The question I kept asking was, “Why me?” But, I was asking that question in my own head even though the room had four or five people in it. All but one of them were the ones who deserved the talking too. I was about as innocent as a body could get but for some reason the other person in the room, Mr. McDonald, didn’t see it that way. He’s the one I should have been asking, “Why me?” but at the time I was probably thinking a quite mouth might be the best policy.

So let me tell what happened, and you can be the judge. I mean, if you think I should have been included, then I guess I’ve been wrong for the last thirty-five years. We were on our senior trip. I know that senior trips are largely a thing of the past, and that is most likely a good thing, but I’m sure glad we got to take one. I think there were fourteen of us who made the trip. I’m trying to remember for sure, but I think Joe Cassis got hurt playing softball the last week of school and was unable to make the trip. We had two sponsors with us. One was our English teacher Mrs. Payne, and the other was the high school superintendent Mr. McDonald.  

We left Loop, Texas at midnight on a yellow dog. The luggage had all been thrown into the bus, and we crawled on with pillows, and who knows what else for a three or four hour trip to Abilene where we would get on our chartered bus. A nice big comfy Gray Hound type bus, with lots and lots of room for fourteen graduates and two sponsors to move around in. The luggage all went under the bus in the storage area. It was a funny sight to see fourteen of us load up in the back of that bus. There must have been ten rows of seats between the chaperones and us.

Our first stop later that day was Austin, Texas. It was mid afternoon when we got to our hotel, and the first thing we did was hit the pool. Well, most of us hit the pool. There were two of us who couldn’t swim. Yes, you heard right, two of us. That includes me. I’m thinking maybe I’m too small to displace enough water to actually be floatable. You put me in the water and I sink to the bottom faster than a chunk of anvil. Derris Shults was the other non-swimmer. I had on my suit, and kinda stayed in the shallow end watching the others having all kinds of fun. After more or less sitting on the sideline for an hour, I made a decision. I walked out onto the diving board and told my trusted cronies, “I’m jumping in guys, if I don’t come up, pull me out!” I figured they’d save me cause bad as they would hate it the trip would have to end if’n I drowned, and that would have made for a very short ten day senior trip.

I figure since I’m writing this blog you already know I made it out OK. So the rest of the trip was set, I really couldn’t really swim, but I could jump toward the side of the pool and dog paddle my way to safety. Yup, it was going to be a great ten day trip. We were scheduled to go to San Antonio, Corpus Christi, New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Dallas, before making it back home. I have already told you there were fourteen of us. What I haven’t told you is how bad the ratio of boys to girls was. There were nine guys and five girls…not zaclly how I’d a done it, but it was what it was.

Well we left the next day for San Antonio, and got to the hotel in the afternoon again. Sure enough everybody hit the pool as fast as we could. We almost had the place all to ourselves, but there was one young married couple and their two small children down at the shallow end. We were having a great time when I became aware that a plan was being hatched. I saw a whisper here and a motion there. I knew something was up and I wanted to be in on whatever it was. I’ve already introduce you to the guys I did most of my running with, but I’ll refresh your memory. There was Craig Ancinec, or Czech as we called him, then there was Mike Young, who also went by Chung, and finally his cousin Tony Hord, AKA, Tony Hord. Those were the guys who were making the plan I wanted in on, and I was successful in being included. It just wasn’t the kind of inclusion I had in mind.

I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but when I heard Czech tell Chung, “Your job is to keep him from drowning.” I figured I was the central character in whatever was about to take place. With that I backed up to the fence and grabbed on for all I was worth. There was a big struggle taking place now with guys pealing my fingers from the wire. The kidnapping included a lot of yelling as you can imagine, and soon everyone was watching, and screaming and laughing. Well try as I might I couldn’t hang on, and soon found myself being flung into the pool. The next thing I knew there was someone holding me around my chest and someone else tugging at my trunks. Then I opened my eyes and saw all these bubbles, and quickly ascertained they were coming from me! What little air I had left was vacating my Adonis body with rapid speed! I swiftly came to the conclusion that giving up the trunks was the wisest course of action.

As soon as I came up for air I headed for the side of the pool with the speed of a snail. When I finally arrived I looked up and saw the ten feet of the five females who were all standing on the edge of the pool gawking. I think I could have lived without the nightmares I’ve suffered for the last thirty plus years if they hadn’t been pointing and laughing so hard. Now here’s where things started to fall apart. It was only a very short time till word came to the pool by way of the hotel manager that we were to vacate the area posthaste. And to make matters worse, four of us were being summoned to the hotel room of Mr. Mac.

It seems that the young couple with the two young kids weren’t too keen on an eighteen year old going skinny-dipping with their young’ns. “Boys,” he said, “I’m about to send all of you home, and it ‘s going to look real bad when I send the three sons of school board members home from the senior trip.”

 So now you know why I kept asking “Why me?” I mean, all I did was allow myself a little freedom from the restriction of a tight pair of swim trunks, er, ah, um,…I mean I just let the trunks go so I wouldn’t drown! What else was I posed to do? So, please tell me, should I have been included in the come to Mr. Mac meeting?

Till next time,

Grump