Friday, September 16, 2011

****EXTRA: A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Spanish Class****

As written for my English Class Journal on Sept 16, 1976

Second period had just ended when I climbed up the three flights of stairs to my next class. My Spanish class was in room 308. I knew that. It had been almost a month since school started and I certainly knew where to go for Spanish. The door was locked however and in a few minutes five other Spanish Four students had joined us as well as the entire Spanish Three group of our split class. But the door remained locked. And there was no teacher.

Just then came James Newton Hart, longtime acquaintance and noted practical joker. "Everybody down to room 314," he shouted. Knowing his reputation, not a one of us moved. He smiled and started off toward room 314 himself though so all 15 or so of us followed along.

"Ha, ha, ha!" he laughed. "Fooled you all!" WE all turned as one and returned to room 308. Just then, Mr. Shoemaker appeared and groused, "I thought I told you to get those dummies down to room 314!" So off to room 34 it was. Eventually this was all resolved with 314 becoming for some reason our new home.

It's an oddly different room with the teacher's desk on the side facing the window. The Seniors all face the teacher, our desks surrounding his in a semi-circle. Then the class began to sound more like THE TONIGHT SHOW with everyone trading quips back and forth.

The best came when Mr. Shoemaker told Amy to stop bouncing one leg on the other and she replied that he didn't have to look at her legs. Without thinking, his response was, "Yes, I do"" which, as you might expect, broke up the whole class.

Later in the period, Tammy "stole" Mr. Shoemaker's watch. When he finally thought to look for it after about twenty minutes, someone immediately whispered, "Don't look at Tammy" and we all ended up with quite a lot of homework.

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