JAMIE TADYCH

My first memories of Jamie are from 7th grade. Was he with us in 6th grade as well? Perhaps. I don't know.

In 7th grade, about 25-30 of us had every single one of our classes together. But in a couple of classes (chorus, art and health) we had a few students that joined us. One of those students was Jamie Tadych.

Jamie seemed older than the rest of us. The reason for that is because he was. He was born in the summer of 1969. That made him more than two years older than me. Weird. As far as I know, other than Doug Wall (August, 1969) Jamie was the only other 1989'er who was born in the 1960's.

At the very beginning of 7th grade, Jamie was sitting in health class. He sat near the front. Jamie was a card carrying member of the black T-shirt crowd. He was wearing one this day. It was of a band that no one had ever heard of. Jenny Malley approached him and asked about the group. Jamie told her that they were great. Then he said, "No one has ever heard of them now... But they will." The band on his shirt was Motley Crue. I have to give Jamie kudos for that one.

Speaking of Motley Crue, I have a memory of Jamie and Doug Wall slapping their legs while singing "Looks That Kill" before chorus class one day.

Jamie's nickname was "Tex." I believe Jamie's parents owned Tex & Judy's bar. Jamie used to work there as well, and thus always had money - which he allegedly used to buy music.

Later that year, Jamie sat at the table next to me in Mr. Swokowski's art class. Stacy Taddy sat across from me. One day Stacy and I were reminiscing about TV reruns. We were having a ball talking about The Flintstones, Gilligan's Island and Sanford & Son. Jamie was sitting next to Stacy and decided to chime in as well. His contribution to our discusion - E/R. Yes, there was another show called E/R back in 1984. And even stranger, George Clooney was one of the stars. As to our discussion, Jamie didn't get it. Stacy and I were talking about old shows - classic shows. E/R didn't qualify. And Jamie was probably the only one in the country who watched that show. But what could I say to him? I just smiled and agreed. Jamie had a short fuse. And crossing him would have gotten me a punch in the arm.

Another incident happened in art class later in the year. And it also involved Stacy. At the beginning of the class, Mr. Swokowski made a huge announcement, warning us NOT to punch any holes (with a pencil) into this big bag of clay he had. Well, that statement was enough to make any troublemaker decide to do it. Sure enough, later in the class, a fresh puncture was discovered. And Swokowski flipped out. When he settled down and class got back to normal, both Stacy and Jamie told me that they had seen me do it, and were going to tell on me. This pissed me off! They had not seen anything. They were just being assholes. And no, they didn't tell. But if the absolute truth were known... I did do it. But no one had seen me. I was very sly and cautious. Strange, had Swokowski not warned us about it, putting a hole in that bag never would have crossed my mind.

In our sophomore year, Jamie sat in front of me in Mr. Noll's drivers' ed. class. One day I was turned to the side, talking to Richard. Suddenly I felt a slight tickle on my arm, which I thought was a fly. I elbowed my arm to make it go away. It turns out that it wasn't a fly. It was Jamie's hair. He was leaning back and stretching. I turned to Richard and said, "I'm about to get punched." Sure shit, a few seconds later, a swift strike to my arm came from Jamie.

I believe Jamie was in a lot of special education classes in highschool. But power to him. He did finish and graduate with us.

Sometime around 1990 or 1991, I ran into Doug Wall several times. Apparently he and Jamie hung out from time to time. He told me that Jamie had some sort of perverted relative - an uncle or something, who actually pulled down Jamie's pants, and measured his dick. Obviously I don't know if that's true. But it's a weird, interesting story nonetheless.

I ran into Jamie from time to time at the video store. We never said anything. He always seemd like he had a chip on his shoulder. And I wasn't going to try and knock it off. Jamie eventually married a woman named Karen. They have at least three children. I believe they live in Two Rivers to this day.