WHITE DAY A LABYRINTH NAMED SCHOOL GYM STORAGE ROOM HOW TO

WHITE DAY A LABYRINTH NAMED SCHOOL GYM STORAGE ROOM HOW TO

As she walked with me across the street, she whispered in my ear, “Start buying your own clothes.” I concentrated on learning how to walk again.Īfterwards, the newspaper and the school administrators blamed one another for the class rosters not being published the week prior to opening day. The girls just shrugged and went back to their cliques. I’m glad somebody’s brave enough to be different.” My autonomous nervous system slowly turned back on.

Sixth grade classmate Karen Lauer came to my rescue, “I saw that at Penny’s. All I could think was that the manufacturer and store were going to burn in hell for what they did.

It took only moments before three kids whom I didn’t know started laughing and taunting me. I could probably be seen all the way to Coal Township. The shirt seemed as if it was illuminated. Standing along Fairmont Avenue, I tried to blend in. It was the end of August, so I couldn’t wear a jacket. I didn’t want to wear it, but my mother insisted. It would’ve made a perfect highway do-not-enter sign. Randomly woven in were strips of material that looked like very shiny aluminum foil. It was made of a synthetic that looked like red, extra-wide Christmas tree tinsel. I was wearing a shirt picked out by my mother especially for the occasion. The new section, finished in 1958 just barely in time for opening day in September, is off to the right. This is the old section on Fairmont Avenue. The now-abandoned Sunbury Junior High School. I knew none of this when standing in a crowd across Fairmont Avenue from the entrance the first day. While the teachers tolerated the smart kids, the bullies hated and taunted them, especially those with glasses. We behaved like a school of herrings in which the worst thing was to stand out or be different. Gallows humor saved those of us who were bright but not athletically inclined. The worst could only be handled by the football coaches. Added to the mix were stupid, loutish bullies, many of whom had been held back one, two, even three grades and who saw everyone else in the school as easy victims. For the most part, it was hell: teachers who should’ve retired years before teachers who disliked kids teachers who were incompetent in their subjects teachers who hated their jobs and would’ve hated their jobs no matter what grade they were teaching teachers who seemed to get off on administering corporal punishments for trivial infractions.

If I think hard, maybe a few will come back to me. There were some good moments during my three years in junior high.

White day a labyrinth named school gym storage room