Jerry Rolfe:
CLASS OF 1975
Cicero High SchoolClass of 1975
Cicero, NY
SUNY College at CortlandClass of 1996
Cortland, NY
Jerry's Story
Life
Warning -- if you don't like verbosity, don't read this...
Life's been an adventure so far - I left town the day after school -- no waitin' around for a ceremony because I was FREE. Hitchhiked up and down the east coast a few times -- kept getting in trouble for the kind of herbal products I liked carrying in my pockets back in those days -- got busted for one joint in '75 at an Aerosmith concert in Lakeland, FL and spent a week in a southern jail cell as the token whitey.
Ended up in the Navy as an Electronics tech -- grandiose dreams of growing up and getting a career, you know. Got in bigger trouble there -- a little too outspoken and free-spirited for a military environment - I blame it all on Kate Gjertson/Plumley, English teacher - I love that lady! Planned my first honeymoon during visiting hours at the brig. I did attend the ceremony the Navy threw for me upon my leaving -- it was pretty much mandatory as I recall, requiring a plea. BTW, it was a great honeymoon in the Poconos. Worked in a factory in Syracuse for a year after that -- that wasn't for me so it was off to California with Cindy Owen, class of '77.
We hit the road for California in 1981 where I tended bar with Jack Lynch at The Whale's Tail in Ventura County. Loved California.
Cindy was homesick, so we moved back to Syracuse in '88 (temporary insanity) and lived on Otisco Lake for 7 years -- a beautiful place to live for the 5 snowless months a year. I put Cindy through nursing school -- she's an awesome nurse -- and then she put me through SUNY Cortland -- graduated in '96, English degree, valedictorian. Yup, I'm braggin'. It's amazing what you can do when you're not smokin' weed all the time.
Christmas day '96 it was back on the road to sunshine -- lived in an RV all over Florida - changed our view whenever it got monotonous -- did that for nearly two years while I studied for the LSATs (more grandiose dreams). We finally settled in Gator country, Gainesville, FL -- woo hoo! The Univ. of Fla College of Law was very impressed with my application -- that's why they rejected it twice. Apparently a perfect GPA and an almost perfect LSAT won't mitigate a 20 year old rap sheet, no matter how trifling the 'crimes'. C'est la vie -- it saved me three years of stress and Plan B is working out just fine.
Divorced Cindy, married Sharon, gained a son, got a big promotion, lots of tattoos, and watched my sister Linda die all in the same year -- it was a very emotional year. I don't need a repeat of all that. But it's fun having a teenage son -- Randy and I are still close even though his mom and I split up after only 3 years. Divorce sucks, but I was fortunate to have married two exceptional women and remain close to both of them today despite ourselves.
Today...today -- I'm the operations manager for a business interiors company in Tallahassee -- I didn't want to come here, love Gainesville and still have a house there, but I was 'recruited' -- that's where you're asked 'What'll it take?" and so you make the most outlandish list of salary and benefits and perks that you can think of in order to make them go away -- and the next thing you know you're in a new city, 'richer' but not really because you've left people and places you love behind. Next time I'll know the true cost.
Still, I've grown to love this place too -- I've found ...Expand for more
yet another exceptional woman, Beckie, gained two adult "daughters" in the deal -- they're totally cool and beautiful -- and bought a few acres in the country where Beckie and I are going to live.
So anyway, that's my contribution to the TMI phenomenon. I wanted to use all my characters, but I'm bailing out of this confessional with about 125 remaining.
Peace, Love, and all that other non-jaded idealistic stuff we used to believe in back in the 60's.
Jerry
School
Can't remember much of it -- biggest crush was on Kutzer, the Spanish teacher. Most inspirational teacher was Kate Plumley -- that lady rocked!
For some reason I still remember Randy Cushman and Tom Delargy being part of the Crash Street Kids (remember the CSK graffiti out under the library where we juvenile delinquents smoked?) with their yellow construction helmets -- I still think that was cool.
I remember selling cigarettes out of my briefcase just off school property to the west where the New York State Police jumped out of cars one morning and tried to bust a bunch of people getting high -- it was hysterical watching kids fleeing through the field in all directions, never to be caught.
One of my favorite memories was the White Modell Sticker Caper -- a bunch of us had found rolls and rolls of bright green stickers that the store used to stick receipts to items too big for a bag. We brought them to school and about 5 of us took a couple rolls each -- the balance went into my locker on the 2nd floor across from the lunchroom. All day long these green stickers were appearing stuck to walls, windows, doors -- everywhere -- I was amazed at how prolific some of my buddies were in distributing these things. Amused, that is, until 7th period when my dumba55 got hauled out of class and into the principal's office -- not the dean -- the principal --Mr. Fry I think his name was.
He asked me about the stickers.
"Oh yeah" I said innocently, feigning wide-eyed wonder at this phenomenon that was transforming our color coordinated school into something that resembled the victim of a case of flourescent green measles. "I HAVE seen those stickers -- weird."
We talked about the stickers a little more and then he said, "Let's take a walk to your locker."
UH OHHHH....
Anyways, long story short -- I had to take the rap and, like any solid citizen of the nefarious underground, I did not rat out my co-conspirators despite the fact that Mr. Fry, and now Uhlig, insisted during interrogations thatI couldn't possibly have placed all those stickers myself. Duh.
"Nope -- just me, man."
SO, I had to report to a janitor every night after school for a sponge and a bucket until those stickers were cleaned up -- searching for them was ridiculous -- one of my buddies even managed to get a sticker on the ceiling of the three story atrium stair well -- that one never came down while I was at Cicero -- no way to reach it.
As for my buddies, my pals, my guilty little friends -- statute of limitations is up and they shall be revealed -- Jack Lynch, to his credit, stepped up to the plate and helped me clean stickers after school. Mike Pratt, Paul Murray, and Ron Midwood (all '77) went home and played hockey or something -- oh, and can't forget Greg Moteyunas had some of those rolls too -- I think that's it -- that's all I remember about school.
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