THE TEETH THAT DROPPED

It seems that I can remember the things of long ago better than what took place yesterday. Incidentally, what did take place yesterday? At any rate in the long ago time of my youth, I had a job at my former grammar school and the custodian in charge of the refurbishing of the school made the mistake of giving me Jimmie Gassman as my work partner. Do you remember that schools of that era had very high classroom windows and Jimmie and I each had a tall ladder that allowed us to clean way up there. However, my new friend had a great sense of humor and could do tricks like blowing across his flattened hand as it was placed edgewise over his mouth. He then would imitate the deep sound of the ships horn and it was funny because of his hand and face positions as well as the sound that floated across the school room. Mr Durr, our friendly custodian came in at the wrong moment as Jimmie was blowing and I was laughing. Mr Durr was upset that these two clowns, instead of working, were playing around. So he let us have it and we were soundly chastised. He left and our laughter soon continued. At a later time --possibly 30 minutes, we were again engaged in some side splitting laughter when our not so friendly custodian re-entered the room. We were in the same positions as before but possibly laughing even harder. Irate could not be strong enough to describe Mr Durr. His face blew out of shape. His bald head quivered with rage. His eyes became malevolent slits. Anger was a polite word that could not possible describe his mood. Words would not come out in the manner he wished and as that happened his rage escalated even more. Desperate to spit out his words, he was finally reduced to dropping his teeth into his hand so he could have control of the words needed to scream at us. Seeing this we could not hold back any further and both of us practically fell off our ladders at this display. Yes, we no longer had to worry about working at the school. He finally, after all kinds of language my tender ears had never even heard, managed to get enough control to shout "You are both fired"!!! We were still laughing as we walked out. I never saw Jimmie Gassman again although I, too, will demonstrate a ships horn on occasion, and have often wondered if his memory of that summer job is the same as is mine and we can still laugh. I'm sure Mr Durr is long dead and I have often had some regret about our irresponsible action but in the minds of 14 year old kids, it was very funny.