After work yesterday, I took a walk along the bayou. The weather was perfect. The sun was setting. Other people were out taking it all in.
Out of nowhere, the phrase, “a hairy stick” pops into my head. And I can’t help but laugh out loud. Passersby are trying to figure out what’s so funny.
Back in middle school, I had a PE teacher, Mr. Ortiz. Not sure how we got on the topic of his childhood, but one day he told the class a story about how his father used to rap him on the head with a stick when he got out of line.
This kid Earl, probably the quietest person in my class, starts snickering. Then giggling. Finally, he breaks into an all-out laugh.
Mr. Ortiz, also the school disciplinarian, wasn’t having it. He asked Earl what he thought was funny.
And Earl—you know how you’re laughing and trying to talk at the same time, but you can’t get the words out over the laugh? That was Earl.
Once he managed to compose himself enough to form words, Earl says, “it must have been a hairy stick’.
Mr. Ortiz was balding.
That was 30+years ago, and it still cracks me up.