Both of my parents were teachers. In a small town with only one school. i didn’t stand a chance.
Skipping school
- Thread starter walkin jack
- Start date
I went a large high school. So large in fact, they had 3 lunch periods: 11-11:30, 11:30-12 and 12-12:30. In the beginning of my senior year, I had lunch at 11:00-11:30 and study hall from 11:30 to 12:30. Study hall was a large room that held over 60 seats and a friend's girl friend happened to be taking attendance for the class.
"Hey Polly, mark me here, please." "OK Tom." For the next 3 months, I had an hour and half for lunch - until I received a notice to report to the attendance office!
"Why haven't you been in study hall?"
"I have no idea why they would say that!"
"Take this slip to the teacher and get it straightened out."
It seems that "Polly" had gotten transferred and 'forgot' to tell me. The "teacher" was also the drafting and print shop teacher. As a 3 year electronics student, I had numerous interactions with him getting schematics copied. I went to see him and he said "Oh, I know you. make sure you are sitting in the right seat today so you don't get marked absent." and he signed off on my absentee report slip. Thus ended my 'extended lunch periods!
In an unrelated story, a few weeks later, my homeroom teacher called me aside and said "You have enough credits to graduate now (it was December). Would you like to leave school now or continue until June?" This was 1967, and basically the question was "Would you like to go to Vietnam now or wait 6 months?" I chose option "B" and through a strange set of circumstances, was never called upon to serve. I did however take the pre-induction physical while I was still in high school. It was how I found out I am partially color blind (something my wife and daughter would later confirm). When the corporal giving me the test informed me of this finding, I asked what impact that would have if I was drafted or enlisted. "It means you'd be able to pick out camouflaged areas, so they might stick you in an airplane as a spotter." I thought to myself: "Wonderful, an unarmed, unarmored Piper Cub, flying a couple hundred feet over enemy territory, what could go wrong!?"
"Hey Polly, mark me here, please." "OK Tom." For the next 3 months, I had an hour and half for lunch - until I received a notice to report to the attendance office!
"Why haven't you been in study hall?"
"I have no idea why they would say that!"
"Take this slip to the teacher and get it straightened out."
It seems that "Polly" had gotten transferred and 'forgot' to tell me. The "teacher" was also the drafting and print shop teacher. As a 3 year electronics student, I had numerous interactions with him getting schematics copied. I went to see him and he said "Oh, I know you. make sure you are sitting in the right seat today so you don't get marked absent." and he signed off on my absentee report slip. Thus ended my 'extended lunch periods!
In an unrelated story, a few weeks later, my homeroom teacher called me aside and said "You have enough credits to graduate now (it was December). Would you like to leave school now or continue until June?" This was 1967, and basically the question was "Would you like to go to Vietnam now or wait 6 months?" I chose option "B" and through a strange set of circumstances, was never called upon to serve. I did however take the pre-induction physical while I was still in high school. It was how I found out I am partially color blind (something my wife and daughter would later confirm). When the corporal giving me the test informed me of this finding, I asked what impact that would have if I was drafted or enlisted. "It means you'd be able to pick out camouflaged areas, so they might stick you in an airplane as a spotter." I thought to myself: "Wonderful, an unarmed, unarmored Piper Cub, flying a couple hundred feet over enemy territory, what could go wrong!?"
It was muu junior year in HS. A great warm spring day. 2 friends and I bought a case of beer from a cooperative older guy and headed to the river. There we sit on the bank lines out, sipping suds and enjoying the beauty of the day after a long winter when my mom burst though the willows. I found out the school had called her and she had grilled my younger brother who was not invited. Turned a great day into a BUMMER
I was much better at getting away with it as a senior and my parents were pretty worn in to the fact that I was gonna do what I wanted by then
I was much better at getting away with it as a senior and my parents were pretty worn in to the fact that I was gonna do what I wanted by then
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AJ
US Veteran
We skipped school so much, the teachers were surprised to see us there.
kozmic
Member
Like anything else, high school was best if done in moderation. My forgery of my father's signature on my excuses was legendary!
AJ
US Veteran
I could forge my Mother's signature so well, even she had trouble telling the difference.
In the service I forged my OIC's signature so much, he gave me stuff to sign for him.
