When I was in History class one nice summer day the tanned war horse of a teacher was going on
about how there had never been a war like Viet Nam before in US History. I raised my hand and said that
yes there had been. Specifically I said that the US had conducted a Colonial war of Occupation against
the Philippines in 1899. Waterboarding had been invented then, along with the .45 semi automatic pistol.
(I’ll look the pistol up. Seems they needed a caliber round with a great deal of knock down power. Knock down
power was a big deal with the US military for a long time. Then it was about being able to carry a lot of
bullets, so lighter bullets and a lighter gun became a big deal.)
The teacher had been in the FBI before she became a history teacher at Page High School. At least she told us that.
I remember her telling us that.
She was a big girl woman with a thick tan and her hair all swooped back in a 60s style that was good for selling
hairspray, or looking the same if she rode around in a convertible. At least that would seem to have been the hope.
She immediately had me put out of the classroom, taken to the Principals office, and kicked out of school for 3 days.
I didn’t really care, and went downtown and found a couple of guys loading Persian rugs into an empty store who hired me to help
them. Obviously being in school wasn’t getting me better educated than my History teacher, for in fact the US did fight
a war like Viet Nam, the war in Viet Nam, the VietNam, Viet Nam War, before the Viet Nam War.
When I was in High School in Greensboro, North Carolina in the late ’60s and early ’70s, it was understood that
schools in the South were worse than schools in the North.
I had talked about dropping out and was sent to live with my cousins and go to High School in Chicago.