Editor's Note: this week, we pick back up on the school years with Grades 9 & 10. Forget what happened in Grade 8? No problem. Read the Grade 8 story.

Chapter 9: This is Me in Grade 9

This was my first grade in High School, in a place called Harrison Trimble High School. I got up, got breakfast, and then headed to Bessborough School, which was our bus stop. My bus was 105. Within minutes of my arrival at Bessborough School, Bus 105 showed up. In the morning it was a standard yellow school bus, and for the way home from school it was a Codiac Transit city bus serving as Bus 105.

We boarded the bus and it stopped in various neighborhoods to pick up students. It passed Centennial Park and Rocky Stone Field where high school and local league football and sometimes soccer were played. Within minutes the bus arrived at Harrison Trimble High School. I reported to my homeroom, and just like in Junior High, each grade I had a series of teachers.

I had a series of TAs. My first T.A. was J.V. cheerleaders’ coach Miss Mullins. My second TA was hockey manager Mr. Bannister. My third TA was Mrs. Robinson, whom I had met at Bessborough School during a Junior High grade. My homeroom teacher was social studies teacher and J.V. boys’ basketball coach Mr. Grimmer. My English grammar teacher’s name was Mrs. Pipes. My French teacher was volleyball coach Mrs. Bourque, who was a counselor at Camp Centennial. My technology teacher was Mr. Kitchen. My music teacher’s name was Mrs. Killam, and her room had keyboards with various voices and a headset for each keyboard. My gym teacher was hockey coach Mr. Belong who looked like the Ducks’ coach in The Mighty Ducks 1 and 2.

This grade and others coming up were lots of fun, as we had not only intramural sports of all kinds, but we had famous sports teams like basketball, football, hockey, curling, soccer, and, of course, cheerleading. They had pep rallies for things like football games, big basketball games, and big hockey games.

The theatre had a grand piano which I played sometimes.

I took guitar lessons from a teacher named Shane and then a teacher named Michel.

I went to the Moncton Coliseum for my first hockey game: an Under 17 tournament game.

I joined house league basketball and we played on weeknights. Erin also played house league and middle school basketball. She also joined a Moncton provincial team called the Hawks, who played all around town and played in a tournament in Bedford, Nova Scotia.

I went to the football games and did the catchy cheers with the cheerleaders.

Mrs. Killam got us to do some of our own jingles for companies or organizations, so I did a jingle for my favorite car at the time: the Mercury Grand Marquis, using the Honky Tonk sound on the keyboard.

One Sunday my church had an apple picking day, which was a lot of fun. We went to Belliveau Orchard in Memramcook. There a horse- or tractor-pulled wagon took us to a series of apple trees and we were to pick apples from trees marked with a certain colored ribbon. This was followed by a picnic at an abandoned aboriginal church yard.

We went on a field trip by school bus to the University of Moncton’s C.E.P.S. for the Hoop Classic, my first Hoop Classic game.

The Christmas that followed I asked for a Timex Ironman digital watch like Dad’s, and I got one.

We went on a bus trip to the Moncton Coliseum for the Hockey Classic in which our hockey team was playing.

The Easter that followed I got the VHS Babe, and when we watched it for the first time I fell in love with Fly the female sheepdog.

We got another dog: a Bearded Collie like Tim Allen constantly turns into in the 2006 remake of The Shaggy Dog, named Emma. She and Dillon played wrestle together a lot. It was the same thing with Emma and Simon sometimes.

Grade 9 soon ended and summer came up. I got my first high school yearbook. I still pull that up and look back on the good times from this grade.

I have some bad news about that summer and some good news.

The bad news is our BMW 325i had had it. The good news is we got a new car: a dark blue Saab 900.

I also got a new electric guitar: A sunburst Squier Stratocaster with a new amp.

Chapter 10: Grade 10

This was my second year in high school. This was known as a Foundation Block year.

I again took guitar lessons.

Gramps passed away of cancer and old age and it was a heartfelt day at the funeral. That is when I started shaving, using Gramps’ razor.

I had the same teachers as last year, except this year my main TA was Mrs. Robinson.

I joined house league basketball again.

This year I was so enthusiastic I was named Honorary Cheerleader.

Not only this, but they got me to play my electric guitar in the theatre, and so I played The Eagles’ Take It Easy.

I again went to the football games, this time joining the Cheerleaders and doing the cheers and moves with them, except the lifts.

Erin played basketball for the Moncton High School J.V. women’s basketball team.

We went to Disney World in Orlando for a week, and also Universal Studios. We got to see how they make certain movies I had seen or was about to see look real. They had real and fake animals like Dalmatian puppies, horses, and all kinds of animals. They had rides and showed us how they make things in movies look real.

This year I went to several Hoop Classic games at C.E.P.S. and the women’s Hoop Classic at Moncton High School.

This Christmas I got a small keyboard.

We also went to the Hockey Classic.

Dillon was at the house almost every day I came home from school, but one day, I came to a surprise: Mom had rescued a lost terrier mix named Harvey in peril, and was waiting for the owner to claim him. He and Dillon played a lot together.

That day our neighbors were in a play in the Drama Festival of a sequel to The Wizard of Oz called Trouble in Oz.

Dillon started playing flyball and I saw a match and got to see and make friends with all kinds of dogs, including lots of friendly, nice-looking Border Collies.

Grade 10 soon ended, and I got the yearbook. I also sometimes pull this out to remember some fun stuff from this grade.

