Well, let me say this. This is something I remember. The part when, not
so much Shakespeare, as all things. I'll take this one statement. When
he was telling us Caesar made his speech, and Caesar said to the people,
'I give you,' Whatever he gave them. 'I give you the rain, and I give
you the sunlight, and I give you the grass and the people, 'Yeah Caesar.
Caesar, mighty Caesar.'' And he says, 'Yes, stop and think about this.
How powerful was Caesar?' And we're all sitting there thinking, 'Gosh,
you know he's really powerful.' And then he said, 'He cannot give you
what you already have. But the people got so caught up in the moment
that they believed that he could.' He used that to tell us that we get
caught up in the moments of things, and sometimes we're very successful
when we do that and sometimes we're not as successful. So he let us know
that when you get involved in something. He could take anything and
bring something out. When you get involved in something, remember that
it is—you can go both ways depending on how you are thinking on that.
And the other thing he would say little rhymes he would say. He would
say this one. 'Men don't forget your raincoat because you never know
when it's going to rain.' He would say, 'Ladies,' what. He would say,
'Ladies, you can always ask for someone's health card.' For years I
didn't know what the man was talking about. But actually he was saying,
'Guys if you're going to be sexually active, you need a condom.' And the
women he was saying 'If you're going to be sexually active, you need to
know your partner.' He would say that every Friday. And for the longest,
no one would say anything about it because we didn't talk about condoms
Page 12and he didn't either. But he did say that and
later I learned—well that's what he meant. He was such a clever person.
He was a small-framed man. He was an English major. He played the piano,
I mean, beautifully. He died some years ago, about ten years ago. He was
just a good person, and he offered you so much. That's what I liked
about those teachers. When I sit down sometimes, I can name them. I can
remember that Mr. Blake was the principal when I was there. If the boys,
usually it was boys, every once in a while you might get a girl, get in
trouble or fight or whatever. But usually guys, you know how guys are
territorial. He would take them in the office, and he had this paddle.
He would paddle them about three times or something. I don't think it
was that bad. But part of it, when the young men would come out, it was
just like it was the story. It was like there was pride in being
paddled. That's the way it came off to me. It was like, 'I was bad and
he paddled me and I took it like a man.' That kind of thing. But
actually he didn't do any more than any other teacher was doing at that
time. But the fact that they were in the principal's office, that
esteemed some of them, regardless of what they did. Well, one of the
things we used to do that was fun. I didn't do it because I didn't know
how to play cards. But I think if I remember, if five bells rang, that
meant that there was a fire drill. I think if it was four bells, I could
be wrong with the number, that meant it was a teacher's meeting. It was
an emergency teacher's meeting for whatever reason. Whatever class you
were in, they would say, 'Please stay in your seats. Read chapter so and
so or do whatever.' All the instructors and they would leave. The
teachers, I imagine most of the students would give them time enough to
get to the office. Boy, then they would start pulling out the deck of
cards. They would play cards. They'd play
[unclear], and I never really learned to play cards until I was in my
thirties. But that was something that
Page 13some people
could just do it. They could just play. They'd try to teach us, and I
guess my interest wasn't there. You tried to stay out of trouble at that
time because you couldn't get into trouble. You'd go someplace else to
another classroom, and here's your teacher back, and you're not in
there. So those kind of things but it was interesting.