More BJ Photos

Scanning in old photos is a tedious task, but I know people have been enjoying the old photos I have been sharing and the best part, great memories of an earlier time are aroused. One of my photo bags was full of pictures of me from about 1973 to 1975. I was going to Middlebury Union High School (MUHS) then and was involved in many activities.

The first photo is of me wearing a sling. My junior year, I was playing running back and I broke my collarbone in a scrimmage. We were at Burlington and I was carrying the ball and I felt a sharp pain in my neck area when I was tackled. Kind of winced but stayed in for the next play where I was the lead blocker. This time, when I hit the defensive player, wow, my shoulder hurt badly. I went back to the huddle and told coach Hubie Wagner I think I hurt something (he was in the huddle because it was a scrimmage). The Burlington Doctor came over and asked about it and said I must have pinched a nerve. I went through Saturday, Sunday and a day of school on Monday with no protection, thinking it was a pinched nerve. But I knew differently and I told coach it still hurt when I moved it so he said I should go get an x-ray. Broken collarbone. Out for 8 weeks, which was pretty much the whole season. But I looked good in that sling...


The clipboard I am carrying was to keep the stats for the team. Coach gave me the job of keeping stats and telling him who got stars each week to put on their helmet. I was also writing for the Addison Independent at that time so I needed the data for my articles. The 1973 season was when the high school football field was being redone and getting lights for night games. All our home games were played at Middlebury College at Porter Field. In the next photo, you can see me in my sling, Coach Wagner in his normal white short-sleeved shirt (no matter what the weather) and Jeff Burnham getting ready to kick the ball. We are actually on the practice field for pre-game warm-up.


The next photo is from the home field side (South) and you can see the visiting team stands. We were playing South Burlington and it was September 29, 1973. I am not sure why it looks like a dog is sitting on the 30-yard line. Maybe he sang the National Anthem...



I also played baseball at MUHS. My friend Joe Widli asked if I had any photos of when we played, and I found this one photo. I believe it was me pitching on the field behind the Junior High School. The tree line is Otter Creek. If you really hit one to Left Field, you could put it in the creek. We had no homerun fence so if you hit it to Right Field and nobody caught it, the ground was so hard the ball could bounce an extra 300 feet. It would take the whole team to line up to get it back to the infield. It usually would turn into a home run.



During the graduation for the class of 1974, Laurie Ross and I were selected by the Senior class to be their Junior Marshalls. This photo is of Laurie and I, with our batons, leading the class to the graduation ceremony. I guess dad should have had a wide angle lens...



I think we led them out of the Gymnasium onto the new football field. That is Laurie, or at least her baton, and me leading the Seniors outdoors. That is Mark Covey, one of the Junior Escorts, I think this was the first event under the new lights...



Each year I go back to Vermont to play in a golf tournament with my brother Tom. A few years back Dave Munson was sitting with Tom and me at the dinner for the tournament. I asked Munson if he remembered that I was his class Junior Marshall. He said that he was the Junior Marshall for the class of 1973, Tom's class. Tom said he was the Junior Marshall for the class of 1972. Here we were, more than 40 years later, three consecutive JMs. I found this to be statistically significant. Here is another photo of Laurie and me...


A great picture of me listening to music on the bed. Not sure if this is my room or Tom's. There is a Junior Marshall baton on the wall, but as you now know we both had one.



Travelling was very important to my dad Harold. He always found the resources to take the family on trips around the East Coast. Florida was a regular stop since I had relatives that lived in Florida year-round and my grandparents were snowbirds. In 1974, Grandpa was too old to drive so we took two cars and brought them down. It was a tradition to bring a Paquette along, that year it was Rene. Here is Rene, Dad, and I in the surf at Melbourne Beach...


Rene was getting red. Back then you put on oil so you could cook better. There was no SPF stuff to worry about. Dad has a sign but it has faded through the years. I think it was near New Years Day so it probably said something about that. Or the temperature, which I think was in the low 40s. Haha!


I did some plays my Senior Year and one fun thing I did was with Steve Corbett, a classmate at MUHS. We had the privilege to be the emcees for a Vaudeville-like talent show. It was our job to introduce the acts and keep the audience entertained between acts with bad jokes. I really had to work hard to be able to tell a bad joke...


Steve would be my roommate Freshman year at UVM. Sorry to say, I have lost contact with him but we were brothers for one night. We called ourselves the Coruncha Brothers...



The last photo I am sharing was taken by the security cameras at the First National Bank of Middlebury. The date is one day after my 16th Birthday. I wait patiently, as the teller, my dad Harold, cashes another big check from Middlebury College where I was a Hobart Engineer. A relative asked me what a Hobart Engineer is as it is on my Facebook listed as a past job. I explained that the college needs an engineer for the large Hobarts located throughout the campus. What is a Hobart? An industrial-size dishwasher...


I hope you enjoyed my photos.

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