Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

One of the few things I remember learning in high school is that if I keep quiet about some privilege I have, no one minds.

I guess I learned a lot of things in high school. I remember that I learned how to play a couple of musical instruments and march in a marching band. I suppose I learned a little math and science, enough to sneak into college. There must have been lots of other things I learned in high school, but I can’t remember them. One thing I do remember from high school is the title of this post.

I played on the baseball team in high school – started three years. It was a small high school and a small baseball team. We played some of our games at 1 pm on school days. On those days, there was a logistics problem of how to eat some lunch before the game. We had to be on the field at noon to warm up. The cafeteria was not open at 11 am. Where to eat?

We sneaked away from school and ate at The Malt Stand. Believe it or not, that is what we called the Loranger Drive-In. It wasn’t much of a place, but they were open at 11 am and they had good hamburgers and fries (the staple of our diet).

The key word from above is “sneaked.” We were not permitted to leave school to eat lunch. It was a small baseball team; we were not big men on campus (but that is another story). Coach Housely knew that is where we ate lunch on game days. He also knew that we didn’t have permission to do so. He also knew that he didn’t have the authority to permit us to leave school grounds. And he also knew something that many of us didn’t know yet:

If we would keep quiet about it, no one would mind.

He had to repeat this lesson to us at the start of each baseball season. A few of the ninth graders would come in to the team and join us for lunch at The Malt Stand. They also had to tell their friends how they could get away with this. The word would spread, it was after all a small school, and we wouldn’t be allowed to sneak away any more. One time was usually all it took for the lesson to sink in. Yes, it was an obvious lesson, but yes we were teenage boys with thick skulls.

Well, Coach Housely was right about The Malt Stand. We would keep quiet about it, and no one minded. I learned from his lesson, and that is one of the very few things I remember learning in high school.

I heed Coach Housely’s advice to this day. I have a few privileges  in my job and in a few other circumstances in my life. I don’t really have permission, but as long as I keep quiet about them, no one minds.