When I came home I was met with a surprise: I was to transfer to Riverview High School with Mrs. McArdle as my TA again as I needed a band and music program for my last 2 grades and Harrison Trimble did not had either of those, except a keyboard class.

Jennifer had a baby: a boy named Brennan. This meant I was an uncle!

Brian joined a musical group called Bishop who played on Breakfast Television and at a Canada Day concert before fireworks came up.

I got my first CD player and with it a couple of CDs: Lionel Richie’s Dancing on the Ceiling and the Spice Girls’ debut album. Later I started regularly buying CDs.

Kiwanis Park and Harold Page Field were hosting world baseball and I saw some games, and that is when I had my first Barq’a Root Beer. Catchy commercials for this were playing for this product.

Later Mrs. McArdle took me for a tour of my new school, followed by a trip to McDonald’s so I could get a Smarties McFlurry.

Autism is a condition some people are born with that causes things like fixations and obsessions. Autistics also say some very odd things, like I did, which will come up later in this document. I want to help people understand Autism, its advantages, and its challenges so if they have a child and find out from a doctor that he/she is autistic, then they can get some resources to help understand. My recommendations are that people trying to understand this condition buy and watch the movie Rain Man, buy all of Temple Grandin’s books and her movie starring Romeo + Juliet’s Claire Danes as Temple.

Most autistic people have good memories.

For example, if you watch Rain Man, the title character, in fact an autistic savant, has a great memory.

He recites Abbott & Costello’s Who’s on First whenever he is nervous several times, and when the waitress drops the toothpicks on the floor he counts them in seconds to 246 toothpicks, and in the airport scene where he freaks out he announces all the plane crashes and that “QANTAS Never Crashed.”

He also knows the address of the Kmart in which he buys his underwear, Oak & Burnett, to be exact, “400 Oak Street.”

I have a great memory of what I saw the first time the Volvo 240 Wagon took me to Hillsborough, my adoption day, what I saw on my first day of school in Grade 1, school years, trips with family that involved camping and hotels and shopping, my Camp Centennial years, the TV shows I watched as a child like Camp Caribou, Lamb Chop’s Play Along, Get Smart, Batman, Power Rangers, and movies I watched as a child like Looney Tunes tapes, Disney movies such as Homeward Bound and The Mighty Ducks, and animated favorites like Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and other favorites, my first years of high school, my Camp Wildwood years, when I saw Babe that Easter of 96 when I loved Fly and Rex the sheepdogs, Molly’s birth date and arrival date, the date I moved into L’Arche, some information Temple Grandin gave at the first Symposium Mom and I attended, like how bullies called her “Tape Recorder” because she was constantly repeating the same stuff over and over again.

With autism also comes challenges.

One is fixations and obsessions. Fixations are things where someone autistic focuses on one thing for a long time and thinks and talks about that one thing so much it drives other people trying to understand autism up the wall. I used to say silly things like “It’s a garbage bag” and “It’s a Kraft Dinner”. I have no idea why I said the Kraft Dinner thing. I suppose this came with autism, same reason Rain Man recites Who’s on First and keeps saying “I need to get my boxer shorts in Kmart in Cincinnati, 400 Oak Street, these are Hanes 32, mine are boxer shorts,” “4 Minutes to Wapner,” and “26 Minutes to Jeopardy,” which drives Charlie Babbitt up the wall so much he is forced to stop in a small town and find a doctor to find out the nature of Raymond’s condition and how this happened.

I also used to count down the microwave’s timer to 0 like it’s a rocket takeoff from space shows my foster brothers Cal and Ray used to watch on TV.

Once again, fixations and obsessions come standard with Autism. Another thing was that in the 80s, cars like the Plymouth Reliant, Olds 98 and Royale, Pontiac Parisienne, Chevrolet Caprice Classic, and Buick Roadmaster, all had the logo on the trunk slide to reveal the keyhole to the trunk which I found very neat and I used to play with it, curious which way it opened to reveal the keyhole, which scared Mom and Dad because what if the car backed up and the driver did not see me?

Another thing, once again a fixation with Autism, was a couple of days back in school at Bessborough after Christmas in Grade 3 I would move my thumbs as if I was playing Super Mario Bros. on our Nintendo which we had gotten for Christmas, which was distracting to the teacher, TA, and fellow students, so I was cut off from that for some time.

I can quote movies and other friends. I can also play guitar, piano, and also work on the computer, and text on my BlackBerry.

A friend of the family’s is also autistic and also lives in a L’Arche home.

He can quote movies and other friends.

Whenever he sees me, he clearly says: “Your parents are Ed and Marlene, your sisters are Erin, Stephanie, Melody, and Jennifer, and your nieces are Emily and Clare, and your nephews are Brennan, Connor, and Oliver, your dogs are Ella, Sprocket, Liza, Lupin, Danny…” etc.

When he quotes The Santa Clause, he says: “You’re as healthy as a horse. Yeah… like a Clydesdale”

As a child he used to rewind movies to see a scene or hear a line or sound over and over again.

Ideas and Awareness

My ideas are that Temple Grandin should visit Saint John, Halifax, and all the towns/cities my family lives and visit us. I also think we should make a movie based on my life as an Autistic person. We should also, as a family, with my L’Arche Saint John friends, prepare an Autism speech of our own for a future Geneva Centre Autism Symposium in Toronto.

People can be more supportive of people with Autism by helping them make good choices, taking the person to a doctor or something to try to understand what caused Autism to enter the person, or give the person a dog to keep them company and help the person, provided the person is not allergic and the home the person lives in allows dogs to live in the house or home.

Chapter 9: This is Me in Grade 9