The Tall Girl

I'm not sure exactly why I feel inclined to write about this. It's more about adolescent behavior than it is about my childhood.

The tallest student at Chatham Park Elementary was one of the girls in another 6th grade class. She was also the only girl in the school who had matured enough to require "feminine undergarments"... And it was common knowledge that she would show you "the twins" for the right amount of money.

Now - I don't know if that was true.
OK - I'll admit the thought of finding out did cross my mind (many times) but that's not the point:
Maybe she flashed them all the time...
Maybe she only did it once...
Maybe she had only joked about it...
Maybe she had never done anything at all...
None of that mattered. She was a "slut" and everyone knew it - the rumors were the only "truth" that mattered.

And that led to an incident that has stuck in my mind ever since:

One afternoon as we were leaving the school one of the boys made an off-color remark to her and she took offense and called him a name. He responded by shoving her into a mud puddle - she landed on her back with her skirt up and her legs apart... The whole thing was witnessed by at least 20 boys... Most of them were laughing... Someone yelled a crude remark about her unladylike position and they laughed even harder...

When she finally got to her feet she was covered in mud - both figuratively and literally. She was crying - more from frustration than embarrassment. She was saying things like "Why are you treating me like this??" And everyone just laughed even more...

I wish I could say that I had the courage to confront the 'mob'. But I didn't - I was afraid of getting beaten up... Or that I tried to console her afterward. But I didn't do that either - I was afraid she'd lash out at me... And those fears are something I've had to live with....

But it has never ceased to amaze me how unimaginably cruel groups of adolescents can be...