Moment 286: Introducing Col. Fiegenbaum

It was the 8th grade Job Fair thingy- You know, when a buncha parents and other adults roll into your classroom and talk about how great their jobs are in order to inspire you to do something with your life.

Honestly, I don't remember ANY of the jobs that were presented to me. I mean, I remember being able to pick different classes to go to in order to hear about these great jobs but I couldn't tell you what I chose, who I saw or anything interesting I heard that day. I'm sure there were some good things about the day- I just don't remember what they were.

HOWEVER- I DO remember that at the end of the day the teacher had us all in the classroom and announced that one more dude was gonna come talk to us. He was the instructor for the ROTC program at the High School I was going to attend.

Now- I had no idea what the hell ROTC was so I was doubly shocked when this man walked in the room dressed in an Air Force uniform smoking on a pipe.

He was a short, olive skinned man and almost Yoda-like in his demeanor.
I don't remember what he said EXACTLY but he did have a lot of good things to say about ROTC and how it would be a benefit to be a part of the organization should you decide to make the military a career choice.

He's name was Col. Fiegenbaum- now, I'm sure I don't remember how to spell that right but I remember his words making a lot of sense.
I remember his description of ROTC being somewhat enticing.
I also remember the smell of his pipe floating to the back of the room where my friends and I were laughing our asses off at the idea of ever joining the military.

We were still giggling when got on the bus on the way home- telling each other funny stories and doing funny skits about how crazy it would be to be in ROTC and the military.
I took the pamphlet on ROTC he gave us and stuck it deep in my folder and then jammed that to the rear of my backpack. This was not going to happen to me. I was an artist. Creative first and foremost AND it was gonna stay that way.

So I get home and as I'm walking across the yard I see my Mom has just gotten home herself and she's at the mail box. I was very excited to tell her all the funny jokes we were making at the back of the class as the Col. spoke- but before I could get my mouth open good, what does she pull out of the mailbox? ANOTHER COPY OF THE PAMPHLET HE GAVE US IN THE CLASSROOM!

"Ooooo Kim! Look at this."
"Yeah, Ma- we were talking about that at school-"
"Look, it says if you do 3 years of ROTC in High School you will get an extra stripe if you join the military-"
"Unh-hunh- Gary was laughing because-"
"Seriously Kim, this is really good. You gotta do this. If you pass something like this up I don't think I would talk to you again."

She handed me the pamphlet and made her way to the house as she continued to shuffle through the rest of the mail commenting on each little piece under her breath.

I followed slowly behind her flipping the pamphlet in my hand. I thought about all the shit my family had gone through to get where we were- we weren't rich but we were nicely middle class up from rolling into Texas with nothing but the clothes we had in the trunk.
It WOULD break her heart if she thought I was being cavalier about my future.
I mean, I didn't have any plans to really be in the military- but it would be a nice backup- AND I did have two electives as a freshman so I could take Art and ROTC...


The decision was made. Now I just had to figure out how I was gonna live this down with all those dudes I was giggling with earlier in the day.