It All Started in 3rd Grade

It's hard to believe a sweet, adorable little boy like my dad here in the picture above could be any trouble at all. That sweet smile, those precious suspenders - I mean, he's just a little angel, right? Well, in 3rd grade he began to find out what it meant to be "disruptive", thus starting his sophmoric rise into the archives of the principal's office. ;-) Miss Prichard was his teacher and he liked her a lot. Though, I’m not sure the feeling was mutual. He said she liked his dad and felt sorry for him for having the 2 crazy boys that he had. Sounds like a lot of teachers felt bad for Grandma and Grandpa for that very reason as we’ll see. Dad was sitting with other kids in a group and was supposed to be reading. They were all taking turns reading this book. Dad was impatient and tried cutting in and reading himself. Reading louder than the other student, so the other child would stop and he could keep reading. He's never been one for patience. Well, that was not ok to the teacher, so Miss Pritchard made him stand in the hall, which was normal punishment back then for disruptive behavior. And, he also had to miss recess that day. When recess time came, the kids shuffled out and she sent dad to Mrs. Taylor’s class, which happened to be a 1st grade class that his brother Carl was in. They were singing songs when he got there. A specific song called "Jumalaya" actually. In the song the lyric says "Son of a Gun". Dad was singing away, not having a care in the world when Carl said to him, "I’m gonna tell mom you said ‘Son of a Gun!’" Dad got mad and started beating up his brother, which of course made the teacher come up and she sent dad out into the hall again. When HIS teacher came back from recess and saw he was in the hallway she didn’t understand why he was still there, when she had told him to go to Mrs. Taylor’s room. That is until Mrs. Taylor told her what happened. Dad couldn’t even behave himself in another’s teacher’s classroom for 15 min recess time. I think this is when the whole "I feel sorry for your father" thing came into play. ;-)