Some things never change

by bill hendrick

staff writer

In looking through some notes on the late J.J. Kelly, Superintendent of Schools in Wise County for 50 years, I have similar incidents.

In the first incident, the superintendent caught a teacher sleeping on the job. In my instance, the principal caught me sleeping.

It was 1947 and I was stage manager for our senior class play at Norton High School.

The high school building was in one building and the auditorium was on the top floor of the elementary school.

I went to the auditorium and sat myself down on a bunk bed that was supposed to be a cabin berth on a ship. I went to sleep, safe in the knowledge that my teachers and principal were in the high school building where they belonged.

My peaceful reverie was shattered when a thunderous shout came from the back of the auditorium.

“What are you doing?”

The world came to an end in that moment as I raised up and bumped my head on the upper bunk.

‘I, er, I’m trying to figure out something on the stage here, sir,” I replied.

J.I. Burton almost smiled, but he didn’t.

“Well think on your feet, son,” he said. And he left.

Dr. Kelly recalled a similar incident. He had a habit of making unscheduled visits to classrooms in the county.

One day he visited a one-room school. When he entered the room, the children sat at their desks but the teacher was sound asleep at his desk.

The children began giggling and the teacher woke up. “After he rubbed his eyes to get  little better vision he saw me sitting in the rear of the room. He did not address me, but he called up George, the largest boy in the room and very vigorously applied the “wooden medicine, Dr. Kelly said.

“After he had finished he said, “Now I want you to behave. I pretended to be asleep just to find out who was responsible for misbehavior!

“He then came back and greeted me,” Dr. Kelly concluded.

The day is here in Wise County when we once again have sleepy students and sleepy teachers.

Nothing really changes!