Chapter 2 "Whompum and Skinney Dipping"
I never knew why my dad didn’t finish high school until I was an adult. I’d always been told he’d finished the 10th grade but quit to work for his dad. Since it was 1935 and post Great Depression, I assumed it was because he financially had no choice. I was to find out however, that was far from the truth. The “truth” was he was expelled!
I remember the night daddy gave us a glimpse of what he had been like as a young “adult”. The entire family had congregated for a holiday dinner and all three of my sisters and their spouses were at the table. Dinner was done and over desert, we all started telling stories about what we’d done when we were younger that our parents didn’t know about at the time. Daddy, normally very reserved and rarely spoke much at family get-togethers, suddenly started by telling us how his high school days ended. We all sat there shocked but thrilled that he was participating in our conversation. My sisters and I knew very little about our dad’s life growing up and here he was sharing incredible stories one after the other! It was as if the flood gates had broken and the waves of the past flowed freely over all of us.
As he told us what he and his fellow classmates did extreme enough to end his school days, I couldn’t believe my ears. It was early in his junior year. He was 17 years old, cocky and popular. With his coal black hair, big dark brown eyes and tan skin he’d inherited from his great-grandmother’s Cherokee blood, no wonder he was so cocky. He knew he was good looking and his female classmates constantly told him so. To date or be friends with him also made you popular too. For example, his girlfriend for the last year became head cheerleader because of dating him. The fact that his dad owned the local gas station, garage, and a “car dealership” consisting of 5 of 6 cars (mainly used for Rum Running because of Prohibition…) probably didn’t hurt either! He always had access to a car and gasoline!
That year, the school had hired a new female teacher from a big city in Ohio. She had just graduated college and this was her first year to teach and the first time to experience a small town “Kentucky” environment. Ironically, she wasn’t much older than daddy or his classmates. The first time he set eyes on her, he thought she was a new student and he’d definitely have to get to know her as soon as possible!
He walked into his first class of the day and there she stood. He couldn’t believe it. She was his teacher. He remembered thinking “How could a woman that looked like that become a teacher!” She could have easily been a model with her shapely frame, curly dark, long auburn hair, alabaster complexion and dark green eyes. She was truly a beautiful woman. Apparently, all of his male classmates were thinking the same thing. She was definitely the topic of conversation before, during and after school.
In those days, air conditioning didn’t exist and even fans were rare in schools. In August, the school room was extremely hot, even with all the windows open. It wasn’t unusual after school let out for the kids to go to a near-by watering hole and cool off prior to going home. Everyone had their own “special” spot to swim in and daddy and his male buddies had a secluded spot they had ’inherited’, a local quarry, at their own initiations,. This particular day someone came up with the idea that the new teacher needed to be “initiated”. It was a tradition that had long existed at the local school eons before my dad was even in grade school but was only done with the males students and but never a teacher – especially not a female one!
The initiation involved the up-and-coming male “peons” that would be juniors in the fall. The prior junior class males that would be new seniors in the fall would “initiate” the new juniors. Similar to a fraternity, there were various groups. Each group had their own designated “watering hole”. The tradition was to “kidnap” the new inductee without any forewarning, make them strip and introduce them to their watering hole by having them jump into the water -- which is exactly what they expected the new teacher to do when they kidnapped her!
They ambushed her by throwing a blanket over her as she exited the school. You would have thought a group of 17 year olds would have known better -- especially when the teacher was crying and screaming out in fear. Apparently being “local yokel’s” they didn’t think it was that big of a deal, that it was all just innocent fun.
They told her they wanted to make her feel welcomed by going thru the same initiation they had been required to experience. All she had to do was “skinny dip” with the guys and they would take her back once her initiation was complete; She begged and pleaded with them to take her back but even her tears didn’t make a difference. She told them she would lose her job if she went thru went their so called initiation. They promised they wouldn’t tell anyone. Being new to the area, she had no clue where she was and completely at their mercy. Finally, she relented but only as far as her undergarments. Holding her disrobed clothing in front of her, she dipped her toes into the water and then demanded to be taken back to the school. .
True to their word, they took her back not realizing how physically and emotionally traumatized she was from their actions. They had convinced each other that living in a small town, “traditions” were important. As foolish, silly young teenagers they didn’t realize what they had put the new teacher through was not the same thing.-- and definitely not even close to their local tradition. They knew their so-called kidnappers, knew the tradition and what to expect, knew the area and knew they could leave at any time. To this poor teacher, these boys were completely horrible strangers. She had no idea about the local traditions or what to expect. For all she knew, maybe they were going to do her bodily harm. The group of foolish immature boys didn’t comprehend the extent of the terror and harm they had inflicted on the poor teacher -- but they soon would.
