Geometry class

It was a dark and stormy night (I told you so) actually it was the 1953-1954 school year when a buddy, Skip and I were both sophomores in high school.  We both had the misfortune to be assigned a geometry teacher that was fresh out of college.  Her name was Sarah .  She was about 4’-10” tall and weighed around 75 pounds.  She did not know diddley-squat about geometry.  The only thing I learned in that class that year was how to make a hook shot to the waste basket.  I got pretty good at that.  I think Skip learned even less than I because he was bored out of his skull .

The classroom (#16) doubled as the physics lab so there were lab tables at the front of the room.  Sarah Jean stood at the front of the tables to conduct class, probably because her voice would not carry from the front to the back of the room.  For some reason Skip sat (alone) at one of these tables directly across from Sarah Jean.  I cannot remember why he was at the table.  Perhaps it had something to do with deportment.  That leads to the incident that I shall now relate.

The physics class that met just before our geometry class had been studying resonance frequencies  and had left several tubes of varying lengths and diameters lying on the lab table directly between Skip and Sarah Jean.  I think that they had just not been stored as yet or perhaps the study was to continue the next day.   Skip played the coronet in the school band that year.  I cannot judge if he was good or bad as I have a tin ear. (Literally).  The ability to toot a tune on that brass instrument led to his downfall from the grace of Sarah Jean.

Skip picked up the end of one of the tubes and put it to his lips and gave a mighty blast  The result was one that would be the envy of any bull moose alive.  I think that Sarah Jean “browned” herself as she hopped in the air and shrieked.  The whole class dissolved in laughter.   I have told the story and now you must ask yourself, would Dal lie?

There was another incident involving Skip during senior year concerning a dirty recording in speech class but that is another story.  Skip ended up OK.  His career involved being a lead engineer at an aerospace company.