It's weird, this autumn of 1964. I'm trying to cope with going to this new school, this Gateway Regional High School. My body is going crazy, with pimples bursting through my skin, and my scalp flaking off, and now I'm going to be thirteen in a few months. Thirteen! Me, a teenager? Today I am a man and all that crap? I don't feel ready. I mean, I'd like to get one of those G.I. Joe action toys for Christmas, but if I'm going to be a teenager should I be asking for a doll for Christmas? I tell... Read Full Story

This is a map of Woodbury Heights as it is today, but pretty much as it was in 1964 as well. Find the streets I talk about in my other posts. My house is at the corner of Walnut Ave. and Tanyard Road, with Gateway Regional High School right behind it. You can see my walk to school changed dramatically. The elementary school is on Academy Ave. where Asam Ave. meets it. St. Margaret's is all the way over on Second Street, off of Central Ave..Freund's Cliff is behind the former TYCO site.Double ... Read Full Story

For those of you waiting, if there are any, more posts will be coming shortly.Heading towards the end of 1964 and my thirteenth birthday. I'm going to try and tackle some hard issues, and I hope I'm up to the challenge.For those of you who venture over to Jack Wiler's World, I must tell you that Jack passed away on October 20 of this year.I will miss my old friend. I will miss his inspiration. I shall try and rise to his challenge - to write hard and write true.Stay tuned.More Maddox Corner t... Read Full Story

I haven't been posting lately. Family matters and personal situations have taken priority. If you're still reading and would like to see more, I hope to be back soon.Stay tuned. Read Full Story

The late summer/early fall of 1964 proved to be sunny and warm. I and all of my Woodbury Heights classmates and the kids from three other towns were getting used to our new high school in the fields behind my home.Most of the guys I used to play with were becoming more interested in playing sports on the Gateway teams, so I didn't see much of them on the weekends now. In the past, Steve Kay and I and Paul LaPann and Billy Hills and lots of others would be fighting the battles of one war or a... Read Full Story

There were days during the week that you were given free time to catch up on your homework, or to read a book, or just sit there and vegetate. These moments were called Study Hall. A grand notion, a generous gift-time to do homework in school so you could be free to pursue other interests after the bell to go home had rung.The only problem was, the places they picked for us to "study".I had Study Hall in the auditorium of all places. Sitting in auditorium seats without a surface to write on, ... Read Full Story

Seventh Grade moves slowly. I’m forging new friendships and trying to hold on to the old. Steve Kay and I are in 7C, the only boys from our former Sixth Grade class in Woodbury Heights. Vince Fitzgerald is in 7C as well, but he was in the “other” Sixth Grade, and didn’t share all of our experiences. I miss the cloakroom. My locker combination doesn’t always work, so I have to bang the door just under the lock sometimes before it will open. I don’t have much that someone would want to steal. M... Read Full Story

My body is going crazy on me. There’s this struggle going on. The Maddox genes are fighting with the Boswell genes and they’re mixing it up with the Gardner genes who are trying to hold off the Knoll genes. I don’t know who I look like anymore. I’ve got bigger lips and my head looks longer. My face is erupting with acne and I’ve got hair above my upper lip, and my voice is changing. I’ve always looked a bit geeky, a bit like Jerry Lewis with this perpetual crew cut, but now I don’t know what’... Read Full Story

The new school year also means the arrival of the latest television season. TV is starting to pull away from the 1950s a little more this year. Westerns don’t dominate the schedule like they used to. Most of the cowboy shows are called “adult” westerns, and most of them are an hour long. I think Rawhide is on mainly because people like the theme song, and why anyone would want to watch The Virginian is beyond me. Gunsmoke is still on Saturday nights and I never miss that. Marshall Dillon and... Read Full Story

I think the people who planned Gateway Regional High School are messing with our heads. They’ve taken kids from four different towns and thrown us all together in one building in some kind of bizarre science experiment. I feel like a lab rat in a maze, passing hundreds of strangers and every once in a while I see a familiar face but I can’t stop to say hi, I’ve got to keep moving and find the next classroom before the bell rings. Every hour or so it’s a race against time, rush-rush-rush, and ... Read Full Story