Posted by Michael N. Marcus on April 3, 2008, 6:24 pm

My Latin 2 teacher at Hillhouse was Marcia Young. She was just a few years older than the kids in our class — but looked like she was 15 — and could be best described as unsophisticated, sheltered, virginal and naive -- in short, she was no match for 30 wise-ass suburban kids. We definitely didn’t dislike her; but she was such an easy victim, that she invited exploitation. Here are two of the Class of 64’s Greatest Hits: (1) Bob was a gawky giant of a kid, who could be persuaded to do weird stuff. One of the other kids (probably me) had a pair of swim fins in his gym bag, and we persuaded Bob to put them on while he sat in the back of the class. When Marcia called on him to go up the blackboard to write something in Latin, he waddled to the front of the room like a giant penguin. Bob kept a straight face. Marcia was terrified. The rest of us were hysterical. (2) Our Latin class started around 11:45, and was interrupted by lunch period. One day I happened to have an inflatable life preserver vest in my gym bag (I know it sounds weird, but I used the same bag for SCUBA diving classes after school). During lunch, Harry Eudowe and I went to the john and he put the deflated life vest on over his shirt, but under his sweater, and we went back to Latin class. We acted normal, and after a while Harry started moaning, and waved his hand frantically. Marcia asked what was the matter. Harry said he thought he had food poisoning. He told Marcia he had a terrible pain in his stomach. “It keeps going up and down and up and down and...” At that point, Harry sneakily pulled on the ripcord which punctured the gas cartridge to inflate the life vest, which made his torso seem to double in size. Marcia screamed. So did we.

 Post a Response

Posted by Alan Disler on April 19, 2008, 11:57 pm, in reply to "Marcia Young, the giant penguin, and the exploding belly"

I would have sworn Miss Young taught German.

 Post a Response

Posted by Michael N. Marcus on April 20, 2008, 6:22 am, in reply to "Re: Marcia Young, the giant penguin, and the exploding belly"

Maybe, but not to me. Or Patty Miller or Harry Eudowe or Bob Litoff. For Latin I in Sheridan, I was taught by Geary, who had jowls like a bulldog. She was known as "Bulldog Geary," or "Filiabus Bulldoggus" (wrong gender, but WTF).

 Post a Response

Posted by Alan Disler on April 20, 2008, 3:11 pm, in reply to "Re: Marcia Young, the giant penguin, and the exploding belly"

Wow, Miss Young was trilingual. Didn't know that. Joe Estryn and I sat near each other in German class and whenever there was a loud group response or commotion in the class, Joe and I would shout out obscenities just muffled enough not to be perceived. Real mature we were.

 Post a Response

Posted by Michael N. Marcus on April 21, 2008, 6:07 am, in reply to "Re: Marcia Young, the giant penguin, and the exploding belly"

You just had to wear a tie and not go up the down stairway. Maturity was an option. Wanna buy the "Blue & White Shop" sign? How about a genuine '64 graduation cap? Or a "DOWN" stairway sign? OTOH, it might be fun to take them back to HH and turn them in, now that the statute of limitations has expired. I've been saving a big bottle of Moet '64 champagne, and maybe I could share it with principal Dr. Lonnie Garris, Jr. when I turn over the plunder. Now that I think about it, HH was a lot of fun -- except for the damn classes that interrupted the fun.

 Post a Response