Note: My short-lived attendance at Ricks College in the small town of Rexburg, Idaho twenty years ago was a defining stage of my life. Mostly for unpleasant reasons. Taking an extremely impulsive anarchist skate punk from California and putting them in the Rexburg of 1986, what can you expect? My being an 18-year-old with the maturity of a 9-year-old didn’t help, either. But it was in Rexburg that I fell in love with photography and abandoned my academic career to follow my passion.

These entries are written from the journals I kept when I was 18. Of course, at 38 today, I do not advocate any of the illegal activity discussed here. -Trent

Monday, October 20, 1986

At night, Kay, Larry, Ray, Drake, and I went out. We took paint pens, spray paint, stencils, etc. Read the press release for details:

Richard Stallings Idaho’s Congressman

Contact: Melodie Rydalch Phone: 234-1986

For Immediate Release:

POCATELLO – Sallee Gasser, campaign manager for Congressman Richard Stallings, is joining representatives of other candidates in expressing disappointment in the number of political signs being damaged or destroyed by vandals.

Mrs. Gasser says Stallings signs in several counties have been damaged. “These signs are expensive, and community residents have volunteered many hours to put them in place. It’s disheartening to have them damaged.”

Mrs. Gasser says she believes the damage is not being done by representatives of other campaigns, but may be the work of pranksters of vandals.

Note: My short-lived attendance at Ricks College in the small town of Rexburg, Idaho twenty years ago was a defining stage of my life. Mostly for unpleasant reasons. Taking an extremely impulsive anarchist skate punk from California and putting them in the Rexburg of 1986, what can you expect? My being an 18-year-old with the maturity of a 9-year-old didn’t help, either. But it was in Rexburg that I fell in love with photography and abandoned my academic career to follow my passion.

These entries are written from the journals I kept when I was 18. Of course, at 38 today, I do not advocate any of the illegal activity discussed here. -Trent

Sunday, October 19, 1986

I was awakened early this morning to the sound of Tom and Charlie cheering maniacally to the football game on television. I was ready to kill. From the start of the day, I wanted to axe that TV.

When I first moved in over a month ago, I brought my TV from home. But I forgot the remote control, and roommate Larry also had a TV, so we loaned mine out to the guys in #19. I had my mom mail the remote to me and when it arrived I figured it would be a great gag to play on the guys in #19. We stood outside their window with the remote while they were watching TV and started raising the volume. They would get up and turn it down, then we would turn it down. After a couple of times it got boring so I changed the channel on them. That’s when they got up and starting pounding on my television. We ended the joke right there.

Now that I was awake, thanks to the sorry sport of football, I got up and made a bunch of Krusteaz pancakes. I wanted to go to Idaho Falls, but was talked out of it (luckily). I would have just wasted a bunch of money that I would soon need. We went to Kmart, browsed around, then to Dairy Queen for a free cone with a coupon we had. We got back and sat around for a while, trying to figure out how to get rid of Larry’s TV.

We ended up typing up a contract to lease Larry’s TV to Ray’s apartment (#13). We unplugged it right in the middle of another football game, interrupting Tom’s viewing pleasure. He was so pissed off. It was great, peace and quiet! I got my TV back from #19, and put it in my room.

Tensions between roommates Larry and Tom are growing. Even though they were high school friends, and drove out here thousands of miles in Larry’s car, and share a room together, the relationship is dissolving very quickly. The other day Larry was in the shower moaning loudly, taunting Tom who Larry claimed he caught rubbing one out. They got into a loud argument, Tom accusing Larry of the same thing. There are six people in our apartment’s three rooms. Bob and I now share a room after switching. But now there just aren’t enough rooms to separate people who are starting to hate each other. I’m lucky. Bob and I get a long very well.

Ray and I went to Sugar City. We filled up at the Maverik there. By filling up, I mean we filled up the gas tank and drove off quickly. If you’re going to stick it to the man, it might as well be a redneck.

At around 11pm, Kay (#19), Larry, Drake, and I walked down and looked at cars at the Pontiac dealer down the road. To our surprise, they keep the doors unlocked on all the new cars. We all picked our favorite color and sat in a new Fiero. It was pretty cool.

Note: My short-lived attendance at Ricks College in the small town of Rexburg, Idaho twenty years ago was a defining stage of my life. Mostly for unpleasant reasons. Taking an extremely impulsive anarchist skate punk from California and putting them in the Rexburg of 1986, what can you expect? My being an 18-year-old with the maturity of a 9-year-old didn’t help, either. But it was in Rexburg that I fell in love with photography and abandoned my academic career to follow my passion.

These entries are written from the journals I kept when I was 18. Of course, at 38 today, I do not advocate any of the illegal activity discussed here. -Trent

Saturday, October 18, 1986

I got up today and went to the mall in Idaho Falls with Erin and Tammi. More like I drove them there. That’s what I realized later on. We got there at 1:00 and planned to meet at 3pm. That’s right, we split up to shop. And they just hated the GBH tape I was playing on the way down. I guess they just aren’t fans of UK punk rock. I had to turn it off two songs in.

I went to the arcade “Gold Mine” and then to Burger King for a $1.03 special (a water and two plain burgers), then proceeded to “Conant’s Landing,” an army surplus store. I bought an army jacket to paint and an urban camo handerkerchief. A total of $10. I then went to the mall and picked up Erin and Tammi. We went home, minus the GBH.

