First time in trouble at school.

[cab67]

A random topic came up in discussion with some friends yesterday - when was the first time we got in trouble at school?

I was a pretty good kid, so I almost never got in trouble at school, but I do remember the first time my parents got a call from the principal.

I was in second grade. On the bus to school, we talked about what our mommies and daddies did. And I said, with all sincerity and candor, that my dad sold drugs.

A call to my parents added some needed context - my dad was a pharmaceutical sales rep. He mostly sold medicines for GI problems (e.g. gaviscon, which might have been a prescription medication at the time - I don’t recall for sure).

But it struck me how much things have changed since that time. Back then in 1974, it was possible for a kid to make it up to second grade without knowing that ‘selling drugs’ could be a bad thing, or that there were even such things as illegal drugs. I was a white kid growing up in a suburb; I’m sure there was addiction in our neighborhood, but we were kept pretty-well sheltered from it - though kids living with it their homes would have been aware, I suppose. We didn’t have cable channels dedicated to Dick Wolf series, and children’s programming never touched the topic. It just wasn’t something a kid would encounter, at least where I lived.

Hence, I was able to describe my dad as a drug dealer and mean nothing scandalous by it.

Just some memories, I suppose.

[Thunderbeast]

1. I knew the double entendre when I told kids that my mom was a "stripper"

She made plates for offset printing presses. "Stripping" is part of that process.

[Diamond_Dog]

3. That was what I did, too!

My husband loved to tell his friends years ago that he was dating a “stripper”!

[lastlib]

4. My sister worked for a yearbook company--

She was also a "stripper"; working with photo negatives for printing.

[redwitch]

27. My husband was a stripper too!

I have a hard time telling people that without rushing to explain!

[Mr.Bill]

34. I was a printer.

I ran the printing presses. But I did some stripping on the side.

[Wounded Bear]

2. I joke about taking drugs all the time...

I'm of an age and physical condition that I take a handful of medications twice a day to survive.

[AllaN01Bear]

17. my worker and i call it " dope".

[lastlib]

5. My brother used to make Gaviscon...

Marion Laboratories.

But he was so good at fixing the machines that they moved him into repair work.

[Aristus]

6. When I was in eighth grade, my school had a no-fighting policy.

It was indifferently enforced.

I was punished with a day in detention for play-fighting with a friend.

But the school bullies were never punished for roughing up the smaller kids.

It was Texas. Bullying the powerless is kind of a thing there.

[panader0]

26. When I was in the sixth grade my dad was stationed at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas.

I was captain of the safety patrol, president of the choir and quarterback on our terrible team.
One day, when the teacher stepped out of the class I got into a fight with another guy. We were
rolling around, trying to punch each other when the teacher returned. Each of us were taken
separately down the hall to a book storage room and paddled with a paddle that had holes drilled it.
We had to bend down and hold our ankles while he seemed to take delight in the punishment.
Afterwards, coming back to class, I had to act like it didn't hurt.

[snowybirdie]

7. Ha, hubby told

his 3rd grade nun his mom worked at the "can house"! A family joke released to the world. She worked at American Can Company.

[multigraincracker]

8. My problem with school was

the principal of it.

[Orrex]

9. I pushed Robby off of the climbing apparatus in nursery school

All told, it was probably a drop of about 10 inches, but I had to sit at the piano for the rest of the day.

[The Magistrate]

10. Eighth Grade, Sir

Some kid had decided to start calling me a fruitcake and much to his surprise lost the fight. He recruited a pair of friends for assistance, and over several weeks we had a running fight in the halls and playground. i didn't do much straight up scrapping, but tripped one up down a flight of stairs, punched one in the back of the head without the slightest warning, and managed breaking a bone in my hand on one's jaw. I was tired of it, and brought a switchblade one morning. I didn't have to use it, I just let people know I had it, and no one in the class doubted I would use it. The display was sufficient to end the thing. I never laid eyes on the little pack again, and counted a spot of detention and getting hit a bit at home well worth it.

[BlackSkimmer]

21. Wow. Tough feller.

[The Magistrate]

23. Actually, Yeah

Left home at sixteen. Tend to refer to the period as 'my adventurous youth'. Your belief or otherwise makes no difference to the fact.

