What Is A Head Green?

What is a Head Green?

When I went into the 7th grade, Corpus Christi ISD decided to institute busing to more fully integrate the schools.  As a result, I was bused to Martin Jr. High on the Westside which is predominately Hispanic.  I’ve always gotten along with about everyone I encounter; so it wasn’t a big deal.  For that matter, the ratio of Anglos to Hispanics on the Southside where I lived was about 50/50, so the environment of my new school was really about the same as the junior high down the street.

Well, there’s no doubt that a small 7th grader with red hair will stick out at whatever school he or she goes to.  Curse of the ginger. And this one guy, Miguel, just wouldn’t leave me alone.  I think it was a 9th grader hazing a 7th grader thing more than a white/brown thing, but who knows.  After lunch, Miguel liked to strike intimidating poses around me and say things like “What.”  To which I would say, “Nothing.”  Then it escalated to him deciding to call me a rooster.  I’ll concede that you could draw some parallels between my striking red hair and a cockscomb.  

I didn’t like where this whole post-lunch thing was going, and the more he called me a rooster, the more it pissed me off, but there’s no doubt that if a fight ensued, I would take a brutal beating.  One day Miguel was staring at me, and I had enough.  I looked at him and said, “What! Is my head green?”  Now, Miguel should have said, “No, you’re head’s red, rooster.”  I don’t think I would’ve had a snappy retort for that, but instead he just clinched both fists and made a beeline for me.  Not good.

As I braced for my pounding, miracle of miracles, Roger Martinez, a 9th grade tuba player from the neighborhood, raced across the schoolyard and pancaked Miguel to the ground right in front of my eyes.  As Roger laid on top of Miguel, he told him not to mess with me anymore.  Roger had 9th grade “street cred,” and my lunch had just gotten a lot better.  My mom had told me that playing in the band would benefit someday.  As an aside, the Martin Jr. High Marching Band played in the Buccaneer Days Parade that year, and our showstopper finale was Play That Funky Music White Boy by Wild Cherry.    

I’ve always thought of “head green” as a euphemism for being different.  We all have our out of place, head green moments, and if you see it happening to someone, try to be their Roger.     

Thanks Axl Rose...

Where did those crazy "Forget Met Not" lyrics come from?

“Axl Rose don’t leave me now
Need your advice 
You’ve got the eyes of bluest skies 
Called on Cheap Trick 
To find the words for a quick fix, 
And if you want my love, you got it . . .”

It was early 1987, and music was my life. It seems like my friends and I went to the record store every day in our never ending search to find the next great band. One day I was thumbing through the albums (an immensely satisfying activity that has sadly been lost) and came upon an album called Live?!*@ Like a Suicide by some band that I had never heard of named Guns N’ Roses. As I flipped it back and forth examining everything on the front and back cover, I decided this was a band I needed to check out, but it was a 4-song EP and Hastings Records wanted $10 for it. There was no way I was paying that much for 4 songs. I continued to look at it every time I went to the record store but could never pull the trigger.

Then, one day in the summer of 1987, I walked over to the record bins, started at the A’s as usual and when I got the G’s, what do you know, this band that had been trying to rip me off for 4 songs over the past 6 months had a full length album. It was call Appetite for Destruction, and it looked good. It had a cool cover, great song titles like “Welcome to the Jungle” and “You’re Crazy” and, best of all, it had 12 songs. Sold. I love, loved this album. It’s the only thing I would listen to, and it was like they were my own secret band, because no one knew who they were.

In the meantime, I was also in love. At the end of junior high, I had fallen for a girl named Donna Beauchamp. Her favorite band was Cheap Trick, and she sat near me in band class. I played the saxophone and she played the flute. I asked her to “go around” at summer church camp, and for some reason, she said yes.

As the fall of 1987 came around, I felt like I needed some kind of profession of love, but what? I knew the answer, a love poem. I sat down with pen and paper but was unsure how to begin. I had never written a poem much less a love poem, and I don’t think I had ever read one either. I might have known a limerick, but that’s about it. Then it came to me. Axl knows how to talk to women. I’ll just borrow and few choice lines from him, and no one would ever be the wiser since nobody knew who the hell this band was anyway. 

My poem began:
"She’s got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything was a fresh as the bright blue sky" . . . perfect!

I continued with my own prose thereafter, but truth be told, I probably should have stuck with I presented the poem to my sweet Donna who, of course, was touched by this heartfelt outpouring of love. She looked at me and said, “You know you’re the second person I’ve ever loved.” I was bit taken aback, “Who was first!” She said, “Robin Zander.” I was okay with it. 

It was not until almost a year later that Donna approached with a wry smile, poem in one hand, the other on her hip. She said two words, “Really, Axl.” "Sweet Child O’ Mine" was about to go to number 1 on the Billboard Charts. They were no longer my secret band, and I was so busted. 

She married me anyway.

-Cliff