Summer Job of 1998

SUMMER JOB Of 1998

August 11, 2015

                                                   

"The tans will fade, but the memories will last forever" -unknown

The  ring tone of calypso rang loud and ever persistent on my night stand. I reached for my phone and looking at the iphone screen I realized that I had been sleeping through the sound and would surely be late for work.

“dammit” I muttered as I threw over the covers sitting up rubbing my eyes I made the quick and fateful run for the shower to make epic time. In autopilot mode I was never quite thinking but doing whatever necessary to beat the clock. I dressed faster than Katy Perry during a wardrobe change in between songs at a concert. I grabbed my badge, keys and did a once over in the mirror to check my hair….thats right, I can still check my eyebrows if that's all I have. (No visible greys or dead ends) I was good to go.

For 2pm in the afternoon, the August air was still heavy with humidity. The flowing breeze across the creek provided a temporary relief of the oppressive humidity; all while also providing the sweet smell of cape jasper which was pleasant as I entered the hot oven of my car. I decided to take a shortcut over a side street to cut out a few minutes. Buzz 105.7 was on and playing Make it hot by Nicole Wray. I haven’t heard this song in years I said to myself.

Like any good Summer day combined with needing to be somewhere yesterday I ended up with the inevitable..yep, you guessed it. Road construction and the ever hated flagger with his radio and oversized cooled that is used as a foot rest. I felt pity for him on this hot day, I would not want that job. Still, I was pissed, now I’m even more behind. Yet, it’s no ones issue but mine.

Attempting to be clever, I took one more detour and drove past one of the Elementary schools in Ballston Spa. As I drove I saw something that made me pull over. I witnessed a group of 4-5 Teenagers working at the school doing groundskeeping. I couldn’t help but smile. It was exactly 17 years ago that I was one of those teenagers.

Summer of 1998, Myself, Anthony Angrisani, Dave Smassanow & Justin Spittal were all classmates and close friends entering our Senior year of High School. We all decided as a group of friends to work together for the Ballston Spa School District doing groundskeeping and moving supplies to the brand new High School that we were to be the first class to graduate from.

I can still hear the radios in the background playing the top songs of that summer of can’t get enough from smash mouth, closing time by semisonic and the new hit single don’t want to miss a thing by Aerosmith. That is the summer as 17 year olds that we spent our nights watching Celebrity Death match, the Sopranos and bringing our Girlfriends to the drive ins/movies to see something about Mary and the mouth dropping Saving Private Ryan (which resulted in not much make out time, nor relations post movie)

This was the Summer I was also playing many shows to help support the CD release of Wrath’s “Twisted & Tormented”. All the while I continued to care for My Mom who was in the midst of battling cancer.

Those were simple and fun times filled with junky first cars, first loves, unforgettable memories and laughs that all 17 year olds should have. We worked hard, but not too hard for our money at the school. We met individuals that showed us that bitterness and grudges are no way to live. The four of us talked often about once our Senior year was done where we would end up. Our dreams were as big as our imagination. We felt that we could accomplish all but yet had the fear of knowing that the time soon approached for College and leaving the nest.

The perspective for all of us besides partying and facing the future in those days was as distant and as far reaching as the objectification of any dreaming 17 year old. There all four of us stood unknowingly on the dock on west egg reaching for that Green light of Tom Buchanan’s deck across the bay. All we knew was that if we just got into the top colleges, got the degrees then we would land the Top paying Job and have that dream girl fall in love and marry us. Then, if we got the big custom houses, fancy SUV’s, coached the little league teams and just could have it all, then all in our lives would be complete.

I am the only one of the four who still lives in the area. All of us still talk on a regular basis and see each other when possible. We all have families, responsibilities and dreams that made it and did not quite make it. But the bottom line stands that it was that bond, that friendship, laughs, jokes at others expense during those summer days that gave the four of us the foundation for what would be an unbreakable bond going into our senior year.

I rolled up my window and drove away with just enough time to make it to work. While driving, I  realized that the teenagers I saw blowing off their summer work were probably born the very same year that me and my friends were working those same grounds. Love, Laughter and Friendship is more valuable than any summer paycheck..unless it came to Taco bell, 0.99 cent a gallon gas and cheap smokes from Mobil off of brookline road. Then that was a different story.

Thank you,

Mark Schmidt.