Back in the middle of the eighties I was still
processing data for the
Pennsbury School District in Fallsington, Pennsylvania.
The District had
decided to expand their computer lab from the Apples and
IBM PC's that
constituted half the student curriculum. The other half
was the IBM 4361
system which had been leased to give the students their
own mainframe time
which wouldn't have to compete with the administration's
system for CPU
cycles. This was being moved from the admin building a
few miles away
directly to the High School itself, mostly to remove
response time created by
passing student's programs over the phone lines and back
again. Pennsbury
was a class act for a school district and decided if they
were gonna revamp
the comp tech lab they may as well do it right. They went
with a BETA of an
IBM LAN system which would hook the PC's directly to the
mainframe where they
could also double as dumb terminals. It was a little
risky but IBM could be
counted on to do what ever was necessary to get the system
up and running in
time for the beginning of the school year.
Because of the novelty of the new lab and visitors
from major
universities coming to visit the IBM BETA site (They were
loading McGill
University's MUSIC OS, an educational oriented OS which
ran under VM) there
was a certain festive atmosphere around the school as I
passed by it on my
daily bike ride. I decided to stop in and check out how
the lab was coming
along and use the Boys room while I was at it. I had done
this a few times
before so it was pretty much routine and I was well known
to the teachers at
the HS as I would regularly stop in to advise them on the
MUSIC system, which
I had been pretty much running on my own the previous year
(learning a lot
about programming languages in the process, something I
had always wanted to
pursue).
The front doors were open and the hall was filled
with teens making
banners which they had laid out on the floor and were
applying paint to. A
brief glance told me that the computer room was indeed
staffed (they looked a
little busy, tho). I decided to go relieve myself first
and looked away from
the door to see what I can only describe as one of the
hottest blondes I have
ever unexpectedly encountered standing in the midlde of a
group of girls
chatting away. She was wearing tight jeans and a shirt
which may best be
described as over worked. She was surrounded by other
girls but they were in
turn surrounded by a group of guys who were all obviously
enjoying some kind
of discussion which seemed to be led by the blonde
herself.
As I walked past the group, trying not to step on any
of the banners
they had criss crossing the floor (with the occasional can
of paint here and
there) I heard someone mention "walking the obstacle
course" and turned to
see the pretty blonde looking straight at me. Now I am
not the smoothest of
operators in the computer field but I certainly couldn't
be rude to the
students of the district I worked for; I mean, my salary
came from the
taxpayers there, after all. I removed my sunglasses and
attempted to say
something charming to this princess of high school halldom
but what came out
was more of a mumble along the lines of "Yuh huh, you
gotta be careful 'round
here." I felt like such an idiot I decided to revert to
my old high school
days by walking like some cool dude, nonchalantly using my
finger to rock the
locks attached to a row of lockers like Huck Finn using
his stick on the
white picket fence. A couple of girls looked at me like
the idiot I was for
making a racket while they tried to paint over the sounds
of a portable radio
but I distincly heard her voice again saying "I like your
locks!"
I went in to the Boys room and felt instant relief at
having extricated
myself from what was rapidly becoming yet another
emabrrassing Adventure in
Talking to Girls. I was fantasizing about hiding there
for a few extra
minutes so the group outside would have plently of time to
leave and I
wouldn't have to face the prospect of saying something
even stupider when I
heard what sounded like the beginnings of a heated debate
close to the the
door to the Boys room. I couldn't catch all of it but I
was sure the blonde
herself was involved in it as I was already becoming
familiar with her voice.
The talk had died down when I left the lav and proceeded
to the computer
room, a true sanctuary from being reminded of my high
school years and
inadequacy with gorgeous blondes.
I had settled down and was immersing myself in the
new computer system
itself when I heard one of the student assistants talking
to each other about
a girl they had just seen, which one of them described in
a slightly louder
voice as "Miss Applegate's sister, Christina." As the
recognition of this
name was still dawning on me there came a knock on the
window of the hall
door. It was Christina herself standing on the other side
of the door's
window asking to be let in the computer room. Being an
experienced operator
I decided to let her in "to use the phone" even though
there was a phone
booth out in the hallway figuring I could handle any
emergencies her presence
in the facility might cause.
As I returned to the manuals I was perusing about the
BETA system she
remaked casually "I don't really need to use the phone, I
just wanted to get
away from the crowd outside. Can I hang out in here for a
while?" Since I
was an employee of the district (not necessarily of the
school itself) and
had more experience than the two students left there to
watch things I took
it upon myself to allow this, talking to her about the IBM
PC's and how they
could be used both as stand alone processors or with the
press of a key were
turned into IBM terminals for the VM/MUSIC system. This
didn't interest her
very much although she was polite and charming, pointing
to the screen with
her her beautiful red nails and asking about games which
ran on the PC.
At a lull in the conversation she extended her hand
to me and introduced
herself. I remarked that I had heard her name earlier and
winced inside at
how this might be a little insulting to a TV star but she
went on casually
"And you're Lee Chapman, I heard them mention your name
outside, too." I
decided to change the conversation and asked her what she
was doing in town.
She said she was visiting "family" and stopped by the
School "to see what
everybody was into" and to find out "if there were any
parties going on."
Then came a knock on the door and she left to speak to who
I assumed to be
her sister, the teacher from the school itself.
When she had left the computer room I found myself
totally without any
concentration left for the computer system I had been
looking forward to for
most of the last few months, I was so consumed with her
beauty and her witty
personality. I made up my mind to ask her if she wanted
to go do anything
together later. I was sure she had a boyfriend and was
probably busy with
her friends and family but I couldn't leave the feelings I
had for her behind
me without letting her know I was not just a casual fan of
some celebrity, I
found her attractive in a very personal way. What better
way to express this
than to let her shoot me down for a date? It seemed
pretty reasonable.
I found her a few minutes later in the lab itself
idly using a pen to
tap away at a PC keyboard and worked up the courage to
talk to her. She
turned to me expectantly and I let go with one of the
least confident pick up
lines ever uttered by some dork in the direction of a
blonde bombshell.
"Christina, you sure are pretty (thank you, she
replied), I was
wondering, if you're not doing anything later, I mean, if
you're not too busy
or anything, well I don't have any plans for tonight but I
have been invited
to a party by a friend of mine, a house warming party, and
since you
mentioned earlier you were looking to have some fun while
you were here, well
I was just wondering if maybe you wouldn't mind hanging
out with me later on,
I mean, would you like to go do something later? Together?
Go to this party?
With me?"
She looked away briefly and appeared to scan the room
at some of the
other guys in there who were engrossed in conversation and
seemingly
oblivious to my predicament. I thought, very briefly,
that it was unusual
how they had all been surrounding her earlier and now she
was sitting by
herself as if she had somehow gone from celebrity to
outcast in just a few
minutes. She stood up and leaned right into me and said
the one thing I
would not have expected to hear: "YES!"
(to be continued .....)