One Thing I Learned In School

One Thing I Learned In School

I was in tenth grade and was working in the office running the switchboard.  It was before school but the regular staff was out because of a flu epidemic so the principal had called me at home and asked if I could come in early and work in the office til they could get a replacement.  This happened every so often and I was flattered that they thought enough of me to allow me to do that for them.  I even worked out deals like, “I will do it for you but when I need to get out of P.E., you have to let me come into the office.” That usually worked!  I was one of the good kids so they liked me.

This one morning that I will never forget, just as the bell rang for the first period to begin, when the office was the busiest with parents, kids, teachers, and other staff, this woman walked in.  I will never forget her.  She walked straight in the front doors (to which you could only get after climbing two long flights of stairs from a much traveled street), down the hall, around the big wall that encircled the secretaries’ desks and the switchboard, and to the phone.  She picked it up without saying a word and looked at me pleadingly.  “Can you please give me an outside line?”  Of course, I did it.  She proceeded to call someone that her car had broken down in the middle of the intersection and she was in the office.  Come quickly, she urged.  No, she would be waiting inside the car, not in the office.  She put the phone down and walked out as quickly as she had walked in, all eyes on her.  No one had moved or said a word.  We had all remained speechless as we watched her. 

Why?

She was dressed in a transparent night gown with a matching and equally transparent robe.  And yes, you are right, nothing on under the nightgown!  On her feet were fluffy white slippers.  On her hair she wore about thirty rollers over her mostly gray hair.  She was about fourty and was obviously someone’s mother!

When she was gone, still everyone remained speechless.  And I made a mental note to not ever leave the house in any condition in which I could not stand to be seen!  I have never forgotten that lesson even though it was over thirty years ago!

[Thank you to David Rochester for jogging my memory with his article  http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976880300]