Growing up a Geek

A lot of times I look around these days and think " Its easier being a Geek these days" as I watch the crowds of Goth geeks, Anime Geeks Game Cube Geeks and _______ the card game geeks run around in their little clicks. I don't think things were really that easy for us folk in the Olde Tyme days, Geek wasn't really excepted.

I started high school in 1979, and I was already a geek I didn't belong to any click and due to people moving away and my parents divorce, I think the only people I Talked to were at school. I had one "close friend" ( a geek also) but he being a couple years older and trying to deal with the trials of high school we weren't as close as we had once been.

Geekiness was to be hidden in those days, the last thing you wanted was for the Kids on the bus to find out that you played dungeons and dragons, the verbal assault alone would put a 1000 bomber raid to shame. I loved Star Wars, I made blasters at home, I drew Tie fighters and dreamed of X-wings, but this was something I kept to myself. Out of fear, I dreaded the day when my secret would come out. My first two years of school were tough, but eventually I found a sort of geek underground and two groups of friends.

The first was in the most unlikely of guises, a group of heavy metal, pot smoking beer drinking fantastic people who lived in my old neighborhood. These guys were great, we spent many a day playing D&D in their parents basement followed by watching " Centerfold" on MTV. They did make fun of me because I usually brought a six pack of Hawaiian punch to the "parties" ( still don't drink ) but they were great people.

The second group of people weren't necessarily geeks, but were the geeks age old allies, the nerds. They were the Honor students and computer nerds, basically our little group became everyone who didn't belong, theatre people, library aides the works. I wish I could let you see these people back them, One girl was a Cheerleader who loved Lord of the Rings, Two of the guys were so smart, they went on to be some of the early pioneers of computer gaming. We would do everything together, Two of them were brother and sister and there TV room became our sanctuary, their parents were, and are, held very close to my heart.

There was usually a lot of Geeky drama with in the group, I think at one point every male in the group had asked one particular female out and she had refused them all, Vans were "borrowed" with out permission and boyfriends disapproved of, but that all added to the color of this extended family.

It was through the second group that I came into contact with the Female of the species in a social atmosphere for the first time. In my geeky life I had not been exposed to them. I would eventually begin the dating thing but my first "Girlfriend" was actually someone I meet playing D&D at a local game store ( and I was a senior at the time).

Things were not always sunshine and fresh air, I can still see the Jocks plinking the ears of one fellow on the bus, and the verbal assault was brutal. The insults we suffered in computer class, Dailey, from two football players I sure has put some bricks in my wall ( One of them latter broke his neck in a game and was confined to a wheel chair). I was somewhat taller and broader then most of my friends so I think I was spared the worst but the old saying "Kids can be cruel" is so very true.

A old dead guy once said " what does not kill you makes you stronger" and I think he was right. I still don't like to admit to my Geeky hobbies ( except through the curtain of the internet ) I guess I still may fear those demons of the Jocks but I look around these days and I like to think that it is easier being a Geek in todays world, more birds of a feather sort of speaking. I look back at things back then, we survived, and in fact looking back at those times over 20 years on, when I think of them, I smile.