Southern Living, 9th Grade Continued

OK, I'm back to the 9th grade. Life was good. I was an outcast from the jocks group, somewhat, but I fit in kinda well with the brainiacs group. I actually had more friends with the brains than the jocks. Remembering, I actually had friends in both groups. I discovered early on in the 9th grade that I could take my books home and study and make straight A's, but I could do my homework in study hall and make B's and C's. Guess what I did? Yup, made B's and C's. Shot a lot of pool, cut a lot of classes.
Anyhow, in the 9th grade, I met my Elmer(s). Now, for you non ham radio folks, an Elmer is a person who takes a fledgling Ham Wannabee under his wing and coaches him into ham radio. I actually had 3 Elmers. Number one was a gentleman named Karl Rushing. He was a college electronics instructor. I can't remember his call at the moment. My number two Elmer was a second year college student named Keith Worrel. Damned if I can remember his call either. And my third Elmer was a freshman college student named Steve ********, my memory fails. Anyhow, these three Elmers coached me into a Ham Radio novice license. WN5KHJ! I had a HAM LICENSE in 1960! I was poor and couldn't afford a real ham rig, so I used an old Zenith trans-oceanic receiver and a homemade transmitter putting out 15 watts. I actually made quite a few contacts. Enjoyed the hell out of it!
Back to the 9th. I studied Algebra, loved it, social studies, hated it, english, liked it, and health, what can ya say?
I still had a steady girlfriend, Helen Smith, shot a MEAN game of pool, still cut grass, sold scrap metal, delivered papers to make spending money.
The 9th grade was pretty fine, I remember nothing bad to report about the 9th.
Was learning electronics from a College instructor, still was riding my Sears Motorscooter, making pretty decent money for my age from my many enterprises, and as always, was generally Happy!
Lets move on to the 10th grade......to be continued.....
BTW, I did forget to mention that I did have access at anytime to the Ham Shack in the Electronics Technology Department at MDJC. I could run REAL radios from there if I chose, but still enjoyed my little homemade station to the fullest. There's something to be said for contacting a distant station using a transmitter you have built with your own hands from an old TV set!