In 4th grade, dad sat by a boy named Merrill Gander. He actually lived right next door to their 4th grade teacher and she didn’t like him at all. He was a troublemaker and caused her quite a lot of headaches. This little fact worked to dad’s advantage later in the school year. The boy that sat behind dad was a boy named Ronnie Davis and one day he was walking up the front of the class and dad stuck his foot out and tripped him. Ronnie went flying. Knocked over the trash can, fell over the desks, and caused quite a commotion! The teacher walked back and looked at Merrill and said, "Did you trip Ronnie?!!" "No." he said. She didn’t believe him and started whacking the heck out of him with a yardstick. As dad said, "She beat the living crap out of him", all the while Merrill is confessing his innocence. "I didn’t do it, I swear". "Don’t you lie to me!!" she yells back. Dad sat there with a straight face, knowing that the wrath would come down on him if he said a word. So, he never did. He watched as Merrill got smacked around and sent to the principal’s office, knowing full well that HE was the one who had tripped Ronnie. Six years later, Merrill would call in a bomb scare not once, but three times the first week of the 1962 World Series. When he was caught the 3rd day, he was expelled from NJ schools for LIFE. And, he believes it all started that day when he was blamed for a crime that dad committed. That’s the sad story of poor Merrill Gander. On a side note, dad faked being sick that Monday, because he too didn’t want to miss the first game of the World Series. At least he was smart enough not to call in a bomb scare to get out of it!
I'm finding it so hard to believe your father's revelations about his "hitting" teachers. I'm pretty sure that even back then all the "hitting" was done by the principals and not the teachers. I know none of my teachers ever hit a student, let alone "beat the crap" out of them. This year was my last year in Runnemede schools and it was a year when I finally was able to be back in Downing (across the street) because that's where all the 8th grades were housed. You'd think I would have been more aware of my little brother's shananigans.
ReplyDeleteI told him that you couldn't believe that the teachers hit him or other students and he went into this long list of stories of times when he saw the students hit and whacked and beat up. He said he remembers getting slapped in the face by one of them. Not sure what the name was of the teacher though, I'd have to ask him again. But yeah, totally happened and sounds like it wasn't an isolated incident. You'll have to ask him next time you talk to him.
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