Vic and Sade Rush's First Day at High School Date: Sep 10 1935 CAST:
ANNOUNCER
RUSH
SADE
VICTHEME ANNOUNCER: OPENING AND COMMERICAL CREDITS INTRODUCTION: It's a few minutes past twelve o'clock as our scene opens now, and here in the kitchen of the small house halfway up in the next block we find the noon-day meal in progress, with all members of the family present. Yesterday, you'll remember, young Rush Gook embarked on his high school career. He found that opening day consisted only of one short session during which the students straightened out kinks in their schedules, met their teachers, and were told what text-books to purchase. Today, however, school began in earnest... and no one is more earnest about it than young Rush himself. He's giving his parents a few high-lights this very moment. Listen to him. RUSH: By gosh there's as much difference between high school an' grade school as there is between day an' night. In grade school when ya move into a new room, they assign you a seat an' ya sit there day after day an' week after week an' month after month until the end of the semester. Ya sit there minute after minute an' hour after hour too except for recess. In high school, by George, ya have seven different rooms an' seven different seats. An' in every room there's a different bunch of kids. SADE: You have seven different teachers too, don't ya? RUSH: Yeah. Seven different teachers. Feature that? An' the Study Hall teachers change around a lot so it makes more than seven over the course of a week. I never realized... VIC: Will ya pass the beans please? RUSH: Huh? VIC: Will ya pass the beans please? RUSH: Oh - thought you asked a question about school. VIC: No, I just asked a question about the beans. SADE: Hand me your plate. I'll give you some... RUSH: I never realized what a change high school'd be from Edwards. 'Course I knew everything'd be different but I never paused to reflect how... Whatcha say, gov? VIC: Nothin'. RUSH: You waved. VIC: I was wavin' at your mother. Indicatin' that she had put sufficient beans on my plate. I didn't wanta cut in on your flow of remarks. RUSH: Oh. Well, I started to say I knew everything in high school'd be different but I didn't pause to reflect how much different. In Edwards we'd kinda slide down in our desk at nine o'clock, sing a song or two, go to the blackboard an' work arithmetic problems, listen to the other class recite, go out to recess, come back in again, have geography... just sorta do things lazy an' comfortable, ya know. But in high school ya dash into whatever classroom you're due at, chew the rag a minute, the bell rings, ya shut up, ya recite an' listen to the teacher for forty minutes or so, the bell rings again, ya bounce outa there like a fire engine, an' go whippin' down the corridor to wherever your next classroom is. Oh, it's the life. SADE: Like it, huh? RUSH: [Who does] I sure do. Mom, you just oughta come around those halls some day between classes. You never saw so many people sloshin' back an' forth in your life. Teachers an' students an' janitors an' librarians an' office girls an' I don't know who all. Looks like thousands of 'em. An' in three minutes - as quick as the bell rings - there's not a soul in sight. The whole place is as empty as if it'd been cleaned out by magic. SADE: [Mildly] My. My. RUSH: [Somewhat breathless] Oh, I wanta tell ya. VIC: Spear me a slab of bread, will ya, Sade? SADE: Oh, Vic, say "please pass the bread." You said "Spear me the bread" the other night at Ruthie's in front of that cousin from Colfax an' I could of sunk through the floor! VIC: That cousin from Colfax looked like a hay-seed to me. I sized him up as a... RUSH: [Off again] An' hey, I got gymnasium class fourth hour an' the guys... Oh, excuse me for buttin' in, Gov. VIC: Perfectly O.K. RUSH: I got all this stuff on my mind, see, an' I can't hardly wait to let you an' Mom in on it. VIC: Uh-huh. Kick the bread up the trolley before ya start in. SADE: Vic, please don't. You get in the habit of sayin' things like that an' then they bust out in front of company. VIC: Will nobody bounce the bread off the bank-board? RUSH: Here y'are, Gov. Mom, I started to tell ya about my fourth hour gym class. I'm in Physical Geography third hour under Miss Shade, an' ya know what the guys do that have got fourth hour gym? SADE: What do they do? RUSH: They get half undressed durin' third hour so they can scoot down as soon as the bell rings an' be in their gym suits ahead of everybody else. I noticed a kid this