SMOKING - PART 2 OF A TAIL
Written by Ronald MizonPublished on January 2018
“Shame on you!” These words rung in my ears. Collecting her thoughts the teacher stood there with her arms folded and gave me a wigging for smoking on the school premises and surreptitiously at that, she then continued to give me a short lesson on good health and hygiene. My cigarette went rapidly into the furnace. She concluded her short homily by assuring me that no one else need know of my misdemeanour and the incident was closed.
She returned to her teaching and I duly followed a few minutes later feeling, if not looking, very sheepish.
My friend Donald gave me a strange look but did not say anything. I suspect that he had an idea of my misdemeanour but was discreet enough to keep it to himself. All the time I knew him he did not mention it once. He was a true friend.
I thought that I would never live my faux pas down, however, no one ever mentioned it at all. My secret was safe. I did, however, have a little smoke now and again but never near the school and certainly not near the house. I did continue this habit for some years and when I returned to England took to puffing a pipe like my Dad.
Later, when I was about 26, I gave it up altogether, the reason being that I bought a small car to be able to take my wife and family out but I did not get my sums correct. I could not afford the gasoline for it so I gave up the smoking for this purpose and have not smoked since.
Some children at the school came, I termed, from the back woods and they brought with them their midday lunch. Their fare was simple and sustainable according to their parents’ means and no doubt they returned home at the end of the day for a hot meal.
When I lived first in Mount Uniacke, Aunt Allie would pack us up with sandwiches, eg salmon and cress with fruit as an extra, or meat sandwiches with pickle inside. Now, my friend Davis Williams, he was about 11 or 12 . He used to come daily with peanut butter sandwiches and used to say to me UMM peanut butter, I love it. He took me to his home one day and proudly showed me a large wooden bucket full of peanut butter. He said, "We all eat it, my two sisters as well”. Their home was quite plain. The wooden pail was about 30 inches in diameter so they had plenty to go at.
One day at school at Barney’s River, one of the young lads pulled out of his pocket a pig’s tail, and being of a mischievous nature during recess, he would wiggle it at the other pupils, especially the little girls as they ran away screaming.
When I asked him how much he would take for it, it surprised him, so when I offered him a nickel for it he soon handed it over. “What do you want it for?” he asked. I winked and replied, “there hangs a tail, wait and see”.
Next morning before school started I took the tail and went up to the teacher’s desk and slipped it into her top drawer leaving just the end of the tail sticking out. “What a jape.” I thought.
As everyone assembled next morning, with the teacher in front, we sang “O Canada” and took our respective seats. The teacher took her seat in order to call the roll when all of a sudden she jumped up quickly and uttered a little squeal. Quickly composing herself, and moving in front of her desk with a red face, she drew everyone’s faces to her attention and asked, “ Now then, who is responsible for this prank?” while at the same time drawing the tail out from her drawer in between her forefinger and her thumb.
No one replied to her request, but I was the only one not laughing. Oh dear!