My Family: Chapter 38

Remember I mentioned a boy giving me a ride on his back when I was in first grade, well, when I went into the tenth grade he was one of my teachers. The first day of school he pulled me aside and asked me not to call him by his name but to call him by his sire name and put a Mr. in front it. We had our first test of the year coming up and I took the day off - my first day in two years of high school because mom didn’t wake me up in time to catch the school bus. When I went back to school the next day, Mr. teacher was reading out what everyone’s grade was on the test. I got a “D” and the class spoke up and asked how I could get a “D” when I wasn’t there to take the test. I didn’t even know the class would miss me, I never spoke to any of them and if they spoke to me I just turn my head.

The boys were the biggest pests, they would pull my hair, throw paper balls at me, or tell on me for chewing gum in class. Telling on me for chewing gum was the straw that broke the camel’s back because when the teacher told me to throw it away, that gum had lasted me a whole week and God only knew when I would get another stick, I stuck it to my bed post every night before I went to sleep if I forgot and fell asleep with it in my mouth I would have cut it out of my hair the next morning. I stood in front of the whole class and told the the boys what I thought of them - I had no friends in high school.

I dropped out of school after the first half of tenth grade; I was 16 years old.  I didn't have any lunch or clothes to wear and it was getting harder for me to steal Shirley's shoes; she was hiding them better or maybe she was sleeping with them. I just know I couldn't find them anymore; she said if I wore her shoes she couldn’t wear them anymore because I turned the heel. She would wait for me at the bus drop-off to get them back and if I didn’t run she would beat me up.  I didn't have any books to study from, in West Virginia you had to buy your books for school. That’s probably why a lot of children didn’t go to high school. I do know I wasn't the only one without books and had to share someone's with them, but I did no homework.