David Burgess:
CLASS OF 1970
Kearny High SchoolClass of 1970
San diego, CA
Taft Junior High SchoolClass of 1967
San diego, CA
Jones Elementary SchoolClass of 1964
San diego, CA
David's Story
Monday morning January 29 2024
Quote of the day: "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials."
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Monday Christmas Day 2023.
For those of you who are not in the class of 70 therefore not being able to access the "My Conversation" area for the class of 1970, you probably do not know that I tell stories there. I'm thinking if you were a classmates paying member you would be able to access, but that's your prerogative. Regardless, what I would like to do today, instead of telling a story in the conversation area I would like to pass along my Christmas prayer for this year. I call this prayer, "Teach me to be Merry"
Teach me to be merry.
Close the door to hate and open the door to love all around the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
May there be bread for the hungry.
May there be love for the unlovable.
May there be healing for the sick.
May there be wisdom for our youth.
And may there be protection for all.
Hatred paralyzes life.
Love releases it.
Hatred confuses life.
Love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life.
Love illuminates it.
Deliver Us from every evil by remembering what this holiday is really about.
The birth of Jesus, Savior, Redeemer, Holy One of Israel, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Lamb of God, Yeshua, Messiah, Isa Al Masih, Jehovah, and Christ.
Amen and Amen.
Before I Let You Go and continue on with your holiday festivities, I would like to leave you with this.
If the Coca-Cola company can take the story of Saint Nicholas and sprinkle in a little bit of the Alpine legend of Krampus and come up with good old Santa Claus, then I am sure that there is hope in Salvation for all of us. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
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Friday night December 22nd 2023. Have another story for you. "There are Angels among Us" you can find it in the conversation section.
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Monday evening December 11th 2023. I have another story. Tonight the story is called "The Valley" if you're interested you can find it in the "My Conversations" section.
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Thursday November 30th 2023, I posted a few snapshots from out of the past. I'm also thinking about sharing another campfire story tomorrow evening Friday. The name of the story is "Appointment in Reno" You will find it in the conversation section sometime tomorrow night.
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It is Sunday evening November 26th 2023 and I have posted a new story in the "My Conversation" section of Classmates. This evening's story is called "My Special Friend Miriam"
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Saturday November 25th 2023- I have noticed that I have posted 151 photos. See them all in the photo album section. Enjoy your weekend.
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It's Friday evening November 24th 2023. I'm getting ready to post another campfire story in the conversation section... This one is called "The Window."
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Saturday evening the 10th of June 2023 - Tomorrow will be my one year anniversary of posting here on classmates. Today I got visitor number 605. I'm sure many of them are revisits, but I wanted to thank you all just the same. My intention here is to entertain you because of the fact that I wasn't very entertaining in high school, that is except for the time when Russell Cedarburg and I were almost suspended from school for playing Alice's Restaurant on our guitars at lunch time. The boys vice principal Mr Lincoln Rock hauled us into the office and read us the riot act. We had asked him why he didn't want us playing our guitars at lunch time. You will not believe this, but his answer was, (If we played our guitars during lunch time the students would want to dance) At that moment I had an epiphany and I knew I was going to become a rebel We were in the 10th grade at the time. Russell jumped ship soon after that and moved on to Hoover High School. Me on the other hand, I toughed it out. I did have two girlfriends during my high school years. One went to Kearney, One went to University High School. Yes I was an ass. They both ended up giving me the boot and ran off to Frisco together chasing after some of the actors from The Rock musical "Hair". (I'm still in contact occasionally with both of those lovely ladies. Actually I am still on friendly terms with every female that ever had a part of my heart.)
I also had a number of crushes in high school. What I would call crushes from afar. I will not mention their names because they show up here occasionally. Okay that's it for today. It's coming up on summertime so I'm sure they'll be more photos to post, stop by anytime.
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Friday evening the 2nd of June 2023. I found some more snapshots to post. Yep I've been carrying a camera for more than 50 years. I think I said this before, but I'll say it again. Some may think these are not school type pictures, but I would disagree, because they are all from the School of hard knocks. And any way y'all seem to keep coming back so enjoy some frozen moments that most would never get a chance to see. I'm up to 141 snapshots now.
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Saturday April 22, 2023 - today I am adding a few old snapshots of some of the original SMRS (Serra Mesa Rampage Society) kids. If you lived in Serra Mesa or Mission Village or Cabrillo Heights and went to either Jones, Angiers, Cubberly, Juarez, Taft, or Kearney back in the mid to late 60's or early 70's you may have been an original SMRS kid, or you may have known some SMRS kids. So enjoy.
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Tuesday a few snapshots from Burning Man 2022 - August 1st 2022: For the past 50 years I pretty much carried a small camera around in my pocket everyday. Some might say these are not School type photos, but I would counter by saying they are definitely from the School of Hard Knocks! And Facebook has too much advertising so I am here. Enjoy the 129 photos and snapshots.
