Shoom33 – Shoom

1989

The first day of kindergarten I was scarred and sad. I didn’t want to leave my mom. I remember crying at the door of the kindergarten room (which was an outside mobile trailer.) Before my mom dropped me off I remember asking my mom how will I make friends. and she replied just be yourself and you will make friends.

We were learning the letters of the alphabet. One letter at a time we would go over a letter. The first one was M. On the paper there would be a little character of the letter; each being different. The letter R was shooting rubber bands and was rude. I was disgusted by R and had some type of child anxiety because my last name started with R. I don’t know if I ever told anybody, but for a while the R sound was borderline taboo to me because of the influence of that paper, still to this day, I don’t care for the letter R and picture that jerk R unnecessarily shooting rubberbands at people

I have had A LOT of stupid things happen to me. To the point where I sometimes wonder why don’t these things happen to everyone at such velocity.

After one of my dad’s basketball games that he coached; I was playing in the playground at Jefferson Morgan school. I thought it was raining and I started to dance in the rain. I started to happily announce I was dancing in the rain, when a parent came running to kid who was above me in the playground peeing themself. Then I had to ride home in the back right seat of the car on the way home. I remember feeling stupid and gross knowing what just happened and being covered in some kids pee.

While the rest of my family sat in chairs around the kitchen table, I sat on a stepping stool ladder and was always much higher up than everyone else. I never really questioned it and continued sitting there until I moved out after graduating college.

As I got older I began to distance myself from some of the more childish things I enjoyed in an attempt to be more cool. I was hoping to rid of the nickname that I had enjoyed since the 3rd grade; “Snoopy” Public hand flapping was starting to become a problem. Sometimes other kids would see me flapping my hands and would either ask me what I was doing or would call me names.

I was very excited about playing drums and would tap my little drum parts with my hands and fingers almost everywhere I went. Pretty much every teacher I had in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade had to tell me to stop tapping in class. I had figured that it was better to get in a little trouble in class for tapping than to have a random outburst of hand flaps; so that became the plan.

December 31st On I went to my granny’s for Christmas. My granny got me the Babar stuffed animal which was one of my favorites.

1990

Towards the end of kindergarten we were taught to not be a litter bug. One kid in the class had a hard time making periods. He would make them very big and the teacher told him not to and he just couldn’t stop doing it. He was held back to Jr 1st instead of 1st grade. I did not know that this was a thing.

I got a cat and named it Midnight

Jimmy went to a friend’s house so my parents let me rent a video game to play with. I rented Dick Tracy, I was very excited to play it. It was a friday night. I couldn’t figure out how to get past the home screen of the game and tried everything. My parents walked me down to our neighbors where the cool, older neighbor came over and pointed out that it was plugged into the controller 2 spot. After it was working I felt so stupid.

December My parents gave me a birthday party at Pizza Hut in Waynesburg. Patrick Braddock noticed there was something under his seat or plate. So he switched with me. Shortly after the pizza hut worker asked everyone to look who had the different seat. It was me since Pat switched me and I won a prize for the game. Pat didn’t care and was happy for me.

1991

I set my bedroom up as a classroom for Jordan. I had my own school for him where I gave him test.

There was a storm drill at school; we had to calmly stand up from our desks and then slowly form a line and walk into the hallway. As the drill was finishing and we formed a new line to the water fountain. While waiting I said the word three for some reason and another kid asked me why I couldn’t say three. They tried to help me say the word correctly, but it didn’t click with me. They repeated the word to me like I was a baby. This is my earliest memory of someone repeating a word to me, trying to help me speak better. I had a really hard with some letter combinations and TH was one of them. I would say fwee instead. I remember being very confused about it, but it wasn’t any big deal.

I went to Robert Gooden’s house to play. He lived in a trailer and his parent gave me iced tea to drink. It was the first time I ever tried tea and thought it was disgusting. (because it is) I didn’t try tea again until in my late 20’s

June I got the chicken pox

June my great grandparents had their 70th wedding anniversary party. All of my family from my dad’s side was there.

I took swimming lessons during the summer

I wanted to write a book, it was called “power back.”

