Chapter 43
We have survived the first weeks of school with no physical damage up to this point and only minor mental problems. The kids are gradually settling into their “school” routine.
I’m getting accustomed to a quiet house on my days off.
And the dogs are getting used to be screamed at—after all, the kids ARE gone and I MUST have someone to holler at! !
I suppose the teachers have got their students’ names and faces put together by now. They have probably figured out that Josie Mae Smith is Herman Smith’s little sister, and that Josie Mae is not going to conform to the shadow Herman has left behind from previous years.
I was the oldest of three and I molded a shadow my brother just plain did not like.
It flusters me as to why he was rude about the whole affair.
I mean after all, I made good grades and he should’ve been right proud to come along behind me.
Why, the first time I made anything lower than an A in my life was in the fifth grade—how could I help it if the teacher didn’t like my practical jokes and gave me a C on conduct?
My brother tells about the first days he was in high school. Seems his science instructor was the one who had tried to teach me a little bit about biology and had even in one of his weaker moments tried to pour some chemistry into my lazy brain. I think I must’ve left a shadow in that classroom!!
The instructor looked at all the peon freshman and sophomores and tried to melt them with his glare. He wasn’t about to have as much trouble out of THIS group as he did that AWFUL one that had just graduated.
He commenced to call the roll: all the names with A’s, B’s, C’s, etc. Then he said, “Doug Gray,” and my brother answered quite respectively, “Present.”
“You any relation to Carolyn Gray?” he asked. “She’s my sister,” my brother answered.
That did it!! The instructor put my brother’s name on the board and gave him three demerits. Frankly, it seemed a little stiff to ME!! Chewing Copenhagen and spittin’ it out the window only got a person two demerits!
At any rate, he lived through the year and managed to reform the shadow a little bit, so my sister didn’t have much trouble.
But the next year he had learned his lesson. The teacher was calling the roll on the first day and looked him square in the eye, “Doug Gray, huh? You kin to Carolyn Gray?”
“Who? Carolyn who, sir? I ain’t never heard of her!!”
With our brood of three the shadows fall a little different.
Our first child leaves a fairly favorable one for the second one, who usually improves upon the one left for her.
Then the third one comes along and poof!
! It all goes up in a vapor the first day.
I’m sure glad there’s not a fourth one to have to follow her! !