Hail! Hail! And Marbles

Last night about 3:00 we woke up to the sound of marble sized chunks of ice beating on the roof. After I discerned that the train horn was not a tornado siren I went to check on the boys, who apparently could sleep through an atomic bomb. Jessie began to dance at the front door, eager to go potty. As soon as I opened the door, she started out and stopped cold. I actually heard her paws screech as she skidded to a stop. It was clear to me that her bladder would burst before she would go out in that weather. I couldn't blame her.

I went back to bed to be lulled back to sleep by the sound of the roof being beaten to shreds and soon I was back at my highschool graduation. Let me explain.

My graduating class numbered 77. We had a Senior Advisor who doubles as our Humanities teacher, Mr. Pinkerton. Someone in the class, I don't know who, had divised a plan to "get" Mr. Pinkerton at graduation. The plan was simple. We would all carry marbles. As we walked across the stage and shook hands with Mr. Pinkerton we would hand him the marbles. Soon he would have 77 marbles he wouldn't know what to do with. Sort of like that I Love Lucy episode at the chocolate factory. Yeah, I know.. it sounded way more funny at the time.

So, because our graduating class was so small, we were all sitting on risers on the stage. The class was called alphabetically to step forward and recieve their diplomas. The "A"s went, then the "B"s. Mr. Pinkerton looked amused at first, which turned into confusion which quickly transformed into downright anger. Looks swept through the risers that seemed to yell, "Abort! Abort!"

Well, that's just fine and dandy, but what in the world do we do with the marbles. We drop them. All of us last names from D - Z simply dropped our marbles. Right there on the stage. Well, actually, on the risers, which then bounced to the next step down, rolling to the next step and finally, after quite a bit of racket, to the stage where it bounced a few times before finally coming to a stop after what seemed like 2 hours had gone by.

The sound of all those marbles dropping began to merge with the sound of the hail and i woke up again.. Two hours later, during a second storm.

I'm pretty sure my dream really happened. The class of '85 wanted to go out with a bang and instead we went out with a clatter. But just maybe, I was the only one who dropped her marble and to cover up my extreme embarrasment, I created an avalance of marbles. Who knows?