Larry Paden:  

tiff, gray hair beside me in bed. I fussed about that, until Mrs. Harris awoke and explained to me that she had come to take care of me, while my mother was in the hospital. She asked me if sleeping in my bed was okay, I said it was and went back to sleep. As was the custom of the day, my mother was in the hospital for most of a week and left me a series of presents to remind me of her. In Kindergarten, they somehow managed to get an epidemic of students with pink eye. The younger teacher looked at my eye, which at the time had an irritated, non-pigmented nevus. I pointed out to her that if I had a contagious disease, it would be on both sides of both eyes, not just the left side of the left eye. She couldn't decide, but we went to talk to the senior teacher, who, after hearing my argument, said that she had to agree. In first grade, in Mrs. Weeks' class, I seriously asked why oxygen & hydrogen stayed together in H2O. I pointed out that O2 and H2 were in the air in contact with water. After the class twittering settled down, I explained why it was an important question. I was disappointed that the teacher had no answer. Since Professor Gibbs had done his work in 1954, it hadn't made it into my dad's chemistry book! While I thought children were sent to school to learn such things, the lack of an answer rather disillusioned me! President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963. A teacher came around to each classroom, including Mrs. Weeks to whisper the news. I asked her what the news was before I left for home and she quietly told me. I greatly admired President Kennedy and was greatly saddened by the loss. I'm not sure how my mother felt about it, but she was somewhat surprised when I asked if the news was true when I first got home. In second grade, now Dr. David Kondos and I were the first boys in Mrs. Grove's class to top the girls in the reading contest! I still remember my satisfaction of having read every word in a 315-page sixth grade reader for the contest. In third grade, I drew the dreaded Mrs. Kisner! Turned out that my mom had worked for her husband in the oil patch, so we all got on famously! In fourth grade, Dana Patterson & I were in Mrs. Money's class and went to Gilcrease Museum & Philbrook Museums together. Mrs. Money gave us guys partners, hoping we would be on our good behaviour! In fifth grade, in Mrs. Fly's class, she always would read a book out loud. She ready Little Britches, which we had at home. Some of us got to wondering what version she had, since the more colorful parts were omitted. We got into the room early, and discovered that her book had careful line-outs in red pencil of things she didn't care to read. For example, the part about the bullies pulling off the hero's pants was omitted. In sixth grade, I had Mr. Austin and a pair of Hungarian Gypsies tried to pull off my pants. The bigger one had my arms behind my back and was completely surprised when I brought my heal down hard on his instep! His foreign utterance caused his buddy to take his hand out of my pants! They were upset by their failure and threatened to tell the principal what I called them. I just smiled and asked them to please do so! In seventh grade, I had Mrs. Lyn Goss for Math. She called me to her desk and was copying my list of grades, being zeros and numbers close to 100%. I remarked that the average was a particular value, perhaps 82%. She paused, considered and agreed. She then wrote the list of non-zero numbers. I remarked that that average was a particular value, perhaps 98%. She laughed and said, see, you can do the math! After that, I was much more diligent in turning in homework! In eighth grade, Mr. Ferguson had a spelling test in English. It was a colorful list of words and a couple of wise-cracks were made. He said that the next wise-crack would get a zero. I may have been his most apathetic speller at the time and wasn't paying much attention. Something funny struck me about the situation and the next word. In three words or less, I said something that cracked everybody up, even Mr. Ferguson. However, he zeroed my test. Suddenly, I was mad enough to study spelling and pay attention in English. When I withdrew to move to Sand Springs, I went around to collect grades, I presented him with the slip with the demand to give me my A! He was surprised, and opened his gradebook. Happily, he had correctly recorded the grades, which as predicted made about 90%! In eighth grade, in Mrs. Baugh's Science class, the room had no space for a thirty-sixth desk. So I volunteered to sit in whatever empty desk was available, which allowed me to meet everybody in the class. When all the desks were full, Linda Milam Roberts would let me share her desk, so I began to really enjoy science! In ninth grade, I was struggling to select an elective. After non being able to enroll in flute because I was male, I assumed that typing was out. Amazingly, my mom said that typing would be the most important thing that I could take that year. So I did and loved typing enough to make A's in it. Only my final timed writing speed was slightly low, only being 47 wpm, instead of 48, which was considered an A. My other elective, Latin had a wonderful teacher, about to retire, Mrs. Mary Alice Beck. Mrs. Beck truly made Latin fun, useful in English etymologies, and Mythology was every Friday! We learned more about culture and the importance of language to culture than in any other high school class!".