I liked to draw a lot, mostly cats, cartoons, and strange creatures.

I really liked Gi Joes and collecting Marvel trading cards

I became interested in astronomy and wanted to be an astronomer. I started to wonder about the universe.

I had a weird feeling that I was an alien.

I told my mom that I wanted to call shooming, “thinking” instead. No one knew what shooming was, thinking made more sense to others.

My mom said that sometimes it was hard to get in the bathroom because I would spend so much time shooming or thinking in there.

There was a new kid on the bus for the beginning of 2nd grade. Randy Runyan, who lived a couple streets away from me. Randy was from Colorado and was super nice, e. We would ride bikes, explore the neighbor hood, and play with Gi Joes. Our bus driver, Ralph would call Randy “Colorado” which then became his nickname.

There was a girl in the neighborhood I had a crush on and one day Randy invited her and her sister to play with us. I basically lost the ability to talk the entire time we played. This was probably some of the first super, unnecessary, awkward moments in my life.

I threw up at the school Halloween party dressed as a ninja

I started to play basketball in the little league

1992

I had surgery done remove my tonsils and adenoids. I weighed 48lbs before the surgery was done. When I was falling asleep from the sleeping gas I had a vision of the main bad guys in the mario bros 2 video game. When I woke up I was in a bed, Mcguyver was on tv and the Hogan family was there with my parents to wish me well. The Hogan’s and my dad’s basketball team got me “Fantasia” on vhs and a bucket of army men as a gift. Although I could have anything on the hospital food menu I wanted my mom’s orange soda, which she gladly let me have. Me and my mom stayed at my granny’s house for a week as aI recovered. My mom bought me the board games guess who and stratego. I remember having a really good time that week.

August my cat Midnight went missing and never came back. My mom walked with me and we knocked on doors asking if anyone had seen it.

August my friend Randy was moving away

August my friend Caleb was moving away

I became friends with Dana.

I started to watch the Ernest movies

I started playing in the little league soccer program

I became friends with David

In third grade; the class would get into the two rows and have multiplication card contests. One row of kids vs. the other row. Simple math problems were one of my specialties so I would know the answer as soon I would see the card. For the first time (and only) I was the smartest kid in the room. On top of this, the winning team got to pick a prize from some random prize box my teacher had made. All of this was very exciting to me. I remember standing in line waiting for my turn, flapping my hands in class, and other kids asking me why I would shake my arms. I don’t remember it being mean, more so they were confused.

I started drawing snoopy very frequently and started collecting anything snoopy. A few of my friends started calling me snoopy as a nickname which stuck around for a few years.

I was my younger brother’s hero this year and he would wait for me to come home from school.

I dressed up as snake eyes for halloween.

My grandma got me a cassette player for my birthday and I started to listen to Christmas music on tapes

My mom said I still shoomed a lot and joked that my legs were going to be strong from all of the jumping.

I pulled santa’s beard down in Mrs Monas’s class. I got in a little bit of trouble and I did not get the bag of M & M’s like the other kids, but it was worth confirming that he was not real and I was being played.

I got a bed- chair for christmas that became my bed and chair everywhere in the house.

1993

I was the only 3rd grader to make the 4th grade basketball team.

I started to really like green apples

Kokomo by the beach boys was my favorite song.

I really liked staying up late watching movies and wating doritos. I would get very emotional before bed and would often cry to my mom about the day ending.

Since the door in my room didn’t really lock, I made the bathroom the primary shooming room.

I started to wear a mouth piece to fix my jaw.

The summer of 93 I learned how to ride my bike.

I attended a baseball camp that I didn’t enjoy; I also attended a basketball camp at the college and I didn’t really care for either. But… then my parents let me go to the little delite restaurant for lunch. I would get a footlong hot dog with onions and a can of pop. I liked going for lunch so much that I thought the camp was awesome.

I played soccer in the league program again

My mom and dad could hear me jumping up and down in the bathroom sometimes even”shooting bad guys” She thought maybe I would grow up to be an actor or a sheriff

I had to have my room clean, especially the floors.

