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Up at 6 a.m. for morning formation (I still can remember hearing those drum cadences like it was yesterday) and breakfast, which was followed by a solid eight hours of school.
You had from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. to chill with friends (if you had any) or maybe go down to the snack hall for a Coke. There might be a pickup baseball or football game once a week.
After dinner, there was a strictly-enforced two-hour study period. You at your desk, head buried in your homework, but your mind wandering elsewhere.
When that was over, you had one hour to get yourself in bed. It was no problem falling right to sleep -- just so you would be ready for tomorrow's 6 a.m. wake-up call.
Each day, your shoes had to be gleaming as brightly as your brass and any medals that you may have received.
It was a simple routine, but if you failed at any of it or didn't follow exactly the rules the academy had laid out, you were handed a demerit. A demerit was something that you had to work off.
If the demerits were not 'handled' immediately, that person was not permitted to leave the school for the weekend.
In most cases, many kids didn't mind staying instead of spending the weekend at home. I found out quickly that if you did leave, it made it harder to come back.
Although the going was rough, there were some good elements about the place, like a post office. It was best known for receiving care packages for the kids from their families.
The packages mostly consisted of junk food, socks and underwear, and anything else that might occupy some free time.
The school also left you in charge of your own laundry. Every Wednesday, you took your bag and dropped it off at the mat and picked up some fresh gear. The snack hall had a few video games and a television.
All of this was actually exciting to us, as we had a bit of responsibility for ourselves. That was the whole purpose: to learn to take care of yourself.
The most aggravating thing about my time at Oak Ridge was saluting every damn body. For me and most of my friends, it seemed like that's all we did. You'd dare not forget to salute your superior officers. Everyone at the school had rank --just like the military.
I never made it past corporal, which wasn't much at all. They didn't necessarily hand out higher rank like Kleenex, but half of the population was to be saluted or, guess what, "Here, have a demerit, Junior."
One of the more enjoyable times came during the the winter. It got dark at 9 p.m. and close to 12 inches of snow covered the ground this Saturday night. I stood on the front lawn of my dorm along with the rest of the fellas.
Army Dorm was home to the higher officers, mostly seniors, and we planned to travel the 200 yards there undetected.
Once inside, we were to destroy every room, turning over beds and filling each with as much toilet paper as possible. Little did we know that our plans had been leaked.
As we crossed the street into the yard, 100 much larger students seemingly came from out of nowhere. It was like some movie - as if they came right out of the ground. They had been lying on the snowy ground, clothed in white, and we never saw them 'til it was too late.
We all got our asses kicked, but it was fun. We never did get them back, but it seemed like the enjoyment they got out of whoopin' us kids replaced the continuous handout of demerits.
I left Oak Ridge to be a freshman at Mooresville (N.C.) Senior High with more normal kids (although in some cases, I would argue that point).
I will always believe that I was 10 times the person after that experience. Good and bad, it made me smarter, stronger, and less likely to get my ass kicked.
My two cents,
Dale Jr.
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