school days

Going to Grammar school in Colusa was probably a little different than going to school in most other schools, because it was so small. I had a good friend that lived right down the street from me. We would get up real early and be the first ones at school. Now your probably thinking, man these guys really wanted to learn. Well not really you see we had a rule over on the baseball diamond that whoever got there first, got to be up first, so we were always there first. Playing baseball there was a lot different because someone decided it would be a good idea to put a baseball diamond on the asphalt, I seen a lot of skinned knees and elbows. The other thing was that when you went up to batt if you got a hit it was a miracle because there was about 30 infielders and 40 outfielders, thats why we went early so we could play a regular game without all the extra people.
I always enjoyed playing sports and I always looked forward to the meeting the school would have in the auditorium at the end of the year, grades 1-8, to honor all the people that excelled in school for one reason or another, but what I really liked was when they gave out the award for the best athlete. They always gave a special award to the guys that were the captains of the winning teams in baseball, football and basketball. They would call them up on stage by name,and give them there award individually, and there was a certain amount of respect that went with this honor,and nobody had ever won this award for more than one sport. When I was old enough to be captain of a team, I was nominated for captain in all three sports,and my teams won the league in all three sports so I figure I would be a cinch for the special award at the end of the year. Well guess what, at the end of the year we were all playing out on the playground and the teacher calls us over, there was just a hand full of kids there and the teacher gives me this certificate with this little football,baseball and basketball on it.He told me that was my award for being the captain of all three leagues. I appreciated the award, but I always wondered why I was treated differently than the others, especially since I achieved something that nobody else had ever done.Sometimes life makes you feel like Charlie Brown,that was a Charlie Brown day.

Our principle in this school could be a little mean to us kids sometimes, I guess that was his job, but there was this one incident when I didn't go to school because I didn't have any shoes to wear.the bottom had come loose and when I walked it looked like they were talking to you, I think some of you know what I mean,anyway my principle comes over to the house to find out why I was not in school so my mom tells him I didn't have any shoes to wear and she didn't have the money to buy me some. so he says not to worry because he's going to take me to town and buy me some. I'm sitting there thinking, damn I have to go with this jerk ( we didn't like each other ) anyway I get in his car and he takes me to town and we stop at the army surplus store. I don't remember what was going thru my mind but I can guarantee you it wasn't anything nice. We get down and go inside and I have a seat and he has the guy measure my feet. I would have settled for any tennis shoes and they would have been cheaper, but not this time Charlie Brown, This dude picks out the ugliest shoes I had ever seen in my life. My cousin came up with a name for them, he named them hamburger shoes, because the front of the shoe stuck up all puffy like and it looked like somebody dropped a hamburger on them.I had to wear these stupid shoes until they wore out,and believe me I helped them out the best I could. kids would see my shoes and point at them and laugh at them. Now check this out, about 50 yrs. later I'm sitting here at home, and my daughter calls me and says I'm wanted on the phone. so I go and get the phone and it's an old friend of mine from Colusa, he's in town visiting and he wants to see me.This guy was my best friend back then.We get to talking about old times of course,and we get to the subject of "our principle" and he starts telling me about the time he didn't have any shoes to wear and "our principle" bought him a pair of the ugliest shoes you could imagine,he described them and they were the same kind that he had bought me.When I said hamburger shoes we laughed for days.You'll never convince me that he didn't buy us them shoes to humiliate us. I guess you could say we had the last laugh though.