morning. He's a sophomore that graduated from Emerson school last year. By gosh, he took off his socks, put 'em in his pocket, put his shoes back on an' left 'em untied; put his necktie in his pocket, an' unbuttoned his shirt. Then he got clear on the edge of his seat so when the bell rang he could get a flyin' start. When it did ring, you'd of thought a fire-cracker'd gone off under him. SADE: Do the teachers put up with such didoes in high school? RUSH: Teacher couldn't see him. In the first place he sits in a back seat an' in the second place he ducked behind the guy in front of him. SADE: Don't sound to me like a very smart thing for big boys to be doin'. RUSH: Oh, it's a case of dog eat dog in high school, Mom. It's really the life. SADE: How about your subjects? Don't they get any attention? RUSH: Plenty of it. Plenty of it. By the way I haven't told you my complete schedule yet, have I? SADE: You said you were takin' Algebra an' Latin an' English an'... RUSH: Let me describe the whole works to ya. SADE: All right. RUSH: Well, when I get to school a little before nine in the morning, I go to my locker, hang up my hat, an' grab whatever books I want. Then I loaf around the halls till the first bell rings an' chat with friends. When I hear the bell I go to my algebra class, which is room 209 on the second floor, teacher Miss Lorah Monroe. Algebra is my first-hour class. When the bell rings for second-hour classes, I have three minutes to get to Study Hall, which is room 215. We got three Study Halls altogether - rooms 215, 115 an' 205. Third hour I have Physical Geography under Miss Shade. Fourth hour I have gym. On Fridays we have Assembly between third an' fourth hours. That's when everybody in school gets together in the auditorium. Assembly between third an' fourth hours is mighty convenient for me because I can take a short cut down to the gymnasium. That's all of the morning. In the afternoon there's fifth hour, sixth hour, seventh hour, an' eighth hour. Eighth hour is for the kids that hafta stay after school. Fifth hour I have Study Hall 205; sixth hour I have English under Miss Tyson; an' seventh hour I have Latin under Miss Kinney. There's my day in a nutshell. VIC: Seems to make quite a day. RUSH: Oh, it's the life, boy. I sure feel sorry for Harry Chatam an' Wally Wilson an' them guys that quit school to take jobs. They can have their ol' salary. SADE: Maybe you'd like to go to high school the rest of your life. RUSH: I'd just as soon. VIC: All this'll be stale in a week or two, Hank. RUSH: Stale nothin'. No, sir. VIC: Could you spare a fella another dab of beans, Sade? SADE: We got all these to finish up. VIC: Spit me over a throat-load, will ya? SADE: Vic, I wish you wouldn't. S'pose you were havin' dinner with Mis' Brighton an' come out with somethin' like that. VIC: I'd expect Mis' Brighton to... RUSH: Mom, let me tell you somethin' funny that... Oh, I beg your pardon, Gov; I'm always buttin' in. VIC: Think nothin' of it. Tell us somethin' funny. RUSH: It's about a kid in my Physical Geography class. That's what I got under Miss Shade third hour, ya know. VIC & SADE: Uh-huh. RUSH: Well, Miss Shade is one of the very few teachers that make a lesson assignment before kids get their text-books. She does that because we got so much to cover durin' the semester. Anyway, she made a lesson assignment yesterday an' we were s'posed to have it studied for today. So she asked this kid - his name is Gerald Snow - a question about the first paragraph. He said he didn't know the answer. She said didn't you read it. He said sure, he read it three times. When did you read it three times, says Miss Shade. "This semester, last semester, an' the semester before that," he says. [Laughs] VIC & SADE: [Laugh without conviction] RUSH: Don'tcha get the joke? SADE: He... didn't know his lesson? RUSH: No. Here's the joke: the kid had read the lesson three times because he took the course three times. He'd flunked it twice, get the angle? SADE: [Still not quite clear on the matter] Oh. RUSH: "I read it this semester, last semester, an' the semester before that." [Re-enjoys the joke] SADE: [Laughs as much as she can] VIC: A splotch of butter for my bread perhaps, Mis' Jackson? SADE: It's right there by ya. Behind the big dish. RUSH: Mom, who ya think's in my Latin class? SADE: Who? RUSH: Mildred Tisdel. SADE: Ain't she in all your classes? RUSH: No, that's the only one. Latin. SADE: You're... you're both freshmen, ain't ya? RUSH: Sure, but there's hundreds of