Jerry Jernigan:  

I wrote this 10 years ago but "dropped out" for a while. Now I'm back. (Alert the authorities). After leaving Eliot (Elliott?), I attended Beaumont. Growing tired of being beaten up by black guys everyday & running for my life across Fairgrounds Park, I lied to the school authorities & told them I moved within Central High's district. The Board of Education Gestappo sent out 2 agents (at taxpayer's expense) & discovered my BIG lie. (Heaven forbid). I was threatened w/ expulsion & ordered to go back & be beaten up again. My mother finally took pity & we moved out to Riverview (down the street from Chain of Rocks Park), where I attended Riverview Junior High. Thanx to my stepfather's innate ability to piss off everybody in North County, 2 months later I was enrolled at Cleveland High in South St. Louis. (that's 3, count 'em 3 schools, my freshman year). I managed to stay at Cleveland for 3 years. Dropping out during my last year, I joined the Army.. I went to Vietnam on my senior field trip, where I developed a penchant for having bamboo inserted under my fingernails. I only met one guy from St. Louis while I was there. Unfortunately, he looked a lot like one of the fellas I fought at Beaumont. (It's hard to tell when you're running). Fortunately, , The Viet Cong assigned to my area were bad marksmen, because I survived & returned home in 1971. People have asked me, if I ever have flashbacks of the horrors of Vietnam. I tell them no but, some of the neighborhoods I grew up in ( Cass Ave., St. Louis Ave., Bremen Park, Union Ave, etc), were so bad, that while I was in Vietnam, I had flashbacks of my neighborhood. In 1975, I drifted down to Texas. I lived in Dallas/Ft. Worth about 10 years then, I moved to East Texas (Tyler area). That is where I stumbled into the world of radio & spent 22 years as an announcer. Some say I have the voice for it. I claim, I have the face for it. In 1997, I found myself working in South...Expand for more