girl Pat from Jr. H.S., my first real crush, because I'd like to tell her I was stupid and pretty dumb for being so afraid of her, and so completely stand-offish. I think of her from time to time and that was one really dumb thing to do. I know I hurt her deeply, she only once ever talked to me again after that day in Prospect Park. It was unnecessary for me to be like that toward her. I think often that if I had just trusted my own feeling back then, maybe I wouldn't be such an old crust now.
What's the wildest thing I ever did in school? I smoked pot a few times behind the school auditorium curtain in H.S. Afterward, I'd go up to the library and pester the librarian with a bevy of silly questions and comments thinking it was pretty hilarious. I was killing time before my next tech-class at the end of my school day; it was during my last senior term. I had two library study periods between our lunch period and the morning school session, and I was totally bored out of my mind. A few times I cut classes and went to Highland Park or the pool hall, no one seemed to notice.
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