As a child I lived in maine, where winter was winter.
A good time for sledding.
At Pine Grove Primary School Skeeter Kearsy the school bully wanted to test the theory that if you put your tongue to metal it would stick there.
No one told him to stop.
He liked to beat up everyone.
He had hit my sister with a stick.
I hated him.
Skeeter stuck out his tongue and then tried to step away from the fence.
He couldn’t, because his tongue was stuck to the steel.
“Hellllfff me.”
And my older brother, best friend Chaney Noyes, and I threw snowballs at him until he was covered with snow.
Skeeter cried even after the teacher poured hot water on his tongue.
He came away from the fence, saying, I’ll getttthhh youse.”
Second graders knew how to take revenge and we stole his snow boots after recess.
Bullies suck.
MAINE 1959