One of the fun activities in high school is the annual homecoming. As a teacher, I felt it was my responsibility to participate and show the students the value of school spirit. I mentioned the dress-up days previously but I want to highlight getting deeply into the spirit. Raising money for a cause has always been a hallmark of the homecoming activities at Rangeview. We do “penny wars” where classes try to get the most pennies. We have the added incentive that if there is anything other than pennies, it counts against the class. Ass senior class sponsor I put a lot of quarters in the junior jars over the years. Every now and then we try to add something to take it up a level. This is where I come into the picture. I have been willing to go to extremes. One year I was in a dunk tank but the pinnacle of my work involves hair. The very first time we tried something dramatic we started at my legs. I made a bet with the school that if they could raise $5,000 for charity I would wax my legs at the final homecoming assembly. This will now show my ignorance of the practice of waxing your legs.
The students came through and raised well over the amount needed. I also am holding a grudge against those teachers that contributed to the cause. The biggest spender was Robert Dennis. He was a teacher and girl’s basketball coach. On the very first day of the week, he started it off by dropping a hundred-dollar bill into the project. It was both a sweet gesture for the charity and a way to share a little pain with me. We prepared for the final assembly by putting on the wax and the tape on my legs. I stood on a chair in front of 2300 of my close friends and faculty. Then came the decision that I regret to this day. The cheerleaders and poms were in charge of ripping off the tape. I was asked in front of the room if I wanted it one at a time or all at once. I naively said to do it all at once. Let me say that in all the years of playing sports, surgeries, concussions, and broken bones, nothing has hurt like this this. I gingerly headed for the exit sans leg hair and any dignity I might have had 5 minutes previous to this event. I still have a place on my left leg where my hair will no longer grow.
There is a postscript to this that continues to bring embarrassment to this very day. One of the poms who inflicted this pain on me is now a colleague at Rangeview. Katie Termeer (nee Layman) still gets a wry smirk on her face at the mention of my leg waxing experience. You are going to have to wait to find out in the next post about the story of my hair for charity schemes.