High School Me

Here’s the high school version of me, measuring my way out of a thicket with a pencil and a handful of brushes. It’s obviously a hammy pose because I didn’t know how to paint yet.

I went to high school in Palo Alto, California, before it was the Silicon Valley. I was part of a remarkable 1976 graduating class that included Patrick Coyne, who runs Communication Arts magazine.

I was sort of a dim-witted (I flunked trigonometry) and low-level prankster, known for dumb stunts like drinking the fermentation project in biology class (on a 50 cent dare), and flying cardboard boomerangs around the room when the teachers weren’t looking. I don’t think I fully appreciated the golden goods the teachers were trying to give us until much later.

(Photo by David Gurney).