Bill Bentley:  

Introduction: I saw this site just a little while ago (late 2008/early 2009). I think it's a neat idea for several reasons. First, how often do you have a forum to address one of the significant peer groups in your life? And high school seems to be a disproportionately influential peer group when it comes to how we think about ourselves. So often I wish I could go back and undo some of my blunders and tell my peers, "I'm not really that bad/clumsy/foolish/ignorant - etc." Or maybe, "I am still that etc., but please don't you take it too seriously!" Now Classmates.com comes along and I get a chance. If anybody cares! Secondly, I have the chance to learn more about the people I learned so little about in high school. A class of 600 is so big, there was little chance to know everyone well. And 3 years (2 for me) is too little to know much about anybody, even those we associated with daily at school. Now, many years later I can see what people have gone on to do. I can see that they really meant by some of the things they said, or maybe I can find out what they meant by so many things they said. Who was our peer group? And by extension, who am I? Finally for now, I can tell you who I really am, and what I really thought and think about you, classmates of Mesa High. For some reason I want to do some of that. Hopefully you will not find it offensive. Probably you will not find it very interesting. For the most part, my comments should be pretty positive, because that's how I remember most of my high school experiences and classmates. If I say anything that you object to please chime in. I probably don't remember things very well after so long, and I probably see them from a different point of view, one that I don't recognize as being offensive. I think very highly of you and don't want to hurt your feelings. Also, I want to know how you saw certain episodes and to know what you were thinking. After all this time, and the chance to mull things over and possibly to benefit from many things we have learned in life, not the least of which may have followed from the ministrations of mental health counseling (I'm not making any admissions here - OK, so I found counseling helpful after a divorce and now I think counseling is cool -), I may - we may - be able to drop some of the masks we wore and benefit from the conversation. The Way Forward: I'm going to run out the characters allotted to this space, and then I will make posts to the bulletin board to carry on from there. Some of your comments may result in editing the words at this location, and some I may just acknowledge on the bulletin board. Please don't feel you have to have known me to make any comments. And for the benefit of my failing memory, please remind me of how we knew each other if we did. I plan to make additions and corrections in chronological story order rather than as they come up. So here goes. My Story Origens I was born In the spring of 1953 in Oakland California. The first memory I have was of Sunnyvale, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now the area is famous as Silicon Alley. Then, it was a land of fruit tree orchards. We lived in a little house on Merrimac Drive. You can google it and walk down the street in photos! Amazing. I grew up in Sunnyvale with a brother and three sisters until I was eight. That year my parents divorced, and we moved to Mesa to be near my mom's father, Don Black. He built us a home on 630 E. Third Place, Westwood territory. Both my parents had Arizona roots - my dad had grown up in Safford, eastern Arizona. I went to Edison Elementary school, and then to the new Kino Junior High. The first year at Kino, we shared the building with another Junior high school. We had double sessions. Kino went in the afternoon. I picked up some pretty bad study habits that year, that cost me the next couple years. I got into the habit of doing the days homework the morning of the day it was due. Not so bad if you have all day, but not good if classes start right away in the morning. Kino had some kids that were going to Mesa High and some kids that were going to Westwood. There was a little rivalry and posturing, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. A lot of partisan excitement broke out right after Old Main burned down. I remember standing in the PE line-up waiting for the coach and hearing Teddy Jenkins explain to us exactly what he and his buddies would do to the perpetrators when they were caught. I was headed for Westwood, and thought it best to keep a low profile. I didn't think the fire would affect me much. I was in the band at Kino. I tried out for the marching band at Westwood, but for some reason didn't think I made it, so I registered for the second band. Then I heard they called my name in roll call at the varsity band. By then I was already in my schedule with classes I wanted so I stayed put. I had an OK sophomore year at Westwood. I met a lot of kids I liked, did pretty well in class and had fun in the band. Toward the end of the year, my mom remarried. She married Venley Merritt, from the other side of town. We moved across town to a place on Lazona Drive, just south of Main Street, over by the Bashas grocery store and the Skaggs drug store. Venley had one daughter still at home, my new step sister Kathy Merritt. Kathy had a boyfriend Dan, from the Westwood side of town. Venley, Kathy and Dan were as nice a people as you'd ever want to meet. I finshed out my sophomore year at Westwood. I met some of the kids that went to Mesa High at church. They were very nice and welcomed me in such a way that I felt very comfortable. That was to be my experience with the sudents later at Mesa High when I started my junior year there in the Fall. Career at Mesa High: I was active in band and scholastics. I ran into a small book in the library that had the words, "...Clear Thinking..." in the title that opened my eyes and that gave me a considerable amount of peace. I worked part time to save money for college and a mission. I ran around with Tom Berry and some others and had a crush on a couple of girls in the band, but was too shy to declare myself. I took honors math and science, but came over from Westwood too late to register (or otherwise be accepted) for the honors English classes. I graduated 17th in the class and had a small scholarship to BYU. After Graduation: After arriving at BYU intending to register as a math major for my freshman year, I happened to see a notice addressed to potential engineering majors about a meeting. After attending the meeting, I registered as a civil engineering major and never regretted my decision. Because of the scholarship and my part-time work earnings, I did not have to work my first year. I made the worst grades of my college career, lost my scholarship, and missed being invited to the honors program by .02 GPA points. That was probably a good thing. I worked the rest of the time in college and did better with my grades. After a year at BYU, I went home to Mesa for the summer, worked and saved money and left on a mission for the LDS Church to Guatemala and El Salvador. I was excited to go to Latin America, since I had family roots in the Mexican colonies. However, I discovered that Central American Culture was pretty different from that of Northern Mexico. Tamales were a good example of that. The ones I grew up with were wrapped in corn husks with beef insides covered by an outside of cornmeal. In Central America, tamales were wrapped in palm leaves, had who knows what for insides, and were covered by an outside of glutinous white translucent material. But I have to say that they had pupuses down there that made up for it. Pupusas are tortil...Expand for more