When we last left our questionable hero, I was learning the ropes regarding the inner workings of St.William. Now I was on the inside as an employee and it presented a multitudr of challenges but also a number of benefits.
I had a nice break every day as I was able to escape the scholastic environment daily for about thirty minutes or so to go home for lunch. I also wore an escape device around my neck in the form of radio headphones. I cannot overemphasize the sanity saving advantages of putting on those headphones to hear familiar radio voices while you are performing the least attractive of tasks.
I think very often, people thought I had frozen out all activity with those headphones on. That was never true. Many times I wore them on my neck with enough volume for me to hear as my ears were uncovered. Even when i wore them over my ears,nine of ten times the volume was low enough where I could hear normal conversation. Contrary to what a pastor might have thought,it never interfered with my job and it made the day go by faster. Sanity saver.
There was another upside too. St.William had some genuinely enjoyable and good people as my coworkers. I acknowledge the school secretary when I started ,Dolores ,who in combination with our first lay teacher principal were people I respected and trusted.
Not that there werent tense moments.
I was once called into that principal's office for an incident on the playground.
I was out there during recess either tending to my work or returning from lunch,i cannot remember which. But for some reason I will never know, a female student ran up to me and hugged me.
I was completely aware that this was not a good thing no matter how well intentioned and I immediately threw my arms up to make it very obvious I was not returning that hug.
I don't know who saw or saw fit to report that but I was called into the principal's office and told in no uncertain terms that there was to be no physical contact between students and staff, something I not only knew but avoided during the incident. While I was taken aback by the stern talking to I received, I know now that the principal was just doing her job and she was going to do it even though I had done nothing wrong.
As I said earlier,the work was occasionally difficult and disgusting. Moving desks and other heavy items from first floor to third,especially on a hot day was brutal. And I was younger than the head custodian who must've had it worse. The students were not allowed to help . Some days we would have help from the sheriff's department who would bring in a busload of non violent offenders to do community service. They were well guarded by deputies and we were allowed to give them assignments.
Another terrible task took place in summer after school was out.
All the floors had to be scrubbed and waxed.The scrubbing and waxing was done by the head guy,Dan, who knew how to wield a scrubbing machine which was like a bucking bronco and would take you for a ride if you didnt kerp it under control. I followed the scubbing with mop and bucket. Then Dan would wax. There were days he didnt feel like doing it and we would just do little tasks or ride to Ace Hardware. Those were easy type days.
Another awful task was moving all the clasdroom furniture and desks from one side of the room to the other .That would leave one side bare so Dan could scrub and wax. Once dried i had to move everything back to clear the other side of the room so Dan could tepeat the process. Ultimately I had to put the room back exactly as the teacher had it from a diagram we had.. Doing all that moving in a school minus air conditioning was no fun.
But there was fun to be had as a St.William employee and more on tbat coming up.
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