Years ago I read in the San Diego Computer Edge magazine that Andy Rathbone had been added as a contributing writer. Besides being the author of the original Windows for Dummies books, Andy is also known for being the inspiration for the character “Rat” in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The “rat” character in the movie was a stereotypical “nerd” who stood in contrast to his hip classmates, such as the ticket scalping “Damone” and the perpetually-stoned surfer “Spicoli.” The movie was based on Cameron Crowe’s 1981 book of the same title about his experiences at Clairemont High School in San Diego. With the school’s permission Crowe pretended to be a student while he took notes on his fellow classmates. Like Andy Rathbone, I too attended Clairemont High School in San Diego. Here is what I remember about the Fast Times class of 79.
Different names, same places.
Crowe renamed many of the characters and places he wrote about in Fast Times, (for legal reasons no doubt). He called the school Ridgemont, but we all knew the story was about Clairemont High School. What he called The Ridgemont Mall was actually the University Town Centre right between University City and La Jolla, in Northern San Diego. Most of the characters in the movie were said to be composites of various people Crowe met while at Clairemont. One character, “Damone” who made extra money scalping rock concert tickets was partly based on a neighbor of mine named Andy. Damone’s room, which had movie posters and “failed ticket” sales displays was an exact replica of Andy’s room in real life.
A deeper philosophy- we’ll be bogus too.
The Spicoli character, played by Sean Penn was indeed the most colorful character in the movie. In 1979 there were several guys just like Spicoli at Clairemont High School. Although many people I saw simply bragged about how much they surfed when in fact only some of them really knew how to. In the accompanying photo, Spicoli is attempting to pass a History exam with his own opinions on the American Revolution. The line reads something like, “those dudes left England because it was bogus…and if we don’t make some of our own rules fast, we’ll be bogus too…”
The world needs good ditch diggers too.
Of all the memories I have of Clairemont High School, none is as clear as the teachings and interactions with my 10th grade English Teacher Mr. Kay. For the movie, Mr. Kay was indeed the main inspiration for Jeff Spicoli’s History teacher- Mr. Hand. Just as in the movie, Mr. Kay would promptly lock the doors at the sound of the first bell. He would then allow people in the class, but only after he gave a lecture on how we were wasting “his time” by being tardy. Mr. Kay made it clear to everyone that he would not intrude in our house and waste “our time,” thus he expected that we would not waste “his time” at school by being late, talking, etc. He also told us that we were lucky to be with him during the 50 minutes of “his time.” Mr. Kay utilized the old school methods of discipline and elbow grease to motivate his students to learn. Certainly the most direct thing Mr. Kay ever said to a student occurred one morning in 1980. This particular student complained that the weekly grammar tests were too difficult, and that other English teachers didn’t require their students to take these difficult tests. In front of the entire class Mr. Kay proclaimed, “That’s Ok, you can skip these tests!– Because The World Needs Good Ditch Diggers too, Mr. Rimkus.”
– Knute Rimkus