1994

I played on the school’s 4th grade basketball team. I played point guard and went 5-1

I won the mile run in the 4th grade of East Franklin school

I played baseball and was on the best team. This was the first year that kids pitched to other kids. We had the best pitcher in the league on our team, Lee Fritz. He was really good, but learning and I took a couple of his fast balls to the face during practice. Bloody noses and tears on my end. I was so bad this year that I felt proud when I got walked onto base. My coaches never wanted me to swing which made it only more clear they thought I sucked. Although our team got first place I did not enjoy the hot scratchy pants in the heat and I clearly wasn’t an all star so at the end of the season my baseball career had ended.

I signed up to play the trumpet in the school band. My parents had rented me one and I was very excited. I wasn’t very good and I didn’t like buzzing my lips into the metal mouth piece. I learned how to play the base notes and some simple songs. I would practice in my bedroom and sounds of horror blasted.

I bought the Boyz II Men II cassette and listened to it non stop.

I played in the local soccer league. There were games every sunday thoughout the fall.

Starting Middle school at MBM

Me and James Raddish had to class partners in Mr. Corella’s science class. We both made fun of each other and then became best friends. I told him he was crossed eyed, I forget what he called or told me.

Mrs. Jacobs read my English class a book called Nancy and Plum. I remember thinking that the book was great and enjoyed listening to her read it. Her copy was very beat up and she mentioned how it was hard to find. To this day I think about getting a copy of it and sending to her somehow. My mom got me snoopy plush christmas gifts for me to give my teachers.

1995

Towards the end of May me, my mom, and Doug Mason, the new middle school band director briefly met. We told Mr. Mason that I didn’t really like playing the trumpet. Mr. Mason said that if I got private lessons for the snare drum I could switch to drums.

May 25th I came in 3rd place for the Hershey’s 800 meter run 3:11

June I started private snare drum lessons with Dave Coldren, at his music studio, called moonlight studios a few stories up in a building downtown Waynesburg.

I played cymbals for the middle school band for the 4th of July parade in downtown Waynesburg.

July I bought Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morisette on cd. This was the first cd I bought.

I played in the local soccer league. There were games every sunday thoughout the fall.

When school started and the marching band got started I was moved onto bass drum. I was very excited about this.

I became good friends with Heath Wood

December 14th I performed in the 5th and 6th grade Winter concert for band and chorus.

I played on the school’s 5th & 6th grade basketball team. I played point guard and went undefeated.

1996

I played on the 6th grade all star basketball team. My dad and Mr. Nicholson were the coaches. I was the point guard, we had red t shirts as jerseys. We played in a tournament in West Virginia where we went undefeated and took won first place.

I played in the local soccer league. There were games every sunday thoughout the fall.

Chris Evans decided to move me to snare drum in the marching band for my 7th grade year.

My mom took me to Drum World in Castle Shannon to get my drum set. It was a black Mapex kit, that was not the Pearl Export I wanted, but I liked the way it sounded.

Mr. Mason brought in another percussion instructor from WVU. Mr. Haleem was from Africa, He wore penny loafer shoes and had an afro with a comb in it. He had an extra pep to his walk and was very nice and extremely talented at the marimba. He wowed me when he played.

September 30th The Waynesburg band competed in The Buckwheat Festival is Kingston, WV. We got first place

October 28th my great grandfather, Paul M. Romanakis died at the age of 106.

I played on the 7th and 8th grade basketball team. I didn’t get to play much and it was the first year I didn’t enjoy playing.

December 18th was the 7th grade winter band concert.

1997

I started climbing into the ceiling of the school.

May 13th was the 6th and 7th grade Band Concert

July 12th was the Mountaineer Music Camp’s Final Concert. We performed “Africa” by toto and I played the congas

July 14th was the first day band camp for drums and percussion.

The waynesburg band went to Jackson’s Mill in West Virginia for a 2 week long band camp.

September 30th The Waynesburg band competed in The Buckwheat Festival is Kingston, WV. We got first place

October 30th I performed in the Waynesburg Halloween Parade.

December 16th was the Winter Band Concert. I performed with the other 8th graders.

