CONTINUING... surprises & changes (Part 139r)

CONTINUING... surprises & changes (Part 139r)

With a lot on my mind I’d forgotten about the rally that Pat (the PTA lady) had called for at the school that night. I was late in getting home and when Elle pulled my supper out of the oven she chided me to hurry up as we needed to get to the school. I was still not focused and asked why. When she told me I felt about as stupid as a person could be, especially with having spent so much time on the whole school board exercise. She’d arranged for her mother to watch the girls so all I had to do was eat, change clothes and leave.

As I was getting into comfortable clothes I began to wonder just how Wally, the school board president, would take being confronted by a hoard of people. My own personal experience with the man told me that it wouldn’t go well. However, something needed to be done to get his attention. At Pat’s, on Saturday evening, I’d heard more than one person say that the presidency of the Board had gone to his head. I’d talked with Bob (who was on the Board) at the sailing club the day before and his ‘take’ on the situation was that the parents needed to take a stand and to voice their concerns. I tried to draw him out on how he felt about Wally as president and he refused to discuss it with me. Now, only time would tell.

We got to the school a little after 7pm. The front lawn, from the road to the steps of the school, was about 150 yards. About 100 yards of it was occupied by parents of the school children. At one PTA meeting we’d been told that the population of the school, from K through grade 12, was approximately 700 students and represented approximately 400 sets of parents. I couldn’t begin to estimate how many people were there but what was impressive was that so many were well ahead of the scheduled time. Elle knew far more of them than I did as she had been a substitute teacher in the district for over a year so it was far easier for her to strike up a conversation than it was for me. So, I just listened... and I got an earful.

At around 7:20pm, the ‘buzz’ of conversation was interrupted by a bull horn and the unmistakable sound of Pat’s sharp voice. She’d taken a position at the front doors of the school so as to be able to intercept Wally and the other Board members as they attempted to enter the building. However, her message was to ask if anyone had seen any of the board members. There was silence. 7:30pm came and went and still no sign of them. By then the people were yelling at Pat asking if she’d had the wrong date for the meeting. She held up the local newspaper and pointed to the public notice that had been printed. Now the ‘buzzing“ returned and it was more like the sound of angry bees.

I’m not sure of the time but someone managed to push their way up to Pat and whispered something to her. I was too far back on the lawn to really see her face but I did see her stamp her foot and turn to the people right in front of her and say something to them without using the bullhorn. The the crowd up front started pushing their way back towards the road. As they did Pat finally used the bull horn to announce that the Board had ”outsmarted“ them and were meeting at the lodge that Wally owned and ran just down the road towards the village.

I won’t call it a stampede but a fair number of the attendees headed for their cars. The couple that Elle and I were standing next to commented that it had been a good idea but they weren’t going to ”chase down the cowards“ and were headed home. Standing there and thinking about the situation I told Elle that we weren’t going either. I told her that it would be ”ugly“ since there was little to no parking in that part of the village where the lodge was located and that if people tried to park on the side the road there would be a major traffic disruption. The police in our township were fairly tolerant of singular indescretions but I was sure that if this got out of hand that their ‘tolerance’ level would be tested and that citations would probably be handed out. It wasn’t worth it to me so we headed home.

We could’ve gone to pick up our kids but Elle didn’t want to do it knowing how little her father got to see them. If it weren’t for Elle having her period it would afforded me a great opportunity for some 'wet play'. So, at home we decided to go out on our screened in porch. However, Elle did the next best thing... undressed down to her bra and panties. In a way it was a tease but it served to remind me that in two weeks I’d be on vacation and the older kids would be in school.