Where Do I Go Now?

I thought I would be in heaven! No more rules no more punishments. Issue #2

If only I could have pulled out more chairs, opened more car doors, or said “YES Sir” more often, “YES Ma'am” more often, and not talked back to the parents, maybe, just maybe, I would not have been sent off to boarding school for the next three years. Was it my fault, or was it because of the constant arguments about business between my parents at the dinner table? I never did learn the truth

.Even though I was only eight, I thought school was over and done with. What did I know? The parents had different plans for me now. Perhaps they were upset, stressed, or lost on where to put me, so they opted for a religious school close to home with uniforms.

There were no ribbons or stripes of honor this time, no polishing of my shoes or brass buckle. That was a joy, indeed. But since I had no school polishing duties, they decided to keep me engaged in polishing. Now, it was not my brass buckle I had to polish, but all my mother’s brass in the house. It was an all-weekend chore, so much for a break.

As I recall, school did not serve me well, as I was used to saying “yes, Sir, yes, Ma’am, yes, Sergeant,” etc., to the parents or my school leaders. Evidently, I started to forget my manners and discipline pretty quickly, and rather than being punished in school, I was punished at home, which happened often.

After one year in the Religious School, guess what? The parents had a big surprise for me for the next school year. I was off to another Military Academy.

I was so excited; I no longer studied the Bible (I do love God, though), and I dressed in a powder-blue outfit; it just didn’t feel right to me. OMG, let’s go! I was so excited to hear of my new future.

.I recall Mom and Dad sitting me down and saying “You will need to wake up at 5:30 am, shower, eat, dress and walk to the top of the street which is a up all uphill for a mile. Wait there and take the bus to your new school.” ok I said, “What’s the name of the school and where is it?”.

My Mom said, “The name is Southern California Military Academy (SCMA) in Long Beach.” “What! You’re joking.” I replied. It was no joke; this was real, and all I could think of was polishing again daily. The shoes, the brass buckle, and more polishing at home, too. Oh NO! School Motto is “Character before career.”

Here I am, nine years old. We had just moved to a new home far away from Black Foxe and all my friends, and now I was starting over again for the third time with no friends. And if that wasn’t enough, I now had to travel 90 minutes by bus every day to and from the new school in Long Beach, so far away from our new home.

To ease the blow, the parents took me, my younger sister, our new 4-week-old baby sister, and our Japanese Nanny on vacation, a one-week cruise to Alaska, which was fun and exciting.

We swam every day, watched TV, played games, and just had fun, with our Nanny watching to ensure we were all happy and behaving while the parents relaxed.

Sometimes, I would sneak into the ballroom, uncover the drum set, play drums, and sing at the top of my voice to the Jackson Five's number-one hit song, ABC. I did get in trouble for this, but it didn’t stop me from sneaking in again and again. We were put to bed early in the evenings so the parents could party and dance all night!

The only good news was that I was stepping into the new school as a staff Sergeant, my last military rank from Black Foxe, so there was no need to be embarrassed for having a naked uniform. I was going to be somebody this time around.

Coming home was the best part of the day, and the walk from the bus was all downhill. I was back to having to buff and polish, but this time, I also had to continue with the brass at home on weekends.

This was maddening. All I wanted to do was swim, play baseball, and play tennis. I loved baseball more than anything. I was really good at it, and in fact, I used to play baseball, not on grass but on the tarmac at the school.

I remember sliding into second base stupidly, thinking I was the famous baseball player Pete Rose, my idol. Who does that, and on concrete to boot? I was left bloodied and cut up, and my uniform was ruined, so now I had to face the parents once again.

I thought I would have a day off from school because my uniform was destroyed, but there was no chance. They quickly produced another one so I could make it to school the next day. Darn it!

I used to watch baseball on basic TV on Saturday morning. Back then, you only had one day of Baseball to watch every week, unlike the luxury today of 24/7/365 :-). To be allowed to watch, I had to get my manners in order as soon as possible and become disciplined again, and I truly felt that SCMA school brought out the best in me.

SCMA was a boy-only Military Academy from Kindergarten through 9th grade; I was in 4th grade, so I would have five more years to look forward to. By the way, the marches still continued at this school, as they had Black Foxe, but now they lasted for 45 minutes every Friday afternoon.

The drill for us was to parade in front of our team leaders, the headmaster, and our parents to show our progress. I thought I was a lifer here as they, the parents, really wanted me to serve the United States of America forever. At least, that is what I thought back then. I was sad yet so happy at the same time.

I know now that I was overzealous. I thought I was the perfect child and a good student, so I would stay at SCMA for five more years, but somehow, my parents didn’t agree with that!

They wanted me to learn more discipline, manners, and character building, so the following year, they sent me to a private boarding school three hours away from home. This was a small school with only 100 students from Kindergarten through 9th grade, averaging about 10 students per class per year.

ifOnlyi…short stories are published chronologically and follow my life growing up in California from 4 years old. If you’ve just found me, the stories will come together when you start reading from….Issue #1