1998

Towards the end of 8th grade came there were only two kids left who hadn’t completed speech class. A kid named Dirk Smitley and myself. I would walk down to the speech classroom and spend almost a full class length there. One day I will never forget was when I showed up for speech class and the teacher said that Dirk was not coming because he had completed the class. I remember sitting at the table realizing I was the only kid in my grade who couldn’t speak correctly and maybe I was actually the dumbest kid in my grade.

May I went on the 8th grade field trip to Kennywood Park. Before we left, my band Green and White Fish performed for the 7th and 8th grade. This was a our first show and we played Smells Like Teen Spirit, Dammit, and Sex and Candy. Ryan Hampton our singer got nervous before the show and wanted to bail. I pressured him into continuing. josh played guitar sitting down.

I joined Columbia House where you got 20 cds for around $100, but you had to buy from their catalog. It was advertised as getting 11 cds for 11 cents and then you would have to buy 10 for the regular price.

The marching band went to Jackson’s Mill in West Virginia for band camp for a couple weeks. I was now in the high school band and was shy, because I was much younger than everyone else.

The marching band had additional band camp days at the school and there was a new kid that moved to Waynesburg from Trinity who played drums. I remember being told he was really good. This kid was Chris Clutter. We immediately became good friends.

September 15th The marching band performed in the Band Spectacular at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown.

September 21st I received a letter from American Musical Ambassadors inviting me to perform in Europe.

September 30th The Waynesburg band competed in The Buckwheat Festival is Kingston, WV. We got first place

Sometime in the fall I had to tell Ryan that he couldn’t be in the band anymore. Me, Josh, and Jimi had been playing 5-6 days a week and he hadn’t. He was upset and our friendship was never the same.

Travis Shiftko started playing guitar and singing with us. He had previously played in a band with my friend Cody Smith.

I had Ms. Boros for advanced algebra / Algebra II. Math got real weird. Every question was in the form of a short undeveloped story. There were word problems before, but now with the algebra variables. It should have been more of a philosophy class on why the society had such a trading dilemma. I remember wanting to ask if she knew where these example characters are from. Their location would be a huge factor in the equation. Most of the other kids were in their junior year of school.

Winter Band Concert?

1999

March 20th My mom took me, Jimi, and Josh to Drum World in Castle Shannon, PA. Stephen Perkins, the drummer of Jane’s Addiction/Porno for Pyros was there for a promotion. We got our pictures taken with him, got his autograph, and told him about our band. He was really nice.

May 3rd was Waynesburg high School band banquet.

May 7th I started dating April Carrigan. James Raddish, my best friend arranged the whole deal.

May 21st was the Waynesburg High School Band Spring concert.

My math plan for Ms. Boros’s class took a turn for the worst when I failed the final exam which than gave me F overall. This was the only class I ever failed.

After the last day of school I Went to Abby Church’s house with a bunch of friends to go swimming. My mom picked me up and I had to tell her about my F on my report card. Both of my parents were very concerned, but rational about it.

The waynesburg band went to Jackson’s Mill in West Virginia for a 2 week long band camp.

July 20th I went to the Vans Warped Tour at the IC Light Amphitheatre

September 25th Passive Shadows played our first show at Ryerson State Park for the Arts in the Park battle of the bands. We got 2nd out of 3 bands. Optical Illusion and 7’77 were the other bands.

September 30th The Waynesburg band competed in The Buckwheat Festival is Kingston, WV. We got first place

October 30th I performed at the Bands of America Regional Championship at West Virginia University.

Dec 31st I stayed at my Granny’s house during Y2K

2000

March 28thish Passive Shadows opened for Froglodge at the Waynesburg Elks Club. My girlfriend, April secretly stayed over my house that night.

April 11th I went with the band to Walt Disney World

July 18th I went to the Vans Warped Tour at the IC Light Amphitheatre

July 19th Passive Shadows played at the Jacktown Fair Battle of Bands. Froglodge won the show which was no surprise. Optical Illusion and MRC also played.

July 29th I went with Josh and Jimi to see Froglodge play at the Rainday Festival in Waynesburg. They played and won in the battle of bands.

The waynesburg band went to Jackson’s Mill in West Virginia for a 2 week long band camp.

