Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Thursday, February 04, 2010

This is certainly the most entertaining story I have read or heard all week

Awkward Boy Week Continues: A Bad Way To Wake Up

Josh Hanagarne, the World's Strongest Librarian, is a great writer and a fun read. But his anecdote of being horribly embarrassed in junior high hit home with me. His was an erection in Hammer pants after falling asleep in class.

Mine was peeing all over the floor in 8th grade.

Yes. I did. I don't know what happened. I just know I suddenly felt the urge during a vocabulary test, raised my hand, and then the next thing I knew, I was covered in urine. I was mortified. And I had to go find a janitor to get a mop, then call my mother to take me home to get cleaned up and put on new clothes. After class, while waiting for my mom, my English teacher (who was actually Scottish) asked questions to try to pinpoint the cause. I'm not sure what she thought--abuse at home, horrible medical condition, or what, but she cared, and that's what mattered. I'm thinking it was hormones, as I was going through puberty. But I was already the nerdy smart kid in school who was outcast. This just served to underscore my sense of other. The only thing that saved me was moving from California to Kansas that year to a place where no one had witnessed or heard about the incident. School life was marginally better in Kansas (although I had both gum put in my hair and fish guts put in my locker, I didn't get threatened and beaten up like in California.)

Still, it is one of the most mortifiying events in my life. So I understand Josh's reaction. And like him, I've learnt to laugh at it and it has become one of those 'embarrassing anecdotes of childhood'. But I think his is better. There's just nothing like an erection in Hammer pants. :)

1 comment:

Josh said...

Good grief, that's awful:) And now we are bonded forever!