I am going to tell the story that made this song personal to me. I entered HS at age 13, having skipped a grade and graduated at age 17. In my first year of high school I was what you would call a "geek." As a 13 year old I was little more than a child and the target of cowardly bullies, some in later years I settled previous scores with…
I am going to tell the story that made this song personal to me. I entered HS at age 13, having skipped a grade and graduated at age 17. In my first year of high school I was what you would call a "geek." As a 13 year old I was little more than a child and the target of cowardly bullies, some in later years I settled previous scores with but am still looking for others in my jaunts to the city I attended high school at.
Last fall I was driving past that high school still standing with no changes and felt the urge to stop and walk in places I had not walked for decades. Pulling into the parking lot I noticed the same greenhouse as it was decades ago and thought once again of the proof I swallowed then that people were corrupt and cruel.
The subject I was taking in Grade 9 was agriculture and I still know the name of that teacher, a good man in whose class I learned more than in any other subject taught me. The boys and girls were separated with the girls going into "Home Economics" and the boys going into Agriculture. To this day I still remember what I learned from Mr. K. One day he told us he wanted us to buy some fertilized far eggs and we would use the portable hatchery the school had bought to hatch baby chicks in with the focus on different breeds of chickens and the incubation variances of each breed.
I bought six eggs from the farmer up the road and the incubator was almost full when the last student placed his eggs in it. Each owner attached a small piece of masking tape with his initials on, to each egg that was his.
The day came when Mr. K announced that some eggs had hatched already and in a few days almost all had hatched with a few failing. All of mine hatched but a few days later, I discovered in real life there are out there abominable and cruel people.
A few days passed and I know you women reading this what I am going to say. The greenhouse was NOT locked. It was the good old days when thieves were few and most people attended church. We came into the class all set to go to the greenhouse again and observe the development of our chicks. Mr K had a solemn look on his face crossed by anger. In a very angry tone he reported to us that someone but he expected it was two students who the previous night had walked into the greenhouse and taken each chick one by one and thrown/smashed them on the concrete floor.
ALL OF THEM!!! He volunteered to buy enough eggs to repeat the scenario again when a lock had been installed on the greenhouse door.
So after decades when I pulled in that day this was the first memory that came to the fore. Everyone had an idea of who the culprits were...both were residents of the town and both lived close to the highschool. Their initials are RT and AP, well known for bullying smaller students and even beating up on the out of town students they caught down town on "activity period" days after school.
I had already settled the score with RT at age 21 when I played hockey in the "bush league" where fights were not uncommon.
Back to the chicks, I took mine home a few weeks later and looked after them until two adult German shepherds and their half grown puppies made a call one day I was at school. They killed all of them. Their mistake was made weeks later when they came again and mauled to death our terrier.
I will not say who did it but all of the offenders were either shot dead or trapped and the carcasses were thrown on the front lawn of the owners who never got more dogs.
That was a long time ago but I never forgot the person who did the "executions" shot one of the dogs but it managed to make it partway home before collapsing dead.
The lesson here is that the past was not always without the typeset of persons who were cruel and I said that to say this, and I am of the opinion that those two who killed those chicks are in all probability wife beaters and/or women abusers. All is the same under the sun.
I am going to tell the story that made this song personal to me. I entered HS at age 13, having skipped a grade and graduated at age 17. In my first year of high school I was what you would call a "geek." As a 13 year old I was little more than a child and the target of cowardly bullies, some in later years I settled previous scores with but am still looking for others in my jaunts to the city I attended high school at.
Last fall I was driving past that high school still standing with no changes and felt the urge to stop and walk in places I had not walked for decades. Pulling into the parking lot I noticed the same greenhouse as it was decades ago and thought once again of the proof I swallowed then that people were corrupt and cruel.
The subject I was taking in Grade 9 was agriculture and I still know the name of that teacher, a good man in whose class I learned more than in any other subject taught me. The boys and girls were separated with the girls going into "Home Economics" and the boys going into Agriculture. To this day I still remember what I learned from Mr. K. One day he told us he wanted us to buy some fertilized far eggs and we would use the portable hatchery the school had bought to hatch baby chicks in with the focus on different breeds of chickens and the incubation variances of each breed.
I bought six eggs from the farmer up the road and the incubator was almost full when the last student placed his eggs in it. Each owner attached a small piece of masking tape with his initials on, to each egg that was his.
The day came when Mr. K announced that some eggs had hatched already and in a few days almost all had hatched with a few failing. All of mine hatched but a few days later, I discovered in real life there are out there abominable and cruel people.
A few days passed and I know you women reading this what I am going to say. The greenhouse was NOT locked. It was the good old days when thieves were few and most people attended church. We came into the class all set to go to the greenhouse again and observe the development of our chicks. Mr K had a solemn look on his face crossed by anger. In a very angry tone he reported to us that someone but he expected it was two students who the previous night had walked into the greenhouse and taken each chick one by one and thrown/smashed them on the concrete floor.
ALL OF THEM!!! He volunteered to buy enough eggs to repeat the scenario again when a lock had been installed on the greenhouse door.
So after decades when I pulled in that day this was the first memory that came to the fore. Everyone had an idea of who the culprits were...both were residents of the town and both lived close to the highschool. Their initials are RT and AP, well known for bullying smaller students and even beating up on the out of town students they caught down town on "activity period" days after school.
I had already settled the score with RT at age 21 when I played hockey in the "bush league" where fights were not uncommon.
Back to the chicks, I took mine home a few weeks later and looked after them until two adult German shepherds and their half grown puppies made a call one day I was at school. They killed all of them. Their mistake was made weeks later when they came again and mauled to death our terrier.
I will not say who did it but all of the offenders were either shot dead or trapped and the carcasses were thrown on the front lawn of the owners who never got more dogs.
That was a long time ago but I never forgot the person who did the "executions" shot one of the dogs but it managed to make it partway home before collapsing dead.
The lesson here is that the past was not always without the typeset of persons who were cruel and I said that to say this, and I am of the opinion that those two who killed those chicks are in all probability wife beaters and/or women abusers. All is the same under the sun.