I went over to Ray’s and we went down and played some Gauntlet. We did good together then we came back and offered Tom that we’d move his Barbarian character in our D&D game up two levels for $5. He agreed. We took the money back and played more Gauntlet.

(38: Hey 18, good ploy for cash. I was just playing Gauntlet this morning on Xbox Live. The kids today have no idea of strategy, charging blindly into packs of ghosts while their health meters drop like stones. You would love it.)

Stupid idea of the night involved a couple of the guys stealing a check from Charlie’s room. They then forged the check at the grocery store, buying a bunch of frozen pizza and cokes. I drove them, and knew what was going on. In on it, without mentioning who actually signed the check: Bob, Larry, and Ray. I have a feeling this is going to come back to haunt us.

We then played D&D until 3am.

Note: My short-lived attendance at Ricks College in the small town of Rexburg, Idaho twenty years ago was a defining stage of my life. Mostly for unpleasant reasons. Taking an extremely impulsive anarchist skate punk from California and putting them in the Rexburg of 1986, what can you expect? My being an 18-year-old with the maturity of a 9-year-old didn’t help, either. But it was in Rexburg that I fell in love with photography and abandoned my academic career to follow my passion.

These entries are written from the journals I kept when I was 18. Of course, at 38 today, I do not advocate any of the illegal activity discussed here. -Trent

Friday, October 17, 1986

After just a few hours of sleep, I got up for my 8am Composition class. I felt like crap. I turned in my paper and read a few others. When I got back to #20, I went to sleep. I didn’t get up again until 12:30. I took a shower and went to lunch. I’ve got a meal card that gets me two meals a day at the cafeteria. Almost always it’s lunch and dinner.

After lunch, Erin called and asked if I wanted to go to Idaho Falls tomorrow. I told her I did.

I was driving around near D.I. and I saw SNFU-Shoe. I stopped and we planned to meet at the cafeteria at 5pm. I gave him, Tina, and Mark a ride to Broulim’s. Then I went up to the school and watched two news programs. I went to the arcade and played some games. Then I went to dinner. I met SNFU-Shoe and we talked for a while. I found out that he went to school in Magrath, across the street from my grandmother’s house. Very cool coincidence.

We drove over to Tina’s, in the girls’ dorms. Their apartment has the best “decor” around. They have a Freddy Kruger cutout and a mannequin and a bunch of other crap. I met Tina, Pam, Debbie, and Mary. All except Mary are cool.

We sat around there and decided that later on we would go to a party at B’s house. B hates me but likes SNFU-Shoe, who hates her, along with me.

Back to #20, where I ran in and ran out so that no one would see me. I was supposed to DM a game of D&D at 5 o’clock, but I’d rather hang with punks (or what passes for them here in Idaho). My roommates were still there, but none of them saw me. We went back up to Tina’s and waited a couple hours for Tina.

Then we loaded nine people into my tiny Honda Civic and went to B’s. We pulled up and B was terribly nervous. I just sat in a chair so she couldn’t blame anything on me. People were drinking and Ryan (a Rexburgite) was passing around some “Rush”, which a lot of people were sniffing. What a joke.

I gave Davin and his chick a ride to the lame dance club, Galleria. I went back to #20, but then decided to go back. I eventually met up with everyone at the Galleria. I saw a beautiful girl who called herself Spider. She reminded me of Ann M from high school, with black hair wearing all black with a pale face. She’s still in high school. I only danced once. Mostly I just sat there. These dance clubs are so pathetic. My first weekend in Rexburg, I went to The Connection with roommate Charlie. I couldn’t believe how many varsity jackets I saw, and people dancing to the “hits.” I thought I had transported to an alternate reality where the populace worshiped the Tom Cruise movie Top Gun and tried to dress like the characters in the film. Oh wait, I did. It’s called Rexburg, Idaho, 1986.

When the Galleria closed we went back to B’s. People were just sitting around, so I went home and to bed.

Note: My short-lived attendance at Ricks College in the small town of Rexburg, Idaho twenty years ago was a defining stage of my life. Mostly for unpleasant reasons. Taking an extremely impulsive anarchist skate punk from California and putting them in the Rexburg of 1986, what can you expect? My being an 18-year-old with the maturity of a 9-year-old didn’t help, either. But it was in Rexburg that I fell in love with photography and abandoned my academic career to follow my passion.

These entries are written from the journals I kept when I was 18. Of course, at 38 today, I do not advocate any of the illegal activity discussed here. -Trent

Thursday, October 16, 1986

I went to Current Affairs this morning. It was semi-enjoyable. After that, I studied for my Book of Mormon mid-term. I took it and I know I did great; They’ve been teaching me that stuff for eighteen years.

After that, I met up with Larry and we went to Idaho Falls. We looked for radar-detectors but without luck. Larry bought a calculator.

We came back and met up with Ray. He told us about some girls he had met that he wants me to meet. We went to the arcade and played “Gauntlet”. Then we drove around looking for people to meet, but there wasn’t anyone cruising. We called it quits and went home.

I went running for a while. I listened to Depeche Mode, which reminds me so much of Naomi. I came back and made some Krusteaz pancakes from our never-ending stash of sidewalk sale food.

We decided to go for a drive (Larry, Drake, and I). Larry drove his car and I sat in the passenger seat with my BB gun. We drove out to the sand dunes and then out 5 miles of dirt road to the Civil Defense caves. I thought we were all going to die, from the way Larry was driving.

We finally got back and I wrote my paper for Composition. I got to bed at 2am. Class tomorrow at 8am.