Chapter 6: Another Summer of Fun: 1982

By the end of the year, both David and Meri had earned 4.0+ GPAs and their letters for Cross Country and Basketball. They had attended all the school dances, other than Prom, which was Juniors and Seniors only, unless escorted by someone from one of those two classes. They'd made a good number of friends, who they would spend time with during the weekends of the school year, and they'd become far more involved in school activities than they had in their previous lives. It was a very different experience. One they enjoyed. It felt good to take part in things, instead of sitting on the side and letting things slip by.

They'd already made arrangements to stay up at the camp again, with the same rules in place, though everyone was sure that the two of them wouldn't allow anything untoward happen there, and that if something did, they'd get help immediately. The only differences were that David was bringing his TRS-80 color computer and peripherals. The computer had the 32K memory option, something that David and Meri had talked their parents into having added. They shared the use of it throughout the summer. As with the previous year, they went to Utica and Hamilton Colleges and picked up the course books on the subjects they were going to be studying in the coming year.Though, this time they were able to drive themselves.

This year's focus was on US History, as they were enrolled in the school's AP US History Course for the next school year. The same was true for math, for which they had purchased both books on pre-calculus and calculus, though they wouldn't be taking Calculus until their senior year. Their other area of study was for Regents Physics and Chemistry. To cover those, they had purchased both 100 and 200 level course books for each. Both of them had enjoyed the sciences the first time around, and really looked forward to learning even more this time.

David also managed to find someone willing to teach him how to weld using various systems (primarily gas and MIG). Meri has no interest in this, but does decide to learn to play guitar. She found a used Yamaha Acoustic Model FG-335 with case and spare strings for $100. It turned out that our neighbors, the DeSilvas played and were willing to teach her, too. Oh, yeah. They sold her the guitar when they found out she was looking to buy one and learn to play. It wasn't long before she was playing simple tunes at the fire by the lake at night, singing with David and the friends they had there. The DeSilvas would join them on weekends. David was interested, but at this time he decided to stick with the welding and working on his accounting programs.

Meri's guitar playing eventually led to her playing at church, once a month as accompaniment to the choir and piano. She found she really enjoyed it, and by their senior year of school had gotten into playing most every Sunday service.

Once they returned home from camp, at the end of summer, David looked into getting certified as a welder. He had a log book detailing the work and hours he'd spent welding, and the type of welding he had done. Each entry was signed and dated by the person who had taught him. He'd not known it at the time, but his teacher had been a welding instructor, so getting his certification ended up being quite easy.