I received a lot a positive feedback from Part 1; therefore, I now present Part 2, the sequel. I'm also working on Part 3, the sequel to the sequel. If my brain is still working overtime, I may present Part 4, the sequel to the sequel to the sequel.

 

As I was ambling to the barn early yesterday morning, several more thoughts suddenly hit me relevant to the mischief we did in school.

 

Just so you know, I wasn't the only one involved in mischievous acts in school, although I give this impression from these narratives. Incredibly, others of did goofy things as well. One of the most legendary incidents that occurred in High School is the famous "Terry G. Incident". I can give a true account since I was there. As mentioned in Part one, Miss Purcell aka "Ma" who along with our High School Principal, "Bobo", and Mr. Garrett were teachers that you did not dare fool around with. "Ma" taught English all through high school. One day she had some of us go individually up to the blackboard and write a sentence with a comma in it. All went well until Terry G. went to the board to write his. The sentence he wrote on the board was the following: "Friends, have a beer before I drink it all." All of us in the class were quietly snickering. Well, needless to say, "Ma" Purcell was not at all amused. In a fit of anger, she ordered Terry to immediately go to Mr. Garland's Office. I'm sure that Mr. Garland was not at all amused either! From that time on, all of us guys stood in awe of his courage in the presence of "Ma" Purcell! In fact, 42 years later we still talk about this incident whenever we run into one of our classmates who also happened to be there at the time. Ever since, Terry G. has become a legend in his own time. I must confess, one good thing resulted in the terror of having English with "Ma" for 4 years. To this day, I always use proper English and spelling whenever I speak or write. I also have an intolerance of others who use improper English, spelling, and profanity when either speaking or writing.

 

Another infamous legendary incident happened to me. This is known as "The Book Incident" I've always both disliked and not done well with any form of mathematics. Therefore, I just took the minimum High School requirement, General Math and senior Math. The General and Senior Math teacher was Pete Kramer. No one was afraid of him since he was very laid back and easy going and rarely yelled at anyone who was goofing around in his class. I was always chatting with someone during his class and never was yelled at or given detention for talking and acting silly. However, one day I got one of the biggest shocks of my life. I was turned away from the front of the classroom and was trying to chat with someone. I turned around just in time to see a book flying through the air right at me! I quickly ducked and the book hit Florence B. who was sitting right behind me, right in the chest! Mr. Kramer gave me a note and directed me to go directly to Mr. Garland's office. During high school, I think I spent as much time in Mr. Garland's office as he did! It hit me on the way down to the office that I concluded that Mr. Kramer had finally had enough of my classroom antics and finally snapped. As I was slowly sauntering along the well-worn path to Mr. Garland's office, I of course read the note, which said, "Continually disrupts class". I used my gift of eloquence and yet again talked "Bobo" out of whacking me with his paddle. In retrospect, I now believe that they all were relatively lenient with me because they realized I had some kind of an involuntary problem causing an inability to pay attention and given to hyperactivity. Of course, I had what is known today as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity). This condition was unknown back in the 1950's and 60's. If they had had Ritalin in those days, I would have been so overdosed, that I would have stumbled around school like a zombie, which would have been fine with everyone else I'm sure. Incidentally, as I got older, my attention span has somewhat lengthened; however, in spite of medication, I am still hyperactive.

 

When Mr. Kramer left, Mr. Thrawl became the general and senior math teacher. He taught a course entitled "Senior Math". This was another required course along with "General Math". As far as I was concerned, the 2 courses were pretty much the same and I did pretty much the same in both courses, namely awful. It would seem that among my many gifts and talents, mathematics has never been listed among them. Mr. Thrawl's first name was John, but he looked like an "Elmo" to me, so that was the nickname I gave to him. Before long, all the other kids started to call him "Elmo". Here again we never did to his face, of course. "Elmo" was a nice guy but he was an older man and very hapless. Now and then, some of us guys would take small pieces from our pencil erasers and throw them at the blackboard near him when he was writing math problems. They would bounce off the board and as far as I know, he never noticed them. I do not recall that he ever got upset with any of us guys no matter what we did to him. We were in "mischief paradise" and made the most of it. "Elmo" apparently didn't know we had a Principal or didn't know where his office was because he never sent any of us there for disrupting his class.

 

When I couldn't con a way to get out of study hall, I was making the best of it. I somehow acquired a large over sized novelty eraser that had, "I Never Make Big Misteakes" printed on it.  I carried it all around school on top of my textbooks. At this point, I must confess that I was the class clown. I know this comes as a real shock to you, my beloved readers. J  One day in study hall, I got a little more daring in my goofing off. I found a willing accomplice with Joe H. who was sitting 3 tables across from me. We were probably about 15 to 20 feet apart. We started tossing the big eraser back and forth and catching it. Of course, we had to wait until our study hall teacher wasn't looking which, added to the excitement.  We tossed the eraser back and forth a few times until I was caught. I had just tossed it back to Joe when Mr. Weber looked up. I tossed it a little short and it hit the table and bounced off at an angle. Mr. Weber immediately got up and headed right for me. I knew I was doomed. He confiscated my big eraser and I got an hour's detention out of that deal while Joe went scot-free. Well at least this time he didn't tell me to go to "Bobo's" office, which was my usual situation. It seemed like whenever I had an accomplice during my mischievous acts, I was always the one that was caught in the act. By the way, since I gave nicknames to most of our teachers, I called Mr. Weber "Spider" Weber. Never to his face of course. I also never saw my big eraser again.

 

Well, at this point, as I suspected, I'll have to continue this story. I know all of you will be eagerly waiting  Part 3! You are aren't you?