Went to a relatively small hs, 7-12th in same building. Till my senior year coach would have immediately noticed if didn't show up for practice, circuit training. In my senior year had enough study halls to get basically half 1/3rd the day off anyway.
I found school so easy and boring, I skipped school a lot, my father spent more time in school getting me back in than I spent there. The principal said to my father, I don't know how he does it, he is hardly ever here and he is a straight A student.
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My mother was attendance secretary at my high school, :-(
I never was able to cut.
I never was able to cut.
I skipped the first four weeks of my senior year but I had a good excuse.
I enlisted in the Army National Guard while in the 11th grade and spend my summer break training at Ft. Ord Ca. and Ft. Huachuca Az. returning to school in Oct.
With some luck all my required classes were in the morning with the afternoon classes all being shop classes that I routinely skipped, often to work a part time job.
I enlisted in the Army National Guard while in the 11th grade and spend my summer break training at Ft. Ord Ca. and Ft. Huachuca Az. returning to school in Oct.
With some luck all my required classes were in the morning with the afternoon classes all being shop classes that I routinely skipped, often to work a part time job.
hemiram
Member
While I only skipped school a couple of times, I skipped church/Sunday school dozens of times. My parents weren't interested in going from the day they got together, but my grandmother was very intimidating, hounded my mother into taking us. Dad stayed home, and slept. Grandma was downright scared of him when he would raise his voice. He had a "radio announcer's" voice, kind of sounded like Ed McMahon. A lot of the men in my dad's side of the family had BOOMING voices. His cousin Sam had the ultimate one. At 6'2 and a whopping 140 pounds, he looked like a typical little old man, until he talked. I would jump anytime I got him on the phone when I called work to talk to my dad. When my grandmother spent money she shouldn't have spent, my mom paid some of her bills, and dad let mom and grandma know that wasn't cool. That was the only time I saw grandma cry. But my mom just couldn't/wouldn't tell her we were done with church, or stood up to her in any way. So I just started skipping. I was 7. I would stand next to the door that went into the basement where Sunday school was, it was almost always propped open and I would stand there until everyone went in. When the door closed, I would walk for 27 minutes, to the park, or just down the street to look in the stores, etc. I would bring a bag of beef jerky most of the time, and there was a Pepsi machine in front of the nearby drug store, so I was all set for food and drink. At the 27 minute mark, I would head back, just in time for everyone to come out. I never got caught, and years later, I told my mom what I had done, and she said, "If I had known that, I would have lost my mind!". Grandma died suddenly, and church was just an unpleasant memory, to put it nicely. The church, even though we stopped going, didn't donate one cent, kept us on the membership list, we got a newsletter every month until about 20 years years ago, almost 40 years after we stopped going! When the minister retired that knew us and moved to S.Carolina, we finally stopped getting newsletters.
I skipped out of high school on my 17th birthday, February 11, 1952,
went to talk to the air force recruiter. I was sworn in to the USAF on
March 6th. Got a GED while in the AF and went to college on the GI bill.
"Regrets, I've had a few, but then again too few to mention."
went to talk to the air force recruiter. I was sworn in to the USAF on
March 6th. Got a GED while in the AF and went to college on the GI bill.
"Regrets, I've had a few, but then again too few to mention."
Not so much in elementary and jr. high, not too much to do unless I hung out in a local park.
I kept up attendance wise in high school to build enough credits so that I only needed 3 classes my senior year and was cut loose by 1030 - 1100.
I kept up attendance wise in high school to build enough credits so that I only needed 3 classes my senior year and was cut loose by 1030 - 1100.
AJ
US Veteran
Did more or less the same thing. Joined the Corps in March and was at my first Duty Station by July. Had my GED by the end of July, My Senior Class did not start until Late August. Went to college on the GI Bill also.
Doug M.
