The old Grainola SchoolLewis Morris of Foraker, Oklahoma was my principle and teacher in Grainola and then at Shidler he was a principle again. I always liked him because he was fair and listened even when he was real mad. In fact I remember two times he was pretty mad at me.
The first one is when we were playing basketball during recess in the Grainola gym and Denise Logue snuck up behind me and hit me in the middle of the back. She was probably after me because I was so big and there was no other way for her to stop me. Well, I did not know it was her, much less a girl that hit me. I immediately swung around and grabbed at her but only got her dress as she was trying to run away. Yep, you guessed it, she left her dress behind. I have no idea how it happened but suddenly Mr. Morris had ahold of me by my arm and was almost carrying me to his office. When he was mad his nose which was quit long got really red and part of his cheeks went really white. I knew he was steaming. His office was real long and narrow with a chest freezer in it where he would have folks bend over while he took down his giant paddle and gave 3 swats on your rear. I don't know how I got the courage but I said to him that this was not right in that she hit me in the back without cause and I simply in self defense swung around and grabbed at her. She took off running and her dress ripped right off of her and therefore was not my fault but hers for making such a bad decision. Surprise surprise! He listened and then gathered some evidence and came back and told me I could go.
The second time he got really mad at me was when during recess we always played softball right out the front door of the school. It was always everyone who wanted to participate including girls and guys of all ages. In case you don't remember there were 8 grades in Grainola. The first and second met in one room, the third, fourth and fifth met in another room and the 7th and 8th were in another. Mr. Morris taught 7th and 8th. Mrs. Casselman (not sure how to spell it) taught first and second. And my favorite, Mrs. Beth Shumate (Auntie Beth but not my real aunt) taught 3rd, 4th and 5th. Well, during one of those softball games I was typically a home run hitter because I was so much bigger and stronger than everyone in the school. In fact I was bigger than all of the teachers and especially bigger than Bob Scott, our bus driver, and Lizzy, our school cook. I was very self conscience about my size and quit frankly introverted at the time because of it. I was running the bases just like normal and someone yelled out something which I never really heard. Mrs. Shumate was monitoring the kids and she thought she heard someone use God's name in vain. She assumed it was me and sure enough off to Mr. Morris's office I went again. I told him I did not say a thing and Mrs. Shumate admitted that she just assumed it was me. Off the hook I went again.
Well, you learn a lot in the Osage, so what did I learn?
- In those days if you could not prove your innocence at school you got double trouble at home, no questions asked
- Small towns and small schools are where real heroes are born, like Lewis Morris, a real mentor
- You can trust adults especially if they can trust you
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