Tormenting his High School Principal

But I was also a practical joker in high school.  I used to use the mail a lot for my pranks.  I would go to the drug store and take the subscription cards out of the magazines and put someone else’s name and address on them and send them off.  My high school principal had a name that he didn’t like – “Hymie”.  I think it was from an old tv show about a robot. Anyway, the high school had hundreds of dollars of subscriptions coming addressed to Hymie.  I was a suspect in this case, I suppose because I was involved in all the trouble that went on in our school.

“Hymie” took me out of class one day.  He wanted to compare my handwriting with the writing on the subscription card that one of the post office workers had given him (The investigation was on). It was quite obvious to me and I would think anyone else that whoever had filled out the card had printed with his other hand.  Hymie couldn’t make the match and I was released, with a smile on my face and a gain in my ‘outlaw’ reputation.  This was only one of many encounters with Hymie and I came out ahead.

Evil Prank on his good friend

... But there was one prank that I don’t think that I’ll ever top.  I used to hang around with my friend [Jay - not his actual name].  He dropped out of school in grade 9 or 10, but we stayed friends, even after this devious prank.  This happened when I was 16 or 17.  One day, I was reading a magazine and I saw an ad in the back from a guy in prison in the states who was lonely and wanted girls to write to him.  Now [Jay], as you know, can also be a girls name.

So I composed a two-page letter from [Jay].  I made it sound like I was a horny young girl without actually saying that I was a girl.  I told the guy that what I’d like to do with him when he got out and I signed the letter with X’s and O’s (hugs and kisses).  And off to the post office I went. I thought that [Jay] would get a letter from this guy in prison who wanted to fuck him and this would be pretty funny.  I could never have imagined what really happened.  You see, a few weeks later, the letter comes back in the mail marked “return to sender”.

[Jay]’s father picked up the mail.  He saw that this letter from his son was addressed to a guy in prison, and, justifiably curious, he opened the letter.  And, as it happens, my handwriting is very similar to [Jay]s.  So [Jay]'s dad reads the letter and he flips out.  “My son’s gay!  My boy’s a fucking faggot!” ([Jay]’s father was a macho guy, spent most of his time out in the barn fixing motorcycles).  He didn’t take the news well.  I hadn’t ever told [Jay] about the letter so he didn’t know what was going on and wasn’t able to put up much of a defense right away.  So after hearing about this, I told [Jay] what I had done.  He wasn’t terribly happy but he saw the humor in it.  He explained things to his mother, and after a few days, his mom was able to make peace with his dad and everything was ok.  But only for a while …

Because not long after sending the first letter, I saw another ad for a homosexual correspondence club – “Hmmmm ….”, I though, “What if …..?” So, I wrote another letter (from [Jay]).  In the ad, they asked for $5.00 for membership fees so I put in a five dollar bill.  Several weeks pass and, lo and behold, this letter comes back marked again, “Return to Sender”.  And again, [Jay]s dad picks up the mail.  Here we go again.  This time his dad totally loses it.  He goes to the liquor store, buys two quarts of whisky, and proceeds to get smashed, trying to drown his sorrows.  This time no-one is gonna convince him his boys not queer.  There’s a big fight at [Jay]s house which ends with [Jay] moving out and going to live with his older sister.  (I should also mention that [Jay] didn’t have any girlfriends, so this, I suppose, makes the situation a little more believable, and the $5 bill looked serious too).  It was about 2 years before [Jay] moved back home again.  [Jay] wasn’t very talkative about this.  Most of the info I got from his younger brother.

High School Troublemaker & Problems

The list of things that Reg did in High School to torment his poor teachers and principal is legendary among his friends. When Reg attended class, he was probably aptly described as "disruptive", and quite often he skipped class. He managed to conceal his abscences from class by intercepting the mail from the High School intended for his parents, such as the following.

Report Cards

 Reggie often intercepted the mail to hide declining report cards, to keep his school issues in the dark from his parents.   As you'll see, Reg was a model student before he got wrapped up with Magic Mushrooms and other drugs. If you see trends like this with your kids, beware - and find out what is causing the problem.  

In Reg's Grade 8 report card, we can see that his performance is starting to suffer ...

Grade 8 marks the end of Elementary School, with High School following. In the next picture, we can see his Elementary Diploma.

Reg finished Elementary School with relatively good grades, but his High School grades weren't so good.