The Way I Felt Back Then
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Did you ever meet a person with their nose in the air,
There’s lots of these type guys around almost everywhere.
Kind of like that guy on television that they portray,
As being the most interesting man in the world today.
Hello, I am the most interesting man in the world.
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The Way I Felt Back Then
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This guy I’m talking about always looks down on us all,
As to him we are inferior and don’t stand very tall.
His nose is stuck so high up as he does walk on by,
We can see every manicured nose hair in there so dry.
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I didn’t notice too many of these guys in grade school.
As we all seemed to be equals and there were no fools.
But in high school, they were around by the dozens,
I’m sure glad they didn’t include any of my cousins.
Phillips High School
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These guys in high school gathered in special clicks,
They thought they were hot shit and so did the chicks.
They treated the rest of the guys kind of bad as I recall,
Looking down on us as they passed us in the hall.
That hallway we all walked through.
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The worst of the lot were in an exclusive club there,
That they called OFA-AFO in my high school, I swear.
These guys dressed alike in tight Levi’s and said,
“One For All and All For One” until there faces got red.
(Below is a memory from someone on the Phillipsblackhawks web site.)
“I’m not sure how that club spelled its name [OFA-AFO], but it was one of the strangest organizations I’ve known. I lived close to Dixon Creek Hill and remember hearing a racket one night around the end of the Phillips Free Fair. When I went out to investigate, I found several boys running in front of a few cars and older boys. The older boys in back were tormenting the younger boys in front whom I concluded were the new pledges to the club. I followed them all the way to Dixon Creek and was rather entertained with the antics involved.
Upon arriving at the sandy creek bed, the pledges had to strip their clothes and each was given a weenie. What proceeded was rather comical to me, but I shouldn’t go into much detail concerning the race involving the weenies. I’ve always wondered what the purpose of that club was. If anybody knows, I’d certainly be interested.”
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Why did these guys strut thinking they were the cream?
Most of them played on the first string football team.
And they often called us demeaning names for fun,
They were all big and if they chased you, you would run.
Phillips football letter jacket.
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Most of the time I just avoided their clicky group,
Because I didn’t belong in that high stepping troop.
That ran together thinking they were the best of the best.
But when I left high school that thinking went west.
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In College, everyone was on an equal basis there,
If there were high stepping studs there, I didn’t care.
We all did our own thing with new friends from everywhere.
There wasn’t time too worry about those things there.
Hard work at college will get you anywhere you want to go.
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Graduating from college with that college degree,
Put us all on an equal basis for starting our new life so free.
So I put all of that high school stuff far behind me.
And made my life without outside influences, you see.
I wonder why I felt that way back in high school?
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As I look back now, I guess I was maybe a little insecure,
In high school trying to live with all the peer pressure.
I feel no animosity for the high steppers then, I say,
As I soon found out in life you must make your own way.
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Out there in the world, always be the best you can be,
At whatever you decide to do, as a person so free.
If you are looked down upon, just ignore it and say,
I’m as good or better than any other man on this day.
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By Bill
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Thanks for reading The Way I Felt BacK Then,
Bill