This will be the last of the friends I profile for sophomore year. (There will be more during the junior and senior years.) Orld was a student I remember meeting in the 6th grade when we were in the lunch time choir practice sessions. He and I were the only two boys who were in choir every year between 6th and 12th grades.
Orld was a Hispanic boy who had attended Roselawn Elementary before I met him. He was short and a little chubby. In addition to choir, we were also in Drama together. Aside from that, we didn't have a lot in common. He wasn't a very good student, just being one of those who just kind of coast through everything. He was probably a lot smarter than he appeared to be. He probably had a lot more potential than he realized he had.
My mother actually thought he was pretty worthless. I'm glad I never had to bring him over to the house. I guess it was nice to have a friend that I didn't have to think about impressing. I felt I had to impress Rad and Rod. I didn't feel that way about Orld.
Orld appeared with Rad, Rod and myself in our Drama Club's production of "Arsenic and Old Lace." He played a policeman, like Rad and me. On the second and final performance, toward the end of the play. He forgot his line. You don't think of how important these small parts are when you're performing or watching a play, but it turned out we couldn't do a darn thing to move the play forward until he said that line. I had the next line and it completely depended on what it was he had to say. By the look on his face, he knew it was his turn to say something, but just couldn't think of the right thing to say. I tried whispering the line to him, but he couldn't hear me. We had people on the side who were shouting his line at him, several times. He finally understood, said the line and then I lost it with some of the other actors on the stage. We were all laughing. I'm glad we were in high school because that was just so unprofessional. Orld never goofed up like that again onstage.
During our sophomore year, the Drama Club decided to enter a float in the homecoming parade. They had entered a float in the parade to promote their production of "Our Town." Since homecoming came after our production of "Arsenic," we decided to do something completely different. The theme of homecoming was "Bulldog Dreams" and we came up with this idea for a giant rainbow surrounded by clouds. We built a wooden frame and surrounded it with chicken wire. We then put colored napkins in the holes to make it look like a rainbow. Unfortunately, we had a hard time making it stand up. After midnight on the day of the homecoming parade, one of the seniors got really frustrated and wanted to give up. However, Orld said, "No! We're going to get this to work!" He pounded more nails in the base and we managed to get it stay erect. It stayed up through the parade and many thought it was the best float. However, we did not win 1st prize. Our Drama teacher thought the judges did not think of us as part of the competition because we were a separate organization and not one of the classes of seniors, juniors and sophomores.
During our senior year, Orld was up on stage in Drama class reading out loud from a script. He was reading like a third-grader. The Drama teacher asked him what year of school he was in. He replied, "I'm a senior." "Then why are you having so much trouble reading this?" I felt bad. At this point, I was aware that there were a lot of students who had managed to progress through the grades without a strong grasp of how to read out loud. Many of them dreaded being called upon to read to the class. There was nothing wrong with their ability to read and comprehend, but they just couldn't combine that with having to speak out loud.
Orld did not graduate with the rest of the senior class in May. He was one-half credit shy of being able to participate in commencement. He did manage to go to summer school to pick up that credit, so his graduation year was the same, but it was kind of sad that he wasn't among the rest of us at the ceremony.
I continued to have contact with Orld after high school, but it doesn't continue to this day, and there's a reason for that. I'll write more about that in tomorrow's post.
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