Mr. Vice Principal

It's funny how things stick with you over decades even a lifetime. 10 years ago (February 22, 2009) I posted an entry about the vice-principal, Mr. Washam, the vice principal of the junior high I went to back in the middle 60s. I detailed how I've had a couple encounters with the gentleman. How, he had somewhat manhandled me IE slammed me against my locker when I got frustrated with my combination lock and gave my locker a stiff kick. That sticks with me for some reason I can't seem to let it go. I don't, at least I don't think that I do, think about this all the time but obviously enough merit surfaced again the other day are rather morning as I was just after waking and thinking about things. I wasn't thinking about the incident per se as much as what other folks remembered about different educators that were kind of like rock stars. I think in a another life in another universe 1964 or whenever the incident happened I would've handled the situation differently and I had not kicked my locker and I would never had these feelings about Mr. Washam. I think I was somewhat enamored by the guy especially after I found he was special forces and that period of time I kind of wanted to be Airborne and special forces. I don't quite remember how I found out about special forces than but I knew all about them long before Barry Sadler came out with the song. It is probably because my brother was an Army about that time at Fort Bragg, North Carolina home of the seventh special forces group. I felt like I had inside line.

So this morning I actually made a posting in the Boise group that I am part of and asked if anybody knew of Mr. Washam. I was surprised at how many folks responded and how much this guy was liked. I was not all that surprised when two of his daughters posted a response. Luckily for me I had not been derogatory or inappropriate. I just wanted to know if other folks of been “roughed up”. Surprisingly, nobody responded that they had except his daughter who qualified remark by saying she had it coming. Both daughters obviously love the dad and said the he was strict but fair and I can see that. I was also surprised, even though I guess I should not of been, in a couple of responses that were almost defensive of the green parade warrior/educator/school enforcer. Whether masking why I had waited so long (I presume to ask the question). I did want to start fight I just want to know how many other folks had been caught by this guy. Really, I was too frightened of authority to go up against authority. Mind you, this did not stop me from attending the number of fights that happened across the street from our school usually during the lunch hour are right after school. The crowd to get large enough to draw the attention of Mr. Washam who often figure out a way to “bail in” stop the fight as everybody scattered like cattle in the stampede.

I was somewhat shocked to see that he was a Boise Idaho native more or less. He was a smoke jumper, another activity I was very interested in. I'm surprised he was a cop, I'm surprised at how smart this guy actually was. Looking back now, I wish that figured out a way to get to know this guy better. I bet it was made all the difference…