This wasn't seeing, but someone in the room wanted to die from embarrassment.
In grade two (or maybe three) there was a girl in the class whose mother was a music teacher (mostly piano, but a few other instruments). I know my sister went to her for lessons and I started, but after a rash of ear infections (I had a small eustachian tube back in those days, but grew out of it) I had to stop. Parents are always encouraged to volunteer, and of course this friend's mother volunteered to help with our music program (teaching us how to use the recorder).
The first day she was in she was being introduced to the class, the teacher jokingly warned her that we could be a handful, and she said that she was used to that, that she couldn't count the number of wooden spoons she had broken raising her three kids. Of course the entire class laughed because we all knew she was talking about spanking them, her daughter turned beet red, the teacher gave the volunteer a bit of look, and the woman tried to recover. She said something like "I mean I've broken them by pounding them on the side of the banister, calling the kids downstairs for supper", but no one really believed that story.
And yes, that story has stuck with me for decades. |