Butler 70 VCU 62 !!
Gangly, skinny, his forehead presenting with acne, the Boy at six feet, three inches towered over the Dean. Yet inside he felt about the size of the spies of the children of Israel alongside the descendents of the Anakim. That is, in the sight of the Dean, he must surely seem as a grasshopper.
"Have a seat right here." It was not a request. The Boy complied. The Dean pushed a legal pad toward the Boy, the yellow paper screamed "Guilty!" as the youngster's eyes took it in. The proferred pencil was red, putting an exclamation point to the accusation. "We know," asserted the Authority Figure, representative of the President, the Board of Regents, and by extension, believed the lad, of God Almighty, "exactly what you did yesterday afternoon. You will write an accurate account of your every move. Leave nothing out."
The Boy was yet several months shy of his seventeenth birthday. His best friend, who was the same age, had, just shortly before this glorious afternoon, acquired an automobile of his very own. This marvel of freedom and independence was a 1936 Ford fordor sedan. Gasoline was five gallons for a dollar. A Sunday drive was the very ticket for these two well-behaved yet fun-loving youngsters. As the boys were tooling along West Colorado Avenue, to their wondering eyes there appeared walking leisurely along the sidewalk two of the students from the bible school the Boy attended . These were girl-type students, and no discussion was required between the boys as the car rolled to a stop beside the curb and just ahead of the young ladies. Long story short, the girls got into the back seat of the auto; the boys remained in front. The drive continued through Manitou Springs, up Ute Pass to the Rampart Range Road which they took back into the Springs, taking care to drop the passengers off conveniently near the original pickup point. The boys went home.
It would serve no useful purpose to go into the details surrounding the number of rules of the school that had been broken in the execution of this innocent excursion. Hence, however, the Boy's Monday afternoon conference with the Dean.
The Boy took the pencil in hand and began to write. In so far as he was able, he wrote honestly, clearly, and completely an account of the events briefly described above. It was enough. It served the needs, whatever they were, of the authority of the school. Punishment descended upon the guilty culprit.
It only occurred to the lad much later that he deserved the punishment, not so much for the actions of the Sunday afternoon outing as for his own stupidity in complying with the directive the Dean had delivered. Our hero's best friend, owner and driver of automobile, was not a student at the same school, and thus his only punishment was the suffering that he no doubt endured knowing that the friend had been chastised. Yes, yes, to be sure.
©2011 David W. Lacy
The Boy was yet several months shy of his seventeenth birthday. His best friend, who was the same age, had, just shortly before this glorious afternoon, acquired an automobile of his very own. This marvel of freedom and independence was a 1936 Ford fordor sedan. Gasoline was five gallons for a dollar. A Sunday drive was the very ticket for these two well-behaved yet fun-loving youngsters. As the boys were tooling along West Colorado Avenue, to their wondering eyes there appeared walking leisurely along the sidewalk two of the students from the bible school the Boy attended . These were girl-type students, and no discussion was required between the boys as the car rolled to a stop beside the curb and just ahead of the young ladies. Long story short, the girls got into the back seat of the auto; the boys remained in front. The drive continued through Manitou Springs, up Ute Pass to the Rampart Range Road which they took back into the Springs, taking care to drop the passengers off conveniently near the original pickup point. The boys went home. 
8 comments:
So. Did you ever use the dean's tactic in your educational career?
The "good old days." Yikes!
I guess I'm missing something but what exactly was The Boy guilty of?
The purpose for such rules was not so much to squelch the freedom of boys but to protect the chastity and reputation of young ladies. I wish these kinds of rules were somewhat still in place, if only because strictness in such cases is much better than total laxness (which is what we have today).
Jim, in truth, No.
Verla, "good old days." Yep.
Grace, "fraternizing with members of the opposite gender without adult supervision."
Rebecca, actually, in that environment (time and place) it was to squelch everyone; but I don't want to write a social analysis,just wanted to tell a (funny?) story. Although, I agree with you that today's "total laxness" is not a good thing.
My friend's brother was in the Army, and so we would ride around in the brother's Studebaker. Never did give rides to girls. Our girl friends lived in another town.
Haha- do I detect the genre of "memoir" here?
I wrote an essay about what I miss about the 1950's (never thinking that I would find anything good about that era), but there were STANDARDS
Chuck, reminiscing isn't all bad!
Shark, there were some good things about the 50s. The worst part: we were teenagers. (Well, for a tiny portion of them, in my case.)
Post a Comment