One of the highlights of my year at the Read Island School was when I played Little Black Sambo in the school Christmas play and wore a black stocking pulled over my head, with only my face showing. For hair, black wool yarn was pocked through to resemble the curly hair of a little black boy. My hands and face were covered with charcoal. I can still remember one of my key lines. “I love pancakes” I used to love being in school plays as a child.
One thing about that school year that I will never forget and it had nothing to do with school except that is where it took place. When I first realized something was out of place it was about an hour before the closing bell rang. I asked Miss Evans if I could go to the out-house which was out behind the school, and I got there none to soon. I made it back to the school and was more then ready for another trip when the closing bell finally rang. This time I retched my guts out. My sister, David, Ronnie, and I had barely gotten on our bicycles for the ride home when I hastily got off my bicycle violently sick again. This happed so repeatedly that I became too weak to ride my bicycle any farther. I got home through the kindness of some acquaintances the Upton’s. Mr. Upton who took me home in his small open boat and I can still remember sitting on the seat with my head resting on the gunwale of the boat retching in agony the rest of my way home.
My mother thanked Mr. Upton for his kindness. And shaking with fever and so weak I could hardly walk; she brought me into the house where I immediately hung my head over the toilet to continue my retching. It was some hours later before I started feeling well enough to climb in to the tub for a warm bath, and oh it felt so good as it pulled the poison out of me. This was one experience that I hoped I would never have to go through again. The only explanation for this episode was possibly from a venison sandwich that I had eaten for my lunch. The question still remains, why did my sister Dawna escape, as she had the same lunch.
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