Life and Honesty

Have you ever noticed that lessons in life are taught to you in so many different ways and some have the most lasting effects. The lesson of honesty was like that for me and to this day I still think back to it and blush with the same degree of shame I did all those forty some years ago.

The story began in a north east city captured in the midst of a horrid winter day. The streets were caked with the awful slush which always plagued the main arteries a day or two after a fairly significant snow fall. Cars would race by and lather anyone not adept enough to dodge the oncoming torrent. I was in the fourth grade and a fairly good student. I always vyed with my best friend Greg Clark (known to his mother as Junior) and Carol Dentremont to get the “first in class” medal. It was also an extremely good year for me, because it was the year I loved my teacher. I think we’ve all had a year like that when you first feel the pangs of puppy love and you would do anything, anything at all for that teacher. Well that year for me was the year of Mrs. Gendracs.

I can still picture her with her early 60’s glasses and red lipstick always dressed to nines with a smile that would bring light to the dark side of the moon. She always had a smirk on her face which suggested she enjoyed the activity in the class but also evoked a sense that there was an inside joke to which we weren’t privy.

In any event I had set out for school that day and for some reason had forgotten to do my math homework. It was extremely unusual for me at the time (later in high school it would be the norm). I walked along the school route that we all took everyday to get there (avoiding encounters with the likes of FRECKELO but that is another blog) and it suddenly dawned on me I hadn’t completed the math assignment given for the night before. I felt awful about it and realized that I would be terribly embarrassed especially because it was Mrs. Genracs that would give witness to this quantum failure. It was just a fleeting moments thought but one which I acted upon immediately and so I took my math copy book and threw it onto the boulevard. I naively believed I was covered because I could legitimately claim I had lost it. So after dispensing of the book I made my way to class and took my rightful seat in the first row, feeling somewhat guilty about what I had done but resolved to stay the course. I hadn’t noticed that Gregory wasn’t in class yet but even if I had, it wouldn’t have altered my chosen story line.

Mrs. Gendracs walked into the classroom and asked that everyone take out their homework so she could collect the books. When she arrived at my desk I blurted out that I had done all my homework (not sure why I had to go that far) but I had lost the copy book on my way to school. I had no sooner completed my entire tail of woe when Gregory burst into the classroom out of breath but waving my copy book in the air yelling Ted, Ted I found your copy book in the middle of the street. It was completely wet and looked awful but not nearly as bad as I did. I looked like a kid with a mouthful of day old beets. Mrs. Gendracs looked at me and she could tell my story was crumbling like a stack of cards in a wind storm. She held out her hand to Gregory for the copy book as I blurted out my entire fabrication. All eyes in the class bore in on me while I sheepishly tried to find a floor tile I could crawl under.

Now this may be a figment of my imagination, but I do believe that Mrs. Gendracs lost a good deal of respect for me that day and it could be a faulty recollection but I don’t believe I made first in class for the rest of that year. Whenever I have an inkling that I should lie about a situation I think back to that day and become the most brutally honest person you’d care to meet but now you know why.