July 18, 2016 |
The Nerds Hide Out in the Nerds? Hideout |
By Dennis Martin
After our junior year, some students had already taken all of the mathematics courses that WPHS had to offer, so several students asked/petitioned the principal to offer another course, Calculus. It had never been done before at WPHS or in Orange County, and I believe the principal had to get permission at the county level. So, in our senior year, six of us – Jim Lenaghan, Tom Weaver, Richard Wavell, Bill Dunnellon (sp?), Dan Brockman, and myself – took calculus for the entire year. Six students didn’t merit a full classroom, so they found us a small room about 15’ x 15’ that could only hold about eight desks. The room was located on the second floor above the auditorium entrance next to the street. I can’t remember the female teacher’s name – Mrs. M something? (Help me out here; I don’t have my yearbook with me).
1966-67 were rebellious years – deadly riots & marches in Detroit & NY, marbles rolling down the floors in history class, Ali refusing military service as a Muslim, the brown-bag lunch boycott, student sit-ins on college campuses, tires over the flagpole, Haight Ashbury’s summer of love, and the bricked up senior door. How far could this rebellion reach?
One day someone in Calculus class made a suggestion. It had to have been Dan or Bill, the only ones in the class who could even conceive of a prank. Why don’t we hide from Mrs M before she gets here? Weaver -- already sitting front row center, notebook out, pencil ready – was reluctant. Wavell had a good sense of humor and seemed open to it. We stood at the top of the stairs, waiting on Lenaghan. Where was he? Would he get here before Mrs M? Finally Lenaghan arrived, briefcase in hand, bulging with books and overflowing with papers. Now it was getting too late to escape the building. She would see us leaving. What now? Finally, we all grabbed our notebooks and crowded into an even smaller projector room upstairs. And waited.
We heard Mrs M walking up the steps and into the empty classroom. We could only imagine what she was thinking. It was hard to be quiet and stifle laughter, but eventually mathematics was calling, and some were probably already worried that this was going to go on their ‘permanent record.’ So, we relented and returned to the classroom. Mrs M was nonplussed and the class continued as normal. In hindsight, our 30-second rebellion had lasted just as long as it took for Jupiter to align with Mars.
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