charlie sherrill
Member
It's been a long time, but I think the year was 1960. I was in the seventh grade. I went to school that year at the old Hattiesburg High School building. The high school had just moved into a new school and they put all the seventh graders in the old school because the junior high was overcrowded and a new junior high under construction was not completed yet. The old high school was a massive three story building. It looked like something you would see in medieval Europe. It had high ceilings and heart pine flooring. The old desks still had holes in the tops for ink bottles, which weren't used any longer. The top floor had been condemned by a city inspector but it wasn't blocked off and you could still sneak up there if you wanted to hide for some reason.
It was right after Christmas vacation and by best friend Dan and I still had a few cherry bombs left over. We were wondering what would happen if you flushed a lit cherry bomb into a toilet. It was right before class started when we snuck up to the third floor. The girls restrooms were on one side of the building and the boys on the other. To our surprise the boys restroom on the top floor was unlocked and still functioning. The drain pipes of the toilets on all three floors were connected all in a row. Unbeknownst to us Coach B had just sat down on one of the first floor toilets. Dan flushed the toilet and I lit the cherry bomb and threw it in. We took off running and were about halfway between the first and second floor when it went off. We reached the bottom of the first floor just as Coach B fell out the door with his pants still down. We just happened to pick the line of toilets over the one Coach B had been sitting on. The cherry bomb blew pipe off the wall near the ceiling of the first floor about ten feet over Coach B's head causing water and pieces of cast iron from the old pipe to rain down on him. I guess in his fear/excitement he forgot to pull his pants up. There were dozens of students nearby and they all started laughing, including Dan and I.
An investigation rivaling the Spanish Inquisition ensued. Every student in the school was brought in the office and interviewed. Dan and I didn't crack. We told them we had seen Billy the school bully coming from the third floor as did a couple of our friends. He got sent home and returned a week later wanting to hurt somebody but he didn't know who.
Fast forward about 50 years. Shortly before my retirement I was in my cruiser out serving papers. An old man in a pickup blew through a stop sign and almost hit me. I never liked working traffic or writing tickets but being that he almost hit me and several other drivers were looking to see what I was going to do I pulled him over. I looked at his driver license and saw that it was Coach B. He was now 81 years old. I told him who I was and asked if he remembered me. He did. I told him I wasn't going to write him a ticket for running the stop sign because I once did something to him and by not writing the ticket maybe he'll forgive me. "Are you the little %@$+@^# that blew up the toilet?!" he asked. I told him that I was and he stated "that means we expelled the wrong guy." "Hell, he needed expelling anyway." Coach B started laughing and confessed he had once done something similar. He said the incident was funny now but that it wasn't then. We talked for a few minutes and just before he left he said "I'll bet your buddy Dan was with you." I told him he would have to ask Dan as he drove off laughing.
Coach B passed away not long ago and I guess that's what got me thinking about this incident. He was a great influence on a lot of young people.
It was right after Christmas vacation and by best friend Dan and I still had a few cherry bombs left over. We were wondering what would happen if you flushed a lit cherry bomb into a toilet. It was right before class started when we snuck up to the third floor. The girls restrooms were on one side of the building and the boys on the other. To our surprise the boys restroom on the top floor was unlocked and still functioning. The drain pipes of the toilets on all three floors were connected all in a row. Unbeknownst to us Coach B had just sat down on one of the first floor toilets. Dan flushed the toilet and I lit the cherry bomb and threw it in. We took off running and were about halfway between the first and second floor when it went off. We reached the bottom of the first floor just as Coach B fell out the door with his pants still down. We just happened to pick the line of toilets over the one Coach B had been sitting on. The cherry bomb blew pipe off the wall near the ceiling of the first floor about ten feet over Coach B's head causing water and pieces of cast iron from the old pipe to rain down on him. I guess in his fear/excitement he forgot to pull his pants up. There were dozens of students nearby and they all started laughing, including Dan and I.
An investigation rivaling the Spanish Inquisition ensued. Every student in the school was brought in the office and interviewed. Dan and I didn't crack. We told them we had seen Billy the school bully coming from the third floor as did a couple of our friends. He got sent home and returned a week later wanting to hurt somebody but he didn't know who.
Fast forward about 50 years. Shortly before my retirement I was in my cruiser out serving papers. An old man in a pickup blew through a stop sign and almost hit me. I never liked working traffic or writing tickets but being that he almost hit me and several other drivers were looking to see what I was going to do I pulled him over. I looked at his driver license and saw that it was Coach B. He was now 81 years old. I told him who I was and asked if he remembered me. He did. I told him I wasn't going to write him a ticket for running the stop sign because I once did something to him and by not writing the ticket maybe he'll forgive me. "Are you the little %@$+@^# that blew up the toilet?!" he asked. I told him that I was and he stated "that means we expelled the wrong guy." "Hell, he needed expelling anyway." Coach B started laughing and confessed he had once done something similar. He said the incident was funny now but that it wasn't then. We talked for a few minutes and just before he left he said "I'll bet your buddy Dan was with you." I told him he would have to ask Dan as he drove off laughing.
Coach B passed away not long ago and I guess that's what got me thinking about this incident. He was a great influence on a lot of young people.
