Going to a one room schoolhouse brought on many adventures. The fact that I had my brother in 8th grade when I was in 1st grade was convenient to have a pint-sized spy to watch and report your moves.
Walter would ride his bike to school and I usually walked. It was that he didn’t offer me a ride, it was a lesson to be learned. He had a nice new tan and white bike that was high off the ground to my short 1st grade legs. He also loved speed or so it seemed. I remember taking him up on his offer for a ride home from school one day. His bike had that metal plank that came out over the back tire. It was usually used to tie down your books or whatever. Boys didn’t use baskets that was girly. This day I was whatever! The field at the back of the school was a steep downhill, bumpy, rock covered slope. Instead of going the road around that have taken a minute longer and had much less thrill to it, he chose to go the more adventurous route. His instructions to me were to hold my legs and feet out from the bike away from the tire spokes and hold onto his waist as tight as I could. I can’t remember if I managed to scream out in terror or if it was a silent scream. I bounced up and down on that hard metal projection and kept my feet as far as I could from the death spinning spokes. When we reached the bottom of the hill, I said I thought I would walk the rest of the way home.
It can’t be easy to have a little sister who is relaying information to your parents from every missed move he might make during the day. One of his great missed moves, I remember even though he says he doesn’t was “The Great Pencil Drop.” Now this was not his normal behavior. Our wooden desktops were at a slight angle, just enough that when your pencil was placed in the cutout groove at the top of the desk would slowly roll down and fall to the floor with a kerplunk. Now one pencil falling to the floor was not unusual but a generous amount of kerplunks, a brainstorm. He arranged all the older 6th through 8th to produce a mass continual dropping of pencils to the floor. While the teacher was instructing other students in the room, the mission started. The intervals between pencil drops were precise and planned. The heads were looking down to hide the grins and cover the snickers. After a given amount of time the teacher became suspicious. When asked who the master mind of this tom foolery was, Walter raised his hand confessed I remember the teacher saying, “if you want to be a clown get up here and preform.” At the invitation Walter arose and went to the front of the school onto the raised platform. He bent over and put his hands on his knees and brough his hands back and forth as he opened and closed his knees. I can’t remember if there were any more repercussions from his behavior, but I don’t remember anymore clown shows.
Proverbs 28:13 “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.”
Grandma Lynn
“Packer and Stacker”