High School - Pranks

High School was a major turning point in my life. I discovered I really was not the bumbling oaf I believed my self to be; with new found confidence and new found friends I became a confident and self-assured young woman. I do know the friendships I made at that time were instrumental in my major turning points.


On my first day in home room, the girls behind me and across the aisle became instant buddies when I put my head down on my desk and wailed “Oh, God No”! Two French Canadian girls who were bussed into school from farm country. One was nicknamed by the boys as ‘Face’. She was stunningly beautiful, a true movie star quality; reminded us of Cyd Charisse in a movie dancing with Fred Astaire.  And her cousin, a sexy little bombshell! Although I am no expert on other world cultures, I believe the love of life cannot be equaled to that of a French Canadian girl. The vibrant personalities, the spilling of emotions whether anger or laughter, for me is always so contagious.

So here I was with two young ladies full of life, love and laughter. Mix into this a slightly overweight girl from a Scots family who loved to laugh and a feisty little Italian with black curly hair and fiery black eyes. All of us hell bent for leather. What a time we had!

Our first targets were so easily identified….our home room teacher (my church elder) and the class goody-to-shoes! “Oh, miss let me”, “Oh Miss I know the answer to that”, “Miss, baked some cookies last night thought you might like one for your break”. Little-Miss-Know-It-All! Goody-All! Teachers Shadows! Tu Tu Tu Tu Duh!

Miss-Know-It-All became a daily target, our mission in life was to expose her! When one of my country friends brought in a garter snake for Science class we contrived to put it in Miss Knows desk. I of course was nominated for this task. No problem; snake securely tucked in desk we all took our seats. What a commotion that was with Miss Knows screaming and walking out of class pigeon-toed. She was away from school the rest of the morning; we were convinced she had an accident which made us giggle more. I was targeted as culprit and did own up to it. Met the vice-principal on less than friendly terms that day. However, Miss Knows desk became the daily resting spot for whatever critters we could find. Cruel you say! Perhaps!

And our home room teacher had truly alienated me first day so I was up to whatever was concocted. She really was such a sweet lady that even today I am sorry for what I did to her. At that time grown women wore girdles...one of two versions; just above waist or from collar bone down!  I’ve seen modern versions for young people in the past few years and cannot imagine why anyone would want to wear one although today one does have a choice.  "Back then" wearing of one of these contraptions identified a 'well dressed woman'.

They were totally rigid elastic, designed to be pulled on, up over legs to torso; totally binding derriere, stomach and waist in no-give elastic, with whale bones sewn in to retain shape. Consequently excess 'fat' was pushed below leg of girdle or under armpits.  Well Miss Home Rooms was so rigid you could see whale bone lines through her clothing. Our discussions concluded she wore the full body version and we decided that nothing could penetrate that girdle; looked more like armour plate! Thumb tacks! No! Who would dare! Don’t dare me, because I’ll do it!. So here I was placing thumb tacks on her desk seat.

Well, didn’t they stay embedded in her backside. She didn’t even know they were there! Didn’t know why the class was in such giggles and Miss Knows wouldn’t dare tell her either! Of course with all the giggling going on didn’t she sit on the edge of my desk saying “I don’t know what is going on here but I do know you are at the bottom of this!” She had my number but never found out what the giggles were that day.

No excuse for this behaviour I am certain. Recalling that I was barely 14 at the time maybe immaturity might be cited.  In any event; there were seven of us who laughed and pranked our way through high school. Loved every one of these new found friends and the giggles we had!

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