My Terrible Day of School My worst experience at School #14 was in the 4th grade, 1961. Book rental was $3.00 per semester. We paid with cash and the teacher would make a receipt on a pre-printed form about 2 1/2 by 4 inches. I had just learned how to make a paper airplane. Which is a major accomplishment in a boy’s life? Anyway I took this receipt and folded the nicest little airplane, thinking all along someday I would work for NASA. Now during this time there was a little lull in the class and I promise on my great-great-great-grand pappy’s grave I DID NOT, fly the airplane. I knew the teacher to well and I knew she would not tolerate that at all. Hence I just let my airplane sit nicely on my desk. Hence, admiring my handiwork. A mouthy little Kid named Mike White who lived on N. Randolph St. barked out to our teacher, Mrs. Girt, Randy made an airplane out of his receipt. With that she flew into a rage and shouted Randy get up here right now! As I approached her desk she was digging out the paddle. She spun me around and ordered me to stand in an upside down L. Without any explanation whatsoever she pounded me with 7 SEVEN whacks with that stout timber she was holding. Mickey Mantle couldnt have swung a bat with one hand any harder than Mrs. Girt did that day. Needless to say the tears flowed like Niagara Falls (Canadian side), and it was the most embarrassing day in the life of this 10 year old lad. That day has never dimmed from my memory. After my paddling, the students were so quite you could have heard a baby mouse expel flatus. Later on that afternoon, Mrs. Girt noticed that a plastic model car was sitting on her desk. She grabbed it, held it up, and uttered, Who brought the car to class? Mike White the mouthy little kid who informed the teacher about my skills of making airplanes slowly held his hand up. Mrs. Girt commanded, Mike White get up here right now! As she went for the Paddle she exclaimed, Class I have told you not to bring toys to school. The same punishment I received a couple of hours earlier, was rendered to Mike. Knowing Mike was the boob that ratted me out, as I heard the swat of the paddle on his skinny buttocks I was happily thinking....hey couldnt happen to a nicer kid.... To this day over 50 years later, I still dont know what the big deal was about making a paper airplane? Had I flown it and disrupted the class it would have been another story, but I didnt. I just sat it on my desk, when there was a lull in the class. I fully intended to take it home and give it to the folks, for Petes sake. You know even before or after the worst day of the 4th grade I always liked Mike White. Mike was from a large Catholic family, but the White siblings went to public school, which I thought was odd. He loved baseball and collected baseball cards. Mike played at the Mecator Club boys little league at Willard Park every summer. All the teams at the Mecator Club were always dubbed some color of sox, (red sox, white sox, green sox, pink sox ;-) etc. The sponsors, Mecator Club, could have had a lot of teams because they would have never run out of colors for their sox. The boys didnt wear the nice little league uniforms that some did. They just got a hat and a t-shirt which had some color of sox on the front. However I think you could wear any color of sox or no sox at all during the games. I never played on a team, but always wanted to, but cant seem to remember why not. I never seen Mike White after we graduated from School #101 (1966). We had gone to different High Schools. However I did see Mike twice, years later. Once I bumped into him at the former McDonalds near State and Washington st. in 1982. Mike was gobbling down two Egg McMuffins. At the time he was a layed off auto worker from Ford and I was a laid off auto worker from Chevrolet. We talked and wondered and both of us hoped someday we would be recalled to return to gainful employment as we both had young families. It was a nice visit we had at the eatery; hence we felt we were in the same boat, struggling along being laid off from work. The next and last time I seen Mike was in 2003 when I looked into his casket. It seemed 51 was so young to pass away and he still had a very young son about 11 or so, and was a Grandfather as well. Mikes life appeared that he was a very good person and also a good Catholic. As I attended his viewing I internally thought I hope Mike accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior before he departed this life on earth. Whether he did or not I dont know, I just hope that he did. You know I remember our teacher Mrs. Girt was a member of the Church of Christ. If they are both up in Heaven, and I do hope they are, I just wonder if they have chatted about that dreadful day in Room number # 9 located in the far northwest corner of the upstairs of I.P.S. #14, formerly erected at 1229 E. Ohio St. That day when Mike and I were unjustly and severely punished. Although Mike grew up a stones throw from the pubic swimming pool (aka turd tank), at Willard park, he never did learn to swim. The day he died he was fishing alone in his bass boat; his brother told me they thought perhaps his boat swiftly glided into a submerged stump. Mike standing on the edge of the deck fishing lost his balance when the boat met resistance, fell in the water and drowned. He did not have on a life jacket. In closing there are four additional things I fondly remember about Mike: 1. He had an Aunt who lived on Read Street in Evansville IN (where I was hatched) 2. His older brother Butch White had the coolest high performance I think red 64 Mercury Comet, it was a screamer. 3. I really liked Mike. He was a friendly little gent, and I would have liked to have been his close buddy, but he lived two far away from my house when we were kids, so I found pals closer by. 4. And most importantly, Mike taught me this...When you get a new Baseball Glove pour neat’s-foot oil into the palm of it when you are breaking it in. Mike said, It breaks in better and smell kind of industrial. (Havent bought a new baseball glove yet, but I may someday) From the Indianapolis Star. Michael Ray White, 51, Greenfield, formerly of Indianapolis, died Saturday, June 7, 2003 at Brookview Lake near Liberty, IN. He was a master carpenter for Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis since November; he previously had been a superintendent for Brandt and Company in Indianapolis for thirteen years. A man of men. A loving, devoted, caring husband, father of four, a grandfather of three, a best friend to many. In life he gave his all to his family, in Heaven hell give God a fishing partner. He is survived by his wife, mother, brother, sisters, father-in-law, children, and grandchildren; and all who loved him. He was born on April 20, 1952 in Indianapolis, IN. His father was Leonard White; his mother is Evelyn (Callis) White of Indianapolis, IN. He married Susan E. (Reilly) White on April 6, 1974 at Little Flower Catholic Church in Indianapolis; she survives. Survivors include a daughter, Colleen M. Walker of Indpls.; three sons, Christopher M. White of Indpls. and Nicholas Nick R. White and Sean P. White, both of Greenfield, IN; three grandchildren, Claire Margaret Walker, Julia Katherine White, and Emma Grace Walker; brothers Butch White of Houston, Texas, Thomas White, Billy White, Tony White and Rick White, all of Indpls.; sisters Ann Meyer of Ft. Wayne, IN, and Patty Sickle of Carmel, IN. He was preceded in death by brothers David and Jerry White, and his father. He was a member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church, and was an avid fisherman. He was involved in the construction of Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served during the Vietnam War. Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 11 at Wilson St. Pierre Funeral Service and Crematory, Greenwood Chapel, 481 W. Main Street, Greenwood; with a Mass of Christian Burial to follow at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church, Greenwood. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 10, with a prayer service at 7:30 p.m. Burial: Calvary Cemetery. Memorial Contributions may be made to a scholarship fund for Sean White, make checks payable to Sean White, in care of Bank One, 601 N. Shadeland Avenue, Indpls., IN 46219.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 10:14:21 +0000
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