This “adventure” occurred on a Friday. By Monday, one of the boys in the group broke the “no tell” promise and bragged about initiating the teacher. The rumor mill spread the story like wildfire and each time it was retold, the story got hotter and hotter.
The poor teacher showed up for class Monday, trying to hold onto her composure but as soon as she saw her “attackers” she became physically ill and had to leave the classroom. She went to the principal and advised she needed to go home because she was ill.
By Monday evening, the story had reached most of the town’s parents. All that evening, irate parents contacted the principal, about this low morale woman corrupting their little darlings and demanded she be fired. It might have happened except for 2 things. One, the guys grew a conscience and went to the principal as a group and confessed and two, when the teacher spoke to the principal, he was astute enough to realize there was more than just an ill young lady standing before him. He asked her what was wrong. At first, she didn’t want to say anything for fear she would look weak and out-of-control to her new boss. Suddenly it no longer mattered and she broke down in tears and told him the whole story.
While the little “angels” were in the principal’s office telling their version of the incident, they tried the “innocent approach”. Their spin-on-it was they’d followed the community’s annual tradition of initiating a “newbie”. They explained that all of them had been kidnapped and initiated as a “rite of passage” to strengthen their resolve and make them better and stronger future leaders in their community. They just wanted to make her feel welcomed in her new environment and share the same initiation they had experienced. They argued that they didn’t have a choice when they were initiated, so of course, she wasn’t given a choice either.
The principal looked at them sternly. “If you don’t know the difference between initiating a long time local who knows our traditions versus a young lady, a teacher, a person of authority new to our town, then I question not only your judgement but your ability to reason what is right or wrong. She knew nothing about our so-called traditions.
“What you did to that poor girl extremely traumatized her! She feels she could not be an effective teacher here due to losing all credibility and respect because of your “hoodlum” actions. She has requested her contract for the rest of the year be terminated so she could return home to Ohio”.
He continued, “We’ve honored her request and let her out of her contract but paid her the full contractual amount because of all she had been through. Not only have you cost this school a highly recommended and well educated teacher, the school is out a year’s wages. We will be lucky if she doesn’t sue our school system for what you boys did to her! In fact, she’s considering giving up teaching, something that has been a life-long dream of hers!”
The principal told the boys they needed to be in his office tomorrow morning at 8 AM with at least one of their parents to learn what their punishment would be.
The next day, the principal almost felt sorry for the boys. Several of the parents that had complained the loudest about the “lude woman” and demanded she be terminated were sitting there in front of him. He wondered what was going through their minds at that moment. He knew they had to be embarrassed because in that small town, they’d be labeled as horrible parents that couldn’t control their brats.
“Karma”, he thought to himself secretly smiling as he remembered some of the nasty comments they’d made.
The principal told the boys and their parents that due to the gravity of their actions, they were all permanently expelled for the rest of the school year. When they returned next fall, it would be to re-start their junior year which meant they wouldn’t be graduating next year with the rest of their classmates. In addition, they would not be allowed to step one foot on school grounds until their expulsion was over. They were not even permitted to attend any events such as basketball games, dances – literally nothing -- not even away games.
In hopes of trying to change the principal’s mind, it was now the parent’s that argued that this had been an allowable tradition for years but now, suddenly, without any warning it wasn’t and their boys were being punished without any forewarning, being used as scape goats?
My grandpa tried to reason with the principal too. Grandpa stated he felt the principal wasn’t being fair, that his punishment was way too harsh, too embarrassing and would damage the boy’s futures going forward. He tried to remind the principal that he was young once and probably had done things that he’d regretted too because “boys will be boys”.
At that point, the principal angrily told the parents that the punishment had to fit the severity of the situation and considering the trauma they put the young teacher through, they were getting off easy. If she had decided to press charges, all of them could have been arrested for kidnapping and possibly served prison time. The principal told the parents that he’d promised the teacher he would expel them for the rest of the year if she would agree not to press charges and he was not about to go back on that promise.
Still angry, the principal asked the boy’s parents “What if this had been your daughter forced to take her clothes off in front of a group of strangers? Would you still think this punishment was too harsh? This poor teacher didn’t know where she was or what your sons were going to do to her!”
He closed the meeting with one final comment. IF the teacher decides to sue our school system for deformation of character, the boy’s parents would be held liable to pay any damages awarded.
Quietly, the boys and their parents left the room without saying another word.
This was one of the few times my grandpa with all his money and influence couldn’t get my dad and his buddies out of the mess they had made. Of course daddy’s pride wasn’t about to let him go back next year and be harassed by the under-classmates, so he never went back. In fact, none of his fellow skinny dippers did.
But this wasn’t the end of the story……
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