The Fire
June 17, 2010
(A Short Quick Journey Back To Junior High.)
June 17, 2010
So I was pulling some random books off the shelves in my office today (all which belong to and have been abandoned by my boss), thinking I might be able to mine some good ideas out of them. One was a textbook that looked similar to what I used in junior high school, entitled Prentice Hall Literature.
I sat at my desk and opened it. The slightly mildewy smell that old books have wafted up into my face, and I looked on the inside cover. Sure enough, there was the old familiar box where all the kids that used that book year after year would write their names in it and the year they used it and the condition it was in when they got it.
I remember as a girl, we would swoon with delight if we happened to get a book that had been used by a hunky upperclassman, as if it held some part of him inside. But I digress.
This book is the property of Curundu Junior High School, the stamp clearly states. It was first issued to Mina Parada in the year 1992-93, the year I finished high school, and it was new.
Ahhh…the joy of a new textbook! Being the very first student to use it, and the wonderful smell, and the way the book cover crackles the first couple dozen times you open and close it! But again, I digress.
I felt like a kid again. The inside cover was delightfully messy and marked up with various pens and pencils – scribbles, notes, something naughty that was furiously scribbled over, a phone number, and a curious little note in all lower case, wobbly, boy’s handwriting, in red pencil, that says “in case of a fire turn to p. 185.”
Feeling deliciously curious like Alice, and mildly amused, I turned to page 185. The red pencil said, “Turn to page 231.” I did it. Next note said “hurry, p. 399.” Excitement was mounting. I turned to page 399. The note crammed in under the page’s text said, of course, “stupid ass I said in case of a fire.”
Junior High School humor, it never changes. That was fun. It made my day.