Member
I took full loads with no study halls for two years, had ... one maybe two as a junior. That meant I had no classes until sometime after noon as a senior, and my "homeroom" was the attendance office. The whole senior class would skip one day in early June for the senior picnic, and the school blew a gasket one year due to the amount of state aid lost.
hemiram
Member
If you got caught skipping, the principal of my HS acted as if you were doing it personally to him, as an insult. We didn't hate him THAT much, but he was generally despised for his Hitlerlike way of running things, complete with a couple of very goonish ex-football players that did the "enforcing" that he, being a tiny man of about 5'6" couldn't do. One in particular was a huge guy with a really bad attitude. One day, there was a food fight near our table in the cafeteria. I was in no way involved other than getting a little bit of ice cream on my face when a cup of it splattered on the wall beside me. The "head goon" comes over to me as it was being squashed, all red in the face, and says, "You're gonna stay over and clean it up!". I said, "Why?". "You know why, punk!". I told him I had nothing to do with it, but he insisted I did and so I got stuck cleaning it up for about a half hour. When he finally let me go, I said to him, "It must be a sad life for you having the job you do, and not being even able to tell who was and who wasn't involved in the food fight, or just about anything else that goes on here!". His response was "Get outa here punk!". He reminded me a lot of a famously jerky guy, VP at the time Spiro T. Agnew. A couple of years later, I ran into the goon at the grocery store and he remembered me, "I remember all you punks!". I wasn't a great student, but a punk? I told him, "And I remember all you stupid goons who acted more like mafia enforcers than teachers!". And later still I ran into the then retired principal at a bookstore, and I clicked my heels together, and gave him the Nazi salute and said, loudly, "Heil F****!!(his last name)", turned around and goosestepped away. The owner of the bookstore was a relative of mine, and the next time I came in, he asked me what was it all about, and told him "He acted like a little Hitler at school, and had goons threating kids, etc, so I just decided to salute him since he can't do anything to me at this point!". He told me that the principal had been very upset when I did that. Good.
The first high school I went to had a little man as a vice principal. The vice principal was in charge of school rules and procedures, if he had another job there I never knew what it was. If he was going to expel or suspend a male student he always came with two of the Gym coaches. Both were big in good shape and in their early 30s.
The other high school I went to and graduated from the principal was in charge of discipline. As he also was the head Olympic team boxing instructor he needed no backup!
The other high school I went to and graduated from the principal was in charge of discipline. As he also was the head Olympic team boxing instructor he needed no backup!
The first high school I went to had a little man as a vice principal. The vice principal was in charge of school rules and procedures, if he had another job there I never knew what it was. If he was going to expel or suspend a male student he always came with two of the Gym coaches. Both were big in good shape and in their early 30s.
The other high school I went to and graduated from the principal was in charge of discipline. As he also was the head Olympic team boxing instructor he needed no backup!
I had Ma Foster as assistant principal. She needed no backup.
Assistant Principal was Dan Rollins, a large, physically imposing man. He was a nice and fair man and if you could get him talking about elk hunting, he often "forgot" to punish you.
hemiram
Member
My freshman algebra teacher was like that. If you could get him talking about his two favorite subjects, little algebra was done:
1. Flying. He was a pilot and had a plane that he and his wife flew (Pilot too) all over the country during summer.
2. Healthy eating. He was absolutely convinced he was going to live to be a very very old man. He had all kinds of "do this, never that" kind of things he would say all the time. His aunt worked for my dad, so after I graduated, I would talk to her once in a while and ask how "Jack" was doing. Sadly, after denying himself all red meat (and sugar, oils, ad abunch of other stuff) except for a 6 oz birthday steak every year, he started feeling bad on one of their trips. He was 65, and was floored when the doctors in NYC told him he had inoperable liver cancer. He died at 67, more than upset that he had denied himself all the great stuff he did, only to die so young. His wife is still alive, she ate what she wanted and is now over 90 years old. Hmmmm
1. Flying. He was a pilot and had a plane that he and his wife flew (Pilot too) all over the country during summer.
2. Healthy eating. He was absolutely convinced he was going to live to be a very very old man. He had all kinds of "do this, never that" kind of things he would say all the time. His aunt worked for my dad, so after I graduated, I would talk to her once in a while and ask how "Jack" was doing. Sadly, after denying himself all red meat (and sugar, oils, ad abunch of other stuff) except for a 6 oz birthday steak every year, he started feeling bad on one of their trips. He was 65, and was floored when the doctors in NYC told him he had inoperable liver cancer. He died at 67, more than upset that he had denied himself all the great stuff he did, only to die so young. His wife is still alive, she ate what she wanted and is now over 90 years old. Hmmmm
