In Days of Old

Last sunday would be my grandmother's 92nd birthday. I have spent this last week studying like mad for an upcoming exam, but for some reason one of the stories she used to tell us growing up has surfaced in my head.

A bit of a hellion she would admit to being, in her youth of grammar school, she often instigated dubious behavior and as such, the schoolhouse smelled of garlic, the life of a frog was taken among stories of joyriding in a model T Ford "speeding" along at 35 mph.

It was once a very cold day, and all of the children were in the classroom. It was apparently snowing and all of the students would rather be outdoors playing in the snow. So Reba took a clove of garlic and placed it on the radiator causing the entire schoolhouse to become scented with an aroma that indeed compelled the principal to close the school for a day due to the smell.

On another occasion, a scare with a toad was to be in order for the instructor. On this particular day, Reba and her fellow classmates found a frog and placed it on the teacher's lesson book on her desk. They covered it with a piece of paper hoping that when she sat down, she would move the paper and find the frog there and scream.
As such to Murphy's law, the teacher had a few announcements to make and while standing above her desk in the front of the classroom; leaned over, closed the book with force and proceeded to lean upon it, squashing the innocent amphibian.

Reba May, September 26, 1918 - February 25, 2005