The bizarre incident at North Windham’s old Arlington School ran in The Independent
(a local weekly) in 2011 as an amusing, though unfortunate, incident witnessed
nearly a century ago by the late Phil Kennard, a long-time Windham resident and
storyteller.
It
was one of a five-part series on Kennard’s memories of Arlington Grammar School
in the 1920s. Kennard had a unique way of telling a good story, so with full
acknowledgement that we are reprinting his original article using Kennard’s own
words, here is the story of the missing apple, or as Kennard titled it, “A major
tussle with a disagreeable teacher”:
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| Windham's old Arlington School |
“…1929
saw us in the fifth grade with the upper classroom’s big boys and girls. That
year, they had hired a new teacher ‘From Away,’ a Mr. Perry. He was probably 30
years old, of average height and, while a little on the stocky side had a
muscular body and a ‘don’t tread on me’ attitude which tended to fill us with a
great deal of respect when we were in his presence.
His
classroom demeanor was brusque, and he wasn’t bashful about letting us know
when even the smallest of school rules had been breached. Subsequently, the
following spring we found out through a curious happening what we had already
suspected: that he had a bad temper. I remember it well because I was only a
few feet away when he came out of the school one noon, walked up to Candy Lamb
(…a boy…if my memory serves me right, his real first name was Walter) and,
shaking his finger in his face, bellowed accusingly, “You stole an apple out of
Ruth Philpot’s desk! Where is it?”
It
took a moment for Candy to realize what was taking place, but when he did, he
came right back with, “No! Sir! Not me! I never stole no apple out of Ruth’s
desk!
“Don’t
you lie to me!” Perry snarled, she saw you put the cover down on her desk and
walk away, and she couldn’t find her apple when she looked for it. You stole
it, and you better admit it!”
No,
sir, Mr. Perry,” Candy tried to explain, “She couldn’t have seen me steal her
apple because I didn’t do it! What happened was that I saw her pencil on the
floor, picked it up and put it back in her desk.”
“You
dirty liar! If I get any more lies out of you, do you know what’s going to
happen? You are going to find yourself flat on your back in that mud puddle
right down there!”
Candy
hesitated a moment and then said bravely, “I never stole no apple!”
At
that, Perry made a jump and got Candy in a neck hold, but Candy, being a big
boy for his age, without so much a lifting his hands from his sides, took a
side step and, with a sudden twist and roll, deposited his attacker on his back
right smack-dab in the middle of the aforementioned puddle!
For
a moment, it appeared that Perry was about as surprised as we were, but then he
came onto his feet like a roaring bull and this time Candy gave no resistance,
probably because he knew that to be involved in a knock-down, drag-out fight
with a teacher would get him expelled.
Down
they both went with Perry on top and, getting on his hands and knees astraddle Candy,
he grabbed his hair with one hand and, shaking a fist under his nose with the
other snarled, “You see this fist right here? You make one move and I’ll beat
your face in!”
I
was scared to death, as I am sure the others were, too. However, it all ended
abruptly when Mary Proctor yelled out of a window, “Ruth just found the apple
behind some stuff in the back of her desk!”
At
this, Perry relinquished his hold on Candy’s hair and got slowly to his feet,
probably realizing that his actions had placed him in a less-than-admirable
position. Even so, he showed no signs of remorse as he turned and walked back
toward the schoolhouse door.
Later,
Ruth told Candy how sorry she was for her error, but Perry acted as though it
never had happened. At any rate, the following year, he was replaced by a lady
teacher. I don’t know if the school board let him go or he decided to go of his
own volition. Whichever it was, it didn’t hurt my feelings any!
Many
modern-day readers of this old school tale find it incredulous. Although fading
rapidly, some of the old schoolhouse culture and customs of the recently
concluded 19th century persisted into the more progressive
educational movements of the early 20th century.’
As
stated in last week’s Historical Record, early schoolhouse education was
dominated by disciplined learning and occasional chaos. Phil Kennard was
obviously a testament to both.
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The
Windham Historical Society will welcome visitors to the grand opening of its
Village School, a late 19th century recreation of a Windham one-room
schoolhouse. Join the schoolmarms and schoolmaster on Saturday, August 25 from
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. <
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