Whistling Johnny

Mrs. Austin was a first grade teacher at Strack School. She was a very large woman with a heart to match her large body. She had a hard life as she supported her invalid sister and mother until both passed away. After her responsibilities at home were over, she married, only to find out that teachers in District #20 could not be married. So rather than give up her job, she quickly got a divorce!  For the first time she could afford to spend her small teaching wages on herself. She became known for her large hats and bright colors. She was very generous with her means and often brought things for her students.

One day I was at my desk in the office, and I heard a whistle blowing and blowing and blowing, so I decided to go across the auditorium floor to Mrs. Austin’s room to see what was going on. When I looked into the room, I saw Johnny Wilson standing on top of one of the desks, the kind that are screwed to a runner with the whole row of desks fastened together. Johnny would blow the whistle and skip from one desk to another. Mrs. Austin would try to catch him, only to have him skip over to another row of seats. She couldn’t get between the seats and by the time she would go around to the row he was on, he would skip across a couple of rows!

Johnny was having a great time, until he looked up and saw me coming through the door. He quickly jumped down and ran to his seat. Needless to say, I took him over to the office and took care of him. That was in the days before anyway cared about corporal punishment (but about good behavior) and we had the support of the parents [in matters of discipline.]

photo credit here