freshmen. They got four beginning algebra classes alone. In my algebra class there's not one single kid from Edwards school. SADE: Well. RUSH: Chances are I won't even see much of Mildred. Around school, that is. She's takin' different subjects than I am an' her classes are in different parts of the building. I never saw her at all this morning. SADE: Thought you walked to school with her. RUSH: I did. An' home too. SADE: Whatcha know about that. RUSH: Oh, it's an awful big place, that school. You just oughta see 'em pile in the Auditorium for Assembly. SADE: I'd like to sometime. RUSH: We'll arrange it for some Friday. VIC: How about your ol' side-kicks Heinie an' Rooster? Are you in any classes with them? RUSH: I'm in every class with Rooster. SADE: Oh, that makes it nice. RUSH: We got it fixed up with Superintendent Chinbunny. Rooster an' me wanted to be together, but the English class I was in was all full an' it looked like Rooster'd hafta take it second hour under Miss Tate. That would of thrown his whole schedule off, ya see? SADE: Uh-huh. RUSH: But I went to Mr. Chinbunny about it. At first he said he didn't favor the idea of close friends bein' in the same classes because they were apt to distract each other. But I talked him around. SADE: Maybe he's right about close friends distractin' each other. RUSH: Oh, no. Rooster Davis an' me are just like that. SADE: Might be just what'd cause the trouble. RUSH: We'll make out. Ya know Rooster made a great sacrifice in order to be with me in every class? SADE: What'd he do? RUSH: Agreed to take Latin. Agnes, his big sister, ya know, took Latin when she was in high school an' she usta come home nights an' bawl her head off. So Rooster's always been scared of it. SADE: An' he's takin' it? RUSH: In order to be with me. Ain't that a friend for ya? SADE: Yes, I guess it is. RUSH: To be right down frank with ya, I don't believe Latin's half as tough as it's cracked up to be. All ya gotta do is learn Latin words for English words. An' there's only about ten a day to learn. I know some already. "Puella" means girl. "Puer" means boy. "Agricola" means farmer. "Patria" means native country. "Hic" means this. Looks like a pipe to me. SADE: I guess it's stringin' the words together that's hard. RUSH: Don't see why it should be. If I feel like sayin' "Here is my shoe" in Latin, all I gotta know is the Latin words for "Here is my shoe." SADE: Well, I don't know the first thing about it. RUSH: I'll give you the interesting angles as they come along, Mom. SADE: All right. RUSH: Yes, sir, boy, this high school dope sure is the life. SADE: It's nice you like it so well. RUSH: Can't help but like it. VIC: You say you were in some classes with your pal Heinie? RUSH: Heinie's in my gym class, my Physical Geography class, an' my fifth-hour Study Hall. So us three friends will be together part of the day at least. An' we oughta have some fun too. In the boys' room between second an' third hour we decided to... Mom, is your kitchen clock right? SADE: I guess it is. RUSH: Twelve twenty-five? SADE: Uh-huh. RUSH: Say, do you mind if I beat it? SADE: Not time for school yet. RUSH: No, but I got lotsa business to take care of. May I leave the table? SADE: I s'pose so... if you must. RUSH: Oh, I got plenty of business. Hafta switch lockers with a guy, reserve a book outa the library, notify the office about the changes in my schedule, put in an application for Assembly monitor, an' get my name on the Voluntary Usher list. SADE: You won't be doin' this every noon? RUSH: Oh, no. Maybe just a day or two till I get organized. [Moves off] SADE: When'll ya be home s'afternoon? RUSH: [Off] Prob'ly not till a quarter to five. SADE: I'll want groceries an' things, ya know. RUSH: O.K. I'll show up early as I can. [Opens screen door] So long, Mom. SADE: So long. RUSH: So long, Gov. VIC: So long, Sport. RUSH: See everybody later. [Screen door slams] VIC: [To Sade] There goes a man that attends high school. SADE: He attends high school just like you'd shoot off a ton of dynamite. VIC: I never seen a guy so full of a thing. SADE: Did you notice how much dinner he ate? VIC: No. Couldn't of ate much an' done all that talkin'. SADE: He didn't eat any dinner. VIC: Not any? SADE: Not a mouth-ful. VIC: Not a bean? SADE: Not one single bean. VIC: Some guy. SADE: An' the funniest thing is. VIC: What? SADE: He didn't even know he didn't eat any dinner. END OF SCRIPT ANNOUNCER: Which concludes a brief interlude at the small house half-way up in the next block.