[OriginalGeek]

11. i got my mouth washed out with soap so much in daycare

that I developed a taste for it and now I can eat cilantro in all my Mexican/Tex-Mex food and enjoy it.

Take that, fuckers! Your soapy sponges don't mean shit to me!

[AllaN01Bear]

18. me mom used to say that ," im going to wash your mouth out with soap."

never carried it thruough.

[OriginalGeek]

31. they put dish soap on a sponge

and rubbed my tongue with it. Now this was in the late 60s/early 70s so I imagine they can't do that now.

I never did learn my goddamn lesson.

[boston bean]

12. 1st grade

Me and danny were jumping up and down on our school seats lifting up our shirts.

I got sent to the principles office. Danny did not.

That was my first introduction to the sexist unfair world.

How the hell did I know it was wrong for me but not for him?

[Freddie]

13. My friend's son told his daycare teacher that "Mommy drinks and drives"

Coffee, in the morning. He left that part out.

[malthaussen]

14. Approximately my first day.

I was to become intimately familiar with the Board of Education in the ensuing years.

-- Mal

[hunter]

15. I was a pyromaniac.

In kindergarten I made a "campfire" in the sandbox.

I got in trouble for playing with fire throughout school.

Fortunately I never set a fire that got out of control, although I did injure myself a few times building rockets and such.

[mopinko]

16. i actually didnt remember it, but a classmate reminded me at a reunion.

probable 3rd grade or so. i was sorta notorious for my bad haircuts.
either my sisters took me out on the back porch for a shearing, or i cut it myself.
but apparently i dyed it green for st pat's and was hauled off to the principal.

that's about it til i was a sophomore, and i got smacked, and detention, for helping another student w a geometry problem. she was standing next to my desk, at the blackboard, w no clue.
kept my off the honor role, one of the few times i was eligible.
yes, sr mary jeannette, i still remember.

[AllaN01Bear]

19. i got suspended because my oldist sis gave me a mohawk.

[mopinko]

22. lol.

[BlackSkimmer]

20. I thought gaviscon became available in the 80s in the US. nt

[The Magistrate]

29. Not Worth the Bother

[sakabatou]

24. Don't know, but I'm sure it was in elementary.

[Bayard]

25. The only time I ever had to stand in the corner

In second grade, I cried so hard into my sleeve, it was soaking wet.

Horse nut even back then. My older sister had drawn a picture of one for me. I took it to school to show everyone, and put it in that little cubby hole we had under our desks. Another girl took it. When I saw it on her desk, I hit her over the head with a book.

[OriginalGeek]

32. Sounds to me like

that girl needed a bookin'!

[ARPad95]

30. Kindergarten

It was quiet time so lights out, heads down on desks. Someone talked and the teacher told her (not me, mind you), "no talking." I started talking to the classmate next to me and got put in the corner for talking. Whyyyyyy? I wasn't told not to talk.

A 5-year old is very literal! And I was a very young 5-year-old at that.

[Disaffected]

33. First time, first day, first few minutes.

First day of kindergarten, had just entered the classroom with the other 5 YOs. We were all milling about and talking as a bunch of excited kids will do when the teacher told us to go a sit at a desk. Trouble was, there was so much noise in the room that I did not hear her and so did not comply. She immediately stomped over and gave me a good wack on the ass. I recall it clearly even now - was scared and embarrassed as I did not realize I had done anything wrong.

I still believe that cranky old bag tainted my school experience for a long time after. I hope things are handled better now...

[DeeNice]

36. the first time I got in trouble at school made an atheist out of me

I was in first grade at a Lutheran school. We were supposed to memorize and recite in class the ten commandments, one a day, and then the next days some bible verses. So the commandments were easy, just repeat the person in front of you. But when they got to the bible verses I had a hard time repeating the whole thing, so the teacher pulls me by the back of my pixie haircut into an empty classroom and tells me to write it on the board 10 times. If you're a logical thinker you can guess how that went...since I couldn't remember it to repeat in class, how was I supposed to write it? Anyway the memory of that is seared in my brain, but I don't recall anything that followed. It was my last year at that school but I don't think it was because of this.