On a friday night I went to Troy Hill VFW to get tickets and flyers for the Club Laga battle of bands

November 11th Passive Shadows became Almost Cool officially at Club Laga for Exposure Battle of the bands by ROR concerts.

December 7th was the Waynesburg High School Winter Choral Concert where I performed in the classic show choir. They put my brother’s name in the flyer instead of mine.

December 29th Almost Cool hosted a Holiday Bash at the Waynesburg VFW. Even though Froglodge was bigger and better they agreed to open to help us out. 3 Miles Down from Pittsburgh also agreed to come down and join the bill.

2001

January 27th Almost Cool played Joker Productions Battle of bands at Club Laga. 16 bands competed, we got 8th place.

My mom made me custom soft drum cases for my drum set.

March 30th Almost Cool hosted a show at the Waynesburg VFW. Punchline was headlining with Almost Cool and Despite Best Intentions opening the show. The Waynesburg College paper did an article on the show. Josh got in a fight with his brother, he threw his guitar off mid set and fought him. This is recorded on audio cassette.

James Raddish spent the night after the the show and we got up early I took the SAT’s

March 31st Almost Cool played in the championship round of the Pancake battle of the bands which had been going on for months. Josh was grounded so even though I didn’t really know how to play guitar, I tried so we could play and make the $500 for 2nd place. We would have won the whole thing if Josh didn’t get grounded. My friend Jeff Hartley played drums and we put together a quick set.

The waynesburg band went to Jackson’s Mill in West Virginia for a 2 week long band camp.

July 19th Almost Cool played the Jacktown Fair Battle of bands and lost to Optical Illusion

July 29th Almost Cool played the Rain Day Battle of the Bands and lost to Optical Illusion.

August 2nd I went to the Vans Warped tour for the 3rd year in a row. I went with Jimi and Josh again. It was at the IC Light Amphitheatre. I saw Jimmy Eat World play a full set for the first time. Bleed American had just been released. I also watched the sets of The Bouncing Souls, The Dropkick Murphys, Fenix TX, Less Than Jake, The Ataris, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Alien Ant Farm, The Vandals, and Thursday.

August Almost Cool has our CD Release show at the Waynesburg VFW with Punchline, A Week in July, and Treephort.

I took a college class understanding media via through camera with 2 or 3 other students.

I started working at McDonald’s. Wendy gave me an interview. She didn’t care I had blue hair. Jimi was working there already. We got one free meal per shift and a discount up to so much whenever.

September 11th I was in my Senior English class when on September 11th 2 planes flew into the world trade center buildings in New York. A plane also crashed into the pentagon and one crashed a couple hours east of Waynesburg. Everyone was in a panic and I remember telling my friends that we didn’t have to worry because we lived in the rural country. Our school nurse had a son that worked at the WTCs and one that worked at the pentagon. I remember being worried for her. They stopped school and turned on the televisions for everyone to watch the news, it was the only time they ever did that. After school my dad was helping me fix something on a car when we saw a plane fly over. This was significant because the air travel was banned except for military/ government. It was most likely Air Force One heading to camp david.

Almost Cool played at a 911 benefit show at the Brentwood VFW.

October 1st Almost Cool played a battle of the bands at Waynesburg College. Funkalicious also played

October 12th I went to the Punchline CD release show at Club Laga in Oakland.

October 15th my great grandma who had immigrated from Greece, Mary K. Romanakis died at the age of 95.

December 2nd a day before my birthday, my friends gave me a surprise birthday party for my 18th birthday.

December 21st Almost Cool played at the Waynesburg VFW with Despite Best Intentions and Funkalicious.

2002

April 13th Almost Cool performed in Joker Productions guitar center rock off at Club Laga. There were 15 bands. We got 5th place overall. 2nd in stage presence, 3rd in industry potential, musical content, and crowd response. It was this show where we met Pat and After Curfew.

After school when I would get off the bus, me and josh would talk at the bottom of my hill for a while. Then I would either walk or run up the hill (maple alley) to my house. This was very routine

I began to cut Ms. Neubaurer’s grass

I did my senior project on the Copyright Law for recording music. I made everything up and kept using the cd that my band had recorded and got copyrighted as proof I knew what I was talking about.