Ray

Of course, that’s a still from Revenge of the Nerds.  A very cute movie back in 1984.

I liked it a lot and got an even bigger kick out of it when, a few years later, I got to hang out myself with Ted McGinley.

I look better here but back in Medieval History Class at New Trier High School, I was definitely one of the nerds.

It was an honors class and everybody in there was a smarty-pants. Our teacher was the legendary Dr. Johnston.

He was tough and demanding.  But we were seniors and so he gave us lots of freedom to create our class projects.

We divided ourselves into groups.  There were five of us.  I remember that Pam Webb and Mark Miller were in my group.  (I can’t for the life of me come up with the other boy and girl.)

The Group met and had a brainstorming session.  We wanted our project to be unusual, creative, something real different. And we wanted it to rock.

(We were pretty full of ourselves back then.  And pretty full of it.)

Somehow the idea of a movie or video project came up.  No type-written term papers for us creative types.

Trouble was none of us were techie enough to pull it off.  We were going to need outside A/V assistance.

I mentioned this up-coming assignment to my cousin, Joanie.  She was my first cousin (our mothers were sisters) and six months older than me.

And a WHOLE lot smarter.

ICYMI: Read about her here.

And it was Joanie who came to rescue.

“I know someone who can help you,” she said.  “He’s a few years older than us and he goes to DePaul.  His name is Ray and he’s really interested in video-making and stuff like that,  I’ll call him and see if he wants to help your group.”

A few days later, my princess telephoned jingled.

Remember the good old days when we had NO idea who was on the line?  It was so exciting just hearing that phone ring.  It could have been anybody!

But it wasn’t any of the Fab Four.

It was only Ray.

We spoke for a while and he told me that he was very interested in helping us with our senior project.   I gave him my address and time of the next Medieval Group meeting and he said he would swing by.

The Group got to my house nice and early.  I prepped them about the possible new addition of this guy, Ray.

“I’m sorry, “ I began.  “This guy, Ray, um, wants to help with the video. I talked to him and he seems real geeky and not cool at all but we need him.  What do you say?”

The Group eyed each other uneasily.  After all, what kind of a college kid would actually want to help high school kids?  This Ray guy HAD to be a real loser.

The boys talked to each other.  The girls did the same.  A consensus was reached.

“I guess it’s ok.  I mean, we can talk with him, at least,” said Mark.  “After all, it won’t kill us to let some college guy in.”

Unenthusiastically, we waited in my driveway waited for Ray to drive up.

A blue, hot-looking convertible came rumbling down the street.

The boys all went nuts.

And when Ray stepped out of the car…

The girls went nuts.

OMG.  He was GORGEOUS.

Black hair, blue eyes- with a powder blue windbreaker to match.  Ray had to be one of the best-looking guys I had ever seen.

I could tell by their suddenly-coy body language and high-pitched squeals that Pam and the other girl agreed with me.

Ray was as nice as he was handsome.

He was bombarded with car questions by the boys.  And more personal ones by the distaff members of the Group.  He accepted our hero worship with good grace.

And he helped us with the history project, too.

Thanks, Dr. Johnston.

I really learned a lot in your class.