Didn't anyone else shoot rubber bands (from their braces) out of their mouths at the teachers?

We had a teacher who got so relaxed one day in class grading papers (while we all had silent reading time) that she actually lit up a cigarette. It took her a long time to realize it was inappropriate... no one said a word, but we were all grinning so wide I think she never got control of that room back again.

I used to steal the call slips from the attendance office-- the pink ones even more powerful than hall passes-- the ones teachers and administrators would use to request that a student leave class and come here or there to see them. (I was a very good forger apparently too.) One of our crowd would take the chance of being late to the first class and use the first slip to go call a pal out of another class, then go on to class and be called out from there by the pal, with the next slip. We could get everyone out that way and spend the day off premises.

To get back to classes the next day one had to provide parental proof of illness or other worthy excuse. So the next day I would write everyone either a parent's excuse slip or else I would write up the yellow slip the attendance office would issue upon receiving the parental excuse-- so we could all get back into homeroom the next day.

I was also the one who tended to have the use of a car for the day. Off-premises hijinks could include going out for breakfast, and the restaurant loved our song parodies so much they never reported us. Or we might go visit O'Hare Airport for the day and sneak on as many parked airplanes as possibe, doing a treasure hunt for magazines and barf bags as proof of entry. You could really practice your lying skills with those stewardesses and cleaning personnel, who basically didn't give a damn anyway as long as it sounded like a possible reason to get on the plane. Or another favorite was to go to the new Civic Center in downtown Chicago and visit courtrooms and county clerk's offices, and so on, yukking it up wherever we went.

I think my mother never knew that I had learned city driving on my own. Now I think of our daughter driving just to the mall, and can hardly stand the thought.

The workd was a much safer place then of course.

Oh and one day we did a break-and-enter at my locked house while my mom was at work, to watch the soaps. Illicitly in my own house, it was very weird. We left via a window as I recall.

I'm sure other crowds did much worse stuff, but then they always got caught in the attempt or knocked up. We never did.

~S~