A Memory

When Ginny and Bruce and I were at Red Lobster for Christmas Eve dinner we got to talking and she brought up the old High School that I attended.  She was in the elementary school right across from the High School building.  It had been the original school and later was made into the elementary school.  The buildings were close together and both were "vintage" when we went there in the late 1950s.

I don't know who the architect of the school was but he obviously had no idea of what went on in a school.  You see the building was built around the gymnasium/auditorium.

Gilbert, Iowa is a small community just five miles (or so) north of Ames.  It has a large area for the school district and now includes North Ames where a lot of the wealthy people built their homes. It is in much better financial situation than it was at the time the school (building) I went to was in.

There were only 17 in my High School Graduating class. But I digress.

As I said the school was built around the gymnasium. At one end was the stage where we put on the play each year. I remember one of them was entitled "Grandad steps out."  Above the stage was the choir room accessed by some small undoubtedly unsafe steps (I worked as the janitor's assistant when I was in High School and was lifting a heavy floor buffer up those steps and dropped it on my finger, cut it deep, blood, pain, trip to the emergency room, stitches...all in a day's work).  Below and to the back were the locker rooms.  The gymnasium also served as an auditorium for musical programs and graduation and we held prom there.

The balls bouncing while the basketball team practiced and the P.E. classes used it was a real distraction to the classrooms.  Around the gym was a balcony which led to the second story classrooms.  The west side of the building housed the library (a small room with books and magazines manned by an upperclassman) and the study hall room.  On the east side of the building at the top of a short staircase was the office of the Superintendent of Schools...Mr. V. L. Schwank (not sure that is spelled correctly). From here in his lofty perch he could keep an eye on the whole school and make announcements on a PA system that covered the entire school or just one classroom as necessary.  He could also listen in on classrooms if he so desired.

In the spring time we held P.E. out on the field in front of the Ag Ed. building and one day my class was out there and Carole came running up to me. Carole was a new girl. Much as I was.  Most of our classmates had been together since Kindergarten and we were newcomers, I spending only the last four years of my schooling at Gilbert. She was blond and nice looking and just a little "wild."  I had a car and I think that is why she came up to me.  "Come on she said I need you to take me to so and so's farm (I cannot remember who owned the farm but it was somebody from Gilbert).  I left the class on the promise of a pass to get back into it when we came back.  Off we went and she went out to the chicken yard and captured (as it turned out) an unfortunate chicken.

I asked Carole why she was getting the chicken.  She said that the student teacher (a jock from ISU) in charge of the study hall mad the remark that he would need a chicken to interpret these "hen scratches" on a student's paper and she had volunteered to get one.

When we arrived back at the school I followed her up the steps to go and get my pass. As we went up to turn left to go to the study hall Mr. Schwank was on the other side of the balcony just going up to his office. He saw Carole with the chicken and went right on. She opened the classroom door and much to the delight of the students, tossed the chicken in.  The students were delighted and hilarity ensued...soon the dreaded VOICE came over the speaker. Carole _________report to the Superintendent's office.  Off she went and I got my pass and returned to PE.  (Just a little thankful that I was not included in the summons.)

I asked her after school what he had wanted.  She said she told him the story and he sent her back to class.  I don't think my PE teacher even missed me because he seemed surprised when I gave him the pass.

The chicken, I did say unfortunate.  The student teacher had it for dinner.  He claimed it was tough and stringy.

P.S. In case you were wondering the finger which was my right index finger had a scar on it for years but after 50 years it seems to have healed but (if I use my imagination) it still feels a little "odd" when I touch something like the keyboard with it.

That's my story and I am sticking with it.