Library Pass - I Am Still Waiting

The place, Irmo High School in Columbia, South Carolina.

What two words best describe my Junior(1985/86) and Senior (1986/87) years at Irmo High School?

Library Pass

A library pass had to be signed by a teacher and could get you out of study hall and into the library. I managed to score 3 Library Passes a day and spent a good portion of my Junior and Senior years in the Irmo High School Library.

Welcome to Library Pass, where I will tell true stories from the Irmo High School Library.

Have you ever had someone pull a joke on you or use a put-down or come-back on you that was soooo good that you couldn't wait for the perfect situation to arise so that you could use it on someone else?

It was Senior year.

Me and four or five of my friends were sitting in the library at a big table. The library was pretty crowded at the time.

Chris Thigpen leaned over to John or Steven Scoff and whispered something. Then Chris told Dave and Beattie the secret. Soon, everyone at the table, but me, was in on the secret.

Then, all of a sudden, everyone at our table, except me, jumped up at the same time.

Everyone in the library looked over at our table.

My "friends" all started moving away from me.

They all made faces as if they had just heard the most disgusting thing imaginable.

Thigpen said "Oh Turnipseed!" as he waved his hand back and forth under his nose and made a disgusting face.

All of my friends did the same, either pinching their nose, covering it with their hand, or waving their hand under their nose.

They sold it perfectly.

A few of them even acted suprised as if the smell was even worse than they had expected when they intitially lept up from the table in horror based on the (pretend) sound alone.

My protests that it was all a trick only made me seem all the more guilty.

It has been 20 years and I am still waiting to use that gag on someone else.