THE JOURNALS OF ALAN RHODES

part II 1971-1977

          1972

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December 18 Monday

Art-Christine in, threw bits of plaster. Lunch-in the student's lounge with Diane, Ralph, Lesley, Mike and Rob [?]. Lesley had her hair done up. (Ps-found on my locker 1st Person "Isn't that Chris Todd?" -2nd Person "No, that's Alan Rhodes" 1st Person "Oh") [In May 1994 Ralph said it was he who had written it on December 15th] (Ps-Mike gave me some 'Flesh'). [While Andy and I were leaving school we met Dave Hampson who's back for Christmas. Boasted about how rich his parents were etc. It kind of depressed me. Andy + I talked about it on the way home.] (78)

 

December 19 Tuesday

Chem-Dave and I were singing quietly. Art-Christine in again. Lunch-in the student's lounge with Ralph, Dave, Lesley, Rob, Ruth and Mike. Ralph and I did tomorrow's French homework. Ralph had 'Flesh', put it on my face. After English at my locker the guy with frizzy hair [André] came up and asked me where I got the mask (about the 'Flesh' at lunch). [Eng.- Orals- argued with Pound over death penalty [it was perhaps this occasion when Pound offended my sensibilities by stating that the best way to curtail the contemporary string of plane hijackings to Cuba would be to hang the culprits at airports and leave their bodies there to rot]...]

 

December 20 Wednesday

B(spare)-Dave, Christine and I went outside at the side of the school for a smoke, then to the student's lounge and did History homework. Lunch-in the student's lounge with Dave, Lesley, Ralph, Ruth and Mike. We were fighting over possession of the bench. Dave, Ruth, Mike and I went out for a smoke to the same as B block.

 

December 21 Thursday

B(spare)-went outside with Dave and Christine, went to St John's, then around the back. Went to the student's lounge, played cards. Cherryl McGill came and played too. Art-made the cover for 'FUCK' mag [a project that Mike and I worked on. The cover was a reworking of the 'LIFE' logo and inside were doctored ads: a picture of school children receiving an inoculation with the caption saying that heroin addiction was on the rise. Pre-TPH. Mike kept the magazine]. Lunch-in the student's lounge with Dave, Ralph, Ruth, Mike, Lesley and Sandi. We went outside at the side for a smoke. French-Kalf gave us chocolates. Math-Christine, Ralph and Dave came to the door, but Hunt wouldn't let me talk to them. English-no class because they were painting the room. Christine and I sat in the student's lounge, then we went walking around the school with Mike, talked outside Chem St. [After school I helped load Mr Buchanan's VW bus with the Christmas food [collected from under the Xmas tree in the Great Hall. This was one of Buchanan's projects for which he recruited members of his M&S class. Buchanan was a strange Christian activist sort of guy- almost a proto-hippie except for his Christian sobriety and reserve. His VW Microbus was the most beat up vehicle in the JRHS parking lot. He was married and seemed to have dozens of kids whom he maintained on just this side of the poverty line]. The bus was stuffed. Pete Taylor sat on the boxes in the back, I sat on the boxes in between the front seats and some girl Linda [not Kallenburg] and Buchanan sat on the front seats. Pete, Buchanan and I, plus a few men, carried the food up the stairs at the Men's Service Centre. [on St Antoine in Little Burgundy? I remember that the place was run by a little old lady named Dorothy who looked like she would have been far outmatched by the very rough looking clientele, but was apparently a lot tougher than she looked]. Got home at 6:30].

 

 

 

78. Ralph's note: It would have been nice if I'd recorded what was said. Dave had been Andrew's and my friend throughout elementary and early high school. It was an odd triangle as we were rarely all friends at the same time. Dave seemed to prefer playing Andrew and I off each other, favouring us alternately with "best friend" status and doing his best at self-promotion as a way of convincing us that such status was worth pursuing. He once tried to convince me that his older brother was personally acquainted with John Lennon, offering as proof the line in "Happiness is a Warm Gun" which he claimed went "She's not a girl who misses Mitch"-- which was his brother Mike's nickname-- and I was half convinced until I got the album and read the lyrics. He was now attending Bishop's, a private boarding school in Lennoxville, to which Gillian would be sent the following September. He gets mentioned in her letters [see Gillian's letters for September 9 and 18, 1973 and slso Andy's letter for September 20, 1973]. The last I heard (from Danielle, who is still in touch with his sister,) Dave is a high school teacher in Toronto, is married, and has a bunch of kids [written c. 1994]..