Today, they would be called geeks and it would be a badge of honor. Back then, nobody called them anything. Without thinking why, I fell in with them: John Hollis, Ken Neville, Jimmy Jeter, Bunny Michel and Joe Greer - a little club.
I felt a kind of connection with them. They liked to read science fiction and Mad magazine, and so did I. But then, they liked to build and fly model airplanes, and I didn't.
John Hollis was the smartest. Nobody realized this until he was announced a Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist, our senior year. His father was probably an engineer. That's what everybody said. John was always propounding theories and laughing about them. I first heard about Galaxy Science Fiction from him; and "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke.
All those guys were smart. They read advanced science and math without being made to. One afternoon, while I was on my paper route, going down Belmont Boulevard, I ran into Jeter, with this wild grin on his face, like he had a great secret in him. He said, "Did you ever wonder why nothing can go faster than the speed of light?" I said, yeah. He said, "Me, too, man," and walked on down the street.
What can I say about Bunny Michel? He was Woody Allen before Woody Allen was. And Joe Greer's pastime of an afternoon was catching flies with his hands.
But Neville was the guy. I used to sit in study hall with him. With his fingers on one hand, he would make a monster - a tentacled beast from 20,000 fathoms - which would lie in wait just beneath the table top. Then, with two fingers of his other hand, he would portray an unsuspecting person, finger-walking right past the spot where the monster lurked. At the last minute, the thing would spring suddenly out and engulf the finger person. Neville worked his digits masterfully to show the beast in the act of devouring his victim. And then it crawled back under the table again to wait.
He did this every day, with the same silly grin when the thing sprang out. And, every day, it was funny.
