Middle School Detention

After elementary school things got interesting. The kids from my nice quiet middle class suburban neighborhood would be bused to Bridgeville.

Bridgeville was where the rough kids lived. I think some of them may have lived under bridges.

Anyway, school started and I got to see kids who looked different than me. I was a little scared.

One day, there was some incident (I don't remember the details), but me and a few other kids were told we had to stay after school for detention. Now, I was really scared. I did not know how I would get home. I really depended on that 3:00 bus to get me back to the safety of Rockhill road. I'm sure (looking back now) that there were later buses, but they never told me that.

So, I had to think of something. I resorted to the oldest trick in the kids playbook, the "fake illness".

It worked. After giving an Oscar winning performance, the school nurse called my mom and before too long, I was on the way home.

I never had to serve my detention time. And, I avoided major trouble for the rest of my middle school days (until, high school).