The Cho Factor, Part XXIV

The Brigadoon High Experience

Now, as promised, a bit about Early Me.

Between the eighth and ninth grades, my dad moved us from a middle-class neighborhood to upscale Brigadoon Village, a suburb with a somewhat overrated reputation for wealth. Make no mistake about it, there were plenty of wealthy families there, but there were many more who just excelled at creating and maintaining the impression that they had money.

(Just for the record, Brigadoon Village is a fictitious name — though, to my surprise, a Google search made me aware of a number developments that actually go by that name. Out of respect for the privacy of both the innocent and guilty, I am purposely avoiding the use of real names here. It is not my intent to embarrass anyone.)

The name Brigadoon comes from a fabulous musical written by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music) back in the forties. I never saw the Broadway version, but I did see the movie (which, by the way, still plays on television from time to time). Even if you’ve never heard of this classic, you are probably familiar with its most famous song, “Almost Like Being In Love.”

The Brigadoon created by Lerner was an enchanted Scottish village — invisible to the outside world — where time stood still. Nothing and no one in Brigadoon ever got older. Once every hundred years, for one day only, the village became visible and outsiders could enter. A visitor could take up residence in Brigadoon, but if he, or anyone else, ever left, the spell would be broken and everyone would be doomed.

When I first saw Brigadoon, it made me feel good all over. When you’re young, you still have fantasies about life being perfect — and, to be sure, life was perfect in Brigadoon. Which is precisely what I expected my life to be when I enrolled at my new high school. To me, there was no outside world. Why would anyone want to be anywhere but at Brigadoon High?

As it turns out, however, Brigadoon High was not unique. On the contrary, there are thousands of Brigadoon High look-alikes — Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda, Maryland), The Meadows School (Las Vegas), McLean High School (McLean, Virginia), Punahou School (Honolulu), and, yes, Columbine High School (Littleton, Colorado), to name but a few. If you live in even a modest-sized town, odds are there are at least several such schools within a short driving distance from you.

While most private schools have a Brigadoon environment, it’s important to understand that there are thousands of public schools that also fit the mold. Brigadoon public schools are located in middle-class, upper-middle-class, and wealthy communities (e.g., Beverly Hills High School). Though, technically, they are public schools, they are protected from the lower echelons of society by their borders. For all practical purposes, they are private schools funded by taxpayers.

Within days of becoming a freshman at Brigadoon High, it was obvious to me that I was viewed as an outsider trying to crash the ranks of the kids who’d had Brigadoon blue blood running through their veins from birth. The scorn I felt aimed at me by my fellow students was like nothing I had ever before experienced. Notwithstanding the fact that I was a nonconformist at heart, their loathing motivated me to get in step and respect the Brigadoon pecking order.

Being a quick study, it didn’t take me long to figure out who the players were in all five Rings — especially the Inner Ring. And, just as important, I quickly learned the most important rules of The Game. I got so good at following those rules that, within a couple of years, I managed to elevate myself through the ranks of the Nondescript Ring and, ultimately, into the outer fringes of the Fringe Ring.

But on the way up, I was on the receiving end of a plethora of jeers and sarcastic remarks. Fortunately, I was adept at deflecting such verbal garbage and became pretty good at firing back. But that created problems for me, because if there’s one thing master taunters dislike, it’s irreverence. The more these verbal thugs see someone trying to move up in rank, the more they intensify their attacks. They simply hate any attempt to rearrange the caste system. Remember, in Brigadoon nothing is supposed to change.

To my shame, I became totally immersed in playing The Game, though I didn’t consciously realize it until long after I had graduated high school. When I say totally immersed, I mean being aware, at all times, of how I dressed, how I acted, and how I talked.

Today, that Robert Ringer at Brigadoon High is a total stranger to me, but I can tell you for certain that he once existed. It is even possible that he secretly aspired to crack the ranks of the heavily guarded Inner Ring, though I cannot bring myself to even ponder such a painful and embarrassing thought.

Next up: A look back at some of the Inner Ring royalty at Brigadoon High.

Previous – Part XXIII, Rings of the Caste System

Next – Part XXV, The Inner Ring Royalty