Every public school has its share of
“characters” whether in our class and/or in the school as a whole. At Berlin
Local School, which was of course my school, we certainly had more than our
share of kids who were “characters.” (Yeah, yeah, I know… I was no doubt the “MAIN
CHARACTER” according to most, if not all, the rest if one would ask THEM ) ! ((You are seeing a prime example of the old
saying, “The pot calling the kettle black”)). This subject will be the
first in another “Series within a series” in my “School Daze Collection.”
The first “character” that comes to mind was George M. (I have to be careful
and not use full names here in case any of these people should happen to
stumble across this web site, then they may pay me a visit and beat the
“daylights” out of me)! ((Besides, they no doubt would say to me, “YOU
were the craziest character in the whole history of the school!”))
Be that as it may, George was what would be referred to in this present-day as
“Mentally Challenged” (in our day “a slow learner” and a “Special Needs”
student and would be in a “special needs class” these days. In those days, none
of the above stuff was ever heard of or considered. “Those kids” were just
included in the regular class and “passed” with the rest of us. As best I can
recall, George was with us for 1 or 2 years or so. One thing I do remember for
sure was that he was in my 6th grade class with Mrs. Hutchins
(another “Teacher Character”), and THAT combination made for some interesting
and rather humorous situations. For example, one time we were having a sort of
oral quiz during Health Class period. We were all rattling off the correct
answers as Mrs. Hutchins randomly called on us and practically all of them were
easy common sense stuff your parents constantly nagged you about throughout
your whole childhood years anyway. Suddenly Mrs. Hutchins looked at George and
asked, “George, would you like to try one?” In spite of his tacit
response, she then asked him, “George, what are the first set of
teeth called”? He looked puzzled for a few seconds, then lit up with a
confident radiance and said, “The false ?” Mrs. Hutchins quickly moved
on to another question and another student. Another time during Art Class, we
were all making something with colored construction paper and paste. Mrs.
Hutchins asked George in an exasperating tone what in the world he was doing.
He said he was eating a “Paste Sandwich.” He had spread a thick layer of that
white “school paste” in the BIG glass container with the green metal lid teachers
always kept in the classroom storage cupboard to refill our empty paste
containers, between two “bread-sized”
pieces of colored construction paper and was eating it! We kids were all
worried that eating that would be like our parental warning of never swallowing
gum, because it will “Clog up our insides”! As far as anyone knew, our intense
scrutiny and observation of George did not result in his “insides being clogged”
from eating paste. I guess we all figured that he seemed to be alright following
this event and that he “got passed anyway”, that he must have led a lucky and
charmed life! Stay tuned for more “characters” in future missives…
