The Hard, Hard Work of Wasting Time..


Servite was probably the finest high school to be had in Orange County. We didn't know it, and hence didn't appreciate it at the time.  But that is not to say Servite students were thoroughly immersed and engaged all the time.  Not by a long shot.  I think I was no different than most of my classmates who came up with some pretty creative strategies to pass the interminable hours spent in the classroom. Here are a few pastimes that probably saved my sanity...

1.  Doodling - as in these examples.

2. In religion class with Fr. Duplessis we would record his quotes and misquotes each class. He came up with some real zingers: "Saint Augustine wished humans could spawn fish." he once declared. Direct quotes taken completely out of context were our bread and butter.  At the end of the school year we presented him with a scroll with his "104 Theses":

3.  We used to play golf.  I don't know if Servite still has the round floor electrical sockets in the classrooms, but they thankfully did back in the day. We would put some tinfoil over the socket so we wouldn't lose our coins, and would try kick a penny or nickel with our feet, trying to sink the putt into the socket.  We would have several of these golf matches going on different parts of the classroom.  I think Physics was prime time for socket golf.  Guys got pretty good at it, in fact it was one   part  of our Servite education that turned out to be of practical use as many of us went on to become scratch golfers and talented soccer players                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

4. One of the most exciting pastimes we developed to cope with World History. Ms. Roche was famous for using certain phrases over and over, such as "As time goes on...", "compare and contrast..."   "eventually..."  So before class we would choose two teams.  Even team and odd team. Then we chose a phrase..."and so on and so forth..."  Then we would record each time she said the phrase. At the end of the period - the final bell - marked the end of the competition. If she said the phrase 1, 3, 5, 7 times, the odd team won.  But the exciting part was the final five minutes of class, because both teams were frantically raising their hands to ask leading               questions to try to get her to say the phrase. I am not sure she ever wondered why we were so involved in the final 5 minutes of class.                                                                                              

5. My personal favorite pastime was in the afternoon, after lunch.I would play the organ solo for the Doors "Light My Fire"(long version) on the top of my desk.  It was a huge hit and I could imagine the bassline so vividly that I could actually hear it in my head.  Then I would play the organ lead, using my fingers to play the notes on my desk, and I could just as truly hear every note I played in my head. I could do everything the Doors could do, but even better, and I could literally be a t it for the whole period and never get tired of it.  Also did this with "In A Gadda da Vida" by Iron Butterfly.  They really should have hired me.                             

There were countless other distractions, and it is hard to believe we were so busy in our unbusyness. And this was decades before smartphones were a thing. I guess survival instinct       manifests in many strange ways.