Stupidity, Major Scale

 We all did it, carried our school books in our arms, both arms laden with books. Even when we went to college and commuted, even taking 2 busses, juggling the armload of books to deposit the fares into the receptacles,  and then a train ride, with a homeward walk from the train depot. Can't blame myself because everybody did it. We knew a few  guys who toted their books in briefcases, but they were to be pitied as nerds.  We suffered backaches from cradling those books for hours sometimes--- walking, on busses, trains, in back seats of cars. Idiocy.

  At Hoosic Valley anyway, all girls carried pencil cases, for pencils, pens, aspirin, lipstick, all those little personal items.  When  the new high school opened, several students from another school district joined with Hoosic Valley and lo and behold, the girls carried, not pencil cases, but purses. But I don't think that transferred to us HVC girls. We didn't carry purses until college, when we slung them over our shoulders to accommodate our arms filled with books.

 Not connected, but another college memory just sprung to mind. We attended classes at the old uptown campus, but our mandated gym classes were several blocks (at least) away at the Brubaker quad where there was space for outdoor gym classes. There we were introduced to a variety of sports including  golf. We were provided with golf clubs, and I suppose some instruction as to how to use them. The Quad was a rectangular field and the class size was probably about 15-20 students, most of us unfamiliar with the art of golf. I remember attempting to address and hit the ball during one session of  gym class,  hearing a shriek not far from where I was,  and looked over to see a girl named Prudy with both hands to her face. Another girl had swung her club, probably a 9-iron, and the follow-through hit poor Prudy right in the mouth. There was blood and broken teeth and Prudy was not in college for the rest of the year, returning only to take her exams at the end of the year. I never heard about  a lawsuit, but there may have been one. I hated gym class anyway.