I have a Junior High story to tell.

There was a student I went to Jr. High with from Alabama. He was like a foreign exchange student in Carson City, Nevada. He had a southern accent, he dressed funny, and he said some, um, different things. Jarrell would say things like, “I ain’t gettin’ nekkid in no gym class.” when the rest of us would say, “I’m not showering.” In Junior High showering wasn’t a priority anyway because you’d rather smell like you’ve not showered after running three bazillion laps before playing a twelve hour flag football game than to expose your naked body to another human being. Especially if they might be naked, too. Jarrell just said it different.

Jarrell had feelings for several of the girls at school during his time as a ‘foreign exchanged’ student. He would go from talking about liking Katie, Jill or Julie to eating possum without blinking. We would tease him about stuff because being jerks was totally acceptable when you were doing it to a foreign exchange student. We loved to tease him for “fixin’ to do somethin'” or for mentioning things we thought were redneck. The said thing is that when I google various students names that I went to school with, they come up. But Jarrell’s doesn’t. I heard he’d moved back to Alabama. Maybe a gator got him, or maybe the Interwebs haven’t reached his part of the globe. Its hard to get the Internets into some trailor parks when the swamp lands hold dangerous venemous snakes. Or, maybe he’s still hiding from Jorge, the guy that also liked Katie.

Update: Oh my gosh! Paula Dean talks much like Jarrell. The Food Network hostess is on in the living room and its like Jarrell’s grandma is, “Hostin’ a cookin’ sha-ow.”