Friday, April 06, 2007

Severed Heads

While I can’t remember being unhappy in Rushville, my dad apparently decided it was time to move on. He went to Monmouth, Illinois, to look into a printer’s job but came back and then looked into one at a calendar factory in Red Oak, Iowa. This job did not materialize but one at Avoca, Iowa, did and we moved there for the second semester of the 1942-1943 school year.

Rose Marie had difficulty adjusting. According to her account, she was operated on for appendicitis but the rumor spread that she had an abortion. She refused to go to school, which added to the rumor fire. Mother told her if she didn’t go to school she would have to work and would pay her five dollars a week to do our housework. She didn’t much care for the work and with the first paycheck, she bought a bus ticket back to Murray and stayed at the Farr home. (I have a hunch a boyfriend at the old hometown had something to do with all this.)

Mother called Hazel and told her to let Rose Marie stay a week and then put her on a bus back to Avoca. Rose Marie enrolled the following term at Avoca, made up her work, and graduated with her class.

As the new boy coming in the middle of the year, I was miserable for a long time because of teasing and taunting by other kids in the class. Finally, however, another new student showed up and the class bullies transferred their venom to him. Sad to say, I probably joined in the teasing of the new kid to prove I now belonged.

An example of the tricks played by my classmates came in the spring when a cousin of mine, Dick McCrary, came to visit. He lived in Omaha and had spring vacation. We didn’t get that spring break so he rode his bike the some 40 miles to Avoca and visited me in class.

During one class when the teacher wasn’t looking, one student pushed the unabridged dictionary off its stand. The noise, of course, startled everyone including the teacher and as she turned around, everybody around Dick pointed at him. He was innocent, of course, but the teacher informed him that even though he was a visitor, he would have to behave himself.

Dick perhaps brought this trick on himself because of the rather wild story he told the kids about his trip out to Avoca. He described a train wreck at Neola as he was riding by. It included heads being severed and rolling out of the cars and other gory details. The fact was, a train had derailed and he witnessed it, but no injuries were sustained.

Dick was prone to telling tall tales but when I would challenge him, he would say “Just ask my mom if it isn’t true?” Of course, if I did that, I would look bad in his mom’s eyes for accusing him of lying. Finally, I went to his mother in desperation and actually questioned her on a story he had told. Wouldn’t you know it? This was one of the few times he was telling the truth. Kind of like the poker player you know is bluffing but when you finally call, he has you beat!

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