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UPDATE Friday evening July 22nd 2022 Update: I've been wandering around classmates for a week or so now, and I noticed that pretty much everyone from Kearney led a fairly normal life (well, except for me) in their years after High School. Many went on to college. I see some ended up being School teachers, like my neighbor Larry W. and his older brother. Some went into the military, a few became engineers and business people. I see at least one spent most of his adult life in law enforcement. I see at least one ended up on stage with her violin. And my other neighbor Nancy J. married my friend Duke the fighter pilot and then congressman, and ended up in Washington DC. And also a lot of small business owners out there too. Most everyone got married, had children and so on. Me on the other hand, after High Schoo...Expand for more
l I spent a couple years sitting on the lawn at Mesa college and working on a small fishing boat out of Shelter Island and then I hopped on my motorcycle and headed out to find my fortune in Nevada. When I reached the state line the sign that greeted me said "Welcome to Nevada Recreation Unlimited." Well I can tell you I spent the next 35 years there, and I can assure you "Recreation Unlimited" was an understatement. (At least for me anyway) While in Nevada I became a union plumber and went through the Local 350 apprentice program and became a plumber, a pipe-fitter, and a welder. On the weekends I tended bar at a local adult entertainment establishment. I quickly found out that that's where the money was. I learned all aspects of the adult entertainment industry, quit my day job as a plumber, and spent the next 30 years managing and then owning my own businesses. Also as you can see by the photos, I was an avid motorcycle enthusiast, we'll just let it go at that, (for now) Also if you haven't guessed by now I'm also an avid writer... Read on if you would like.
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UPDATE: July 14, 2022; If you find that you have stumbled here onto my page, you might as well read all of this. That way you will know what to expect just in case I decide to make a comment in your "Notes" section. Don't panic I'll keep it sweet. And besides, even though this site has been around since 1995, it still seems like a fairly obscure corner of the universe. So I am guessing not many will read it anyway. And if you're scratching your head and wondering why I'm even here, all you have to do is just look in the mirror. Unless you plan on living way past 140 years, most of your life is already behind you and like me you probably have a lot of spare time on your hands. So onward through the fog....
If by chance you look back at your life and feel like you could have used a little larger dose of superficial excitement in those years, fear not. I think I had enough of that shallow excitement in my life for the entire graduating class of 1970.
You might be thinking to yourself "that's a bold statement," well it is, and I am.
My road after Kearney High School was, how should I say this in a polite way, how about "quite unusual" would be accurate.
Most of you probably wouldn't believe any of this tale if I didn't accompany it with the 80+ photos, Sometimes I can hardly believe that I survived it myself. After all it's not like I was the star quarterback at Kearney High School in 1970 so very few should even remember me anyway.
(Oh speaking of the star quarterback, that reminds me of a short story about someone you might actually remember. I wish I had pictures of that event. Do you remember the quarterback Gene and his little girlfriend Lynn. Well as you may or may not know they got married and they happen to show up in Reno. Well back in the day nothing happened in Reno without me knowing about it. So I looked them up and I took them out to my family's restaurant in Virginia City. Lynn seemed to have had a good time whereas Gene on the other hand could barely contain his lack of enthusiasm. I'm sorry to say their marriage didn't last much past the dinner date. /Hey - the break up had nothing to do with me, I promise, Well maybe in a roundabout way, but not really./ I wish them both well, I pray that they are both happy and healthy in whatever they're doing these days.)
Okay back to my original story: Sure my life was fun, but it wasn't all fun. Many of my pals are dead now, some were even murdered along the way. But anyway, maybe the best way to share my experience is in this little capsule below. I'll call it
"The Journey of the Fool."
Many commentators see the fool as a traveler journeying through the world, an every person as it were. Some have said that the fool is the most powerful of all trumps in the *Tarot. But the power of the fool is not the power of the establishment, it is the power of the iconoclast, the rebel, the civil disobedient, the revolutionary, the protester, the comic, the mocker, the prankster. The fool thumbs his nose at the rules.
Yes I've led quite a life. Mine is the story of a Young Man, a prince of the world setting out on a sunny mourn on a wonderful journey - right over a cliff.
Not you would think ordinarily a very smart thing to do. But the fool in me strides trustingly over the precipice, this trust is well placed, ending in successful contemplation, accomplishment, and fulfillment.
There are many qualities which lead to that success but they would be worthless without the fool's willingness to trust and to be open to that journey. Sometimes you have to risk and go against everything modern society says is sensible or wise to act rightly. It means the inner forces, the inner certainty, intuition, no, even less tangible than intuition, that small voice of God inside our hearts which leads us to Great endeavors and right actions. It says in some things you must trust that inner voice not those of the many people in your surroundings and society willing to tell you the smart thing to do. The fool is about those positive forces within us which influence us in our choices, trust, belief in the ultimate goodness of creation, ideals, and a hope for a better tomorrow.
But above all the fool tries to assure us that there is a point to such an endeavor, that life has a point, that trust has a point, and yes if you look at all the evil in the world and at the loss of young life, at the failure of principle, believing in some rightness of existence, some point of hoping and trusting can look - pretty futile, - pretty pointless, - pretty foolish, - but the message of this fool is BELIEVE ANYWAY.
(*) Disclaimer regarding Tarot: Tarot is an ancient language of charts and road maps but can easily be abused so don't let it trip you up. Here's the way I see it, in the fifth book of Moses called Deuteronomy chapter 18 versus 9 through 12, the Lord says:
9 When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not do after the abominations of those Nations.
10 They're shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 or a charmer, or a consultor with familiar spirits, or a wizard or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Now enjoy the growing photo journey through my world, or not.
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