Civic lessons and two pair of pants. In the seventh grade I had a class in civics. One of the assignments was to memorize the pre-emblem to the constitution. That was not a monumental task for someone who could memorize a three act play. However, being seventh graders and thinking that the assignment was over the top the class got together and decided that we would not do the assignment; there were fourteen of us in the class. When the day of the assignment came due no one in the class had memorized the pre-emblem. I think the teacher knew that there was a conspiracy going on so he went ballistic. He said we would have to write the pre-emblem five hundred times. One of us asks and if we don’t write it then what? He said he would give each one of us 20 licks with a paddle on the behind. We got together during recess and all but one girl and two boys decided to take the licks. In fairness to the two boys who did not take the licks of the paddle it was their father’s wrath they feared not the teachers.

            When we made know our decision to the teacher he said he would not spank us all on the same day so his arm would not give out. I was one of the lucky one who got to wait for the second day punishment. I wore two pair of jeans to help cushion the sting of the paddle. It may have helped some but a paddle wielded by a full grown man hitting you behind while you were bent over holding on to your ankles can be felt well enough. I still cannot quote from memory the pre-emblem to the constitution. We the people of the United States in order to perform -------.

The trauma of overalls and modern washing machines. When I first started to school we did not have electricity so my clothes were washed using a number two galvanized wash tub and a rub board. But alas there came the day that the local Tennessee Valley Rural Electrical Association found Witts Springs on their map a came out our way putting in electrical poles and they put one right close to our house. We were on our way to modernity. We had electricity. The first thing we bought was a refrigerator and we now could have ice cream without waiting for a snowy day. Next came an electric washing machine with an electric wringer. It was easier to wring water out of overalls using the wringer than by hand but the rollers that the wringers had could wreck havoc on the metal fastener on the galluses. Herein lay the problem, after several times being washed and ran through the wringer the metal parts became bent and hard to fasten, that is to latch and unlatch. I was in school and needed to go to the bathroom. I ask and received permission to go. By the time I arrived to the outhouse the urge was upon me and I was unable to undo the fastener on the end of the galluses. The end result was that I did my business in my overalls. I could not go back to class after messing in my cloths so I went over the school fence behind the outhouse and went through the woods to our house where I could get help. I do not remember the teacher ever asking what had happened that I did not return to class. It may be that she got busy and did not miss me.

Locking up two classes with one board. Faye Drewry was several years ahead of me in school and gave me grief from time to time. I did not like him because of his pestering and teasing me. He did turn out to be a great adult when he grew up but this event her related was during his school years at Witts Springs High School. Some background information is necessary to understand how the story unfolded. The school did not have indoor plumbing but had two outhouses. One outhouse was for the girls and one for the boys. The girl’s outhouse was located on the north side of the school propriety and the boy’s on the south side. During the time that classes were in secession those needing to go to use the outhouse would raise their hand and when the teacher would recognize them they would ask to be excused. Thus the teacher gave his or her permission for you to leave the room. For some reason which I do not know the teacher would write your name down and the time you left and returned. It may be that they were just trying to keep up with each student since they were in charge of each student. At any rate I ask to be excused and the permission was granted. I went to the outhouse and on returning into the school building; just inside the south entrance of the building I encountered Faye Drewry. There were wood and some lumber lying on the side just inside the door. The wood was for the wood stoves that heated the class rooms. I do not know what the long boards were doing there. Faye looked at me and said, “Kenneth you are a chicken if you do not pick up that long board and place between the two doors.” The two doors opposed each other across the school hall way. I avowed to him that I was not a chicken. We went back and forth for a while, then I picked up the board and jammed it against the two doors which opened in the direction of the hall. The room on the East side housed the 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th grades along with the principal of the school. The room on the West housed the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd grades.

            I went to my room and promptly forgot what I had done and did to think of the consequence at any time. I had in effect locked six classes into their rooms. I learned latter that in the room where the principle and the upper grades were located one of the students ask for permission to leave and informed the principle that the door would not open. The principal thought him in jest until he tried to open the door and could not get out. He was an elderly man and became quite concerned that the door would not open. The school building itself is or rock construction. This is not fake rock but real rocks only the partitions between the rooms are made of wood. This leaves a small crack between the rock wall and the wood wall. The old gentleman put his head in the corner and began to try to get the attention of the teacher in the adjoining room. His plea was, “Miss Turney, Miss Turney please let us out.” This cry went on and on to no avail, because Miss Turney could not hear him. The high school students were getting a kick out of the whole show. This begging went on until it was time for school to be over then one of the high school boys simply raised a window and jumped down, a distance of about six feet to the ground, and went around to the door and removed the obstruction. Why the principal did not think of this is beyond me. The next day the old gentleman who also was the principal of the school went to each room and got the names of students who had been dismissed from their room at the time he deemed that the board had been placed between the two doors. From my home room there were three of us, J. D. Watts, Sonny Heit and myself. He asked which one of us had placed the board there and Sonny was our advocate. Sonny pleaded our case with a passion avowing that none of us would do such a thing. I simply remained silent and said nothing as Sonny pleaded with success and thus did not receive the thrashing the old gentleman would have administered to me had I owned up to my crime. It was a case of lying by saying nothing.