Comments (60)

1. I have a Veteran Columnist suggestion: Bill Flick, The Pantagraph, Bloomington/Normal, IL.

   posted by Starla on 10-23-2009 at 12:53 pm

2. 2. I don’t remember who they were, but a group of young (HS or college) performers came to our high school and did an impressive “Man of La Mancha” in the Cafetorium.

   4. Griffin Technologies with their wonderful iPod and Mac accessories.

   posted by PartiallyDeflected on 10-23-2009 at 1:01 pm

3. #3… dave barry (classic) or ben bova, naples daily news, naples,fl. bova was a prominent science fiction writer back in the day and now is regular columnist for the NDN.

   posted by jen on 10-23-2009 at 1:07 pm

4. 3. Gene Collier of Pittsburgh Post Gazette

   posted by Dan Hall on 10-23-2009 at 1:08 pm

5. 1. Craziest Parental behavior. My Dad. I was playing Mini Soccer, basically the youngest soccer group when I was a kid, probably 6 or 7 yrs old and we had our end of the summer tournament. The older kids played on fields, but we put inside the hockey rink, which had boards permanently place, but no ice, as it was the dog days of summer, brutally hot, temp was about 100 and very humid. After the first half, we were told to “warm up” for the second half. Now, a 6 or 7 yr old doesn’t really need to warm up, he/she is always ready to go, but we jogged around, I was clearly dogging it, cuz I was gassed and saving myself for the game, until my dear old Dad started yelling at me to go harder.

   I wound up passing out w/ heat exhaustion before the second half started. They pulled me into the shade of the hockey boards and gave me some water and I played the second half, but you don’t really need to warmup when its 100.

   2. We had an incident of poor sportsmanship at a school sport, I think basketball, some chant got started that was inappropriate, but onces several hundred kids start chanting something and they realize they can’t be stopped, they keep going. So our principal held an assembly where we were literally taught a more appropriate cheer, but it must have been one from our principal’s school days in the 50s, cuz it was straight out of Ozzie and Harriet. It went something like “Shoom-boogie, Shoom-boogie, one two/ Shoom-boogie, shoom-boogie, wooo wooo”. That principal forever became known as Shoom-boogie.

   3. Patrick Reusse, a sports columnist w/ StarTrib. He’s been around a long time and often has obscure sports stories from 20-30 or more yrs ago that he’ll use to illustrate something currently happening.

   Recaptcha: Here waste

   posted by Jonny on 10-23-2009 at 1:09 pm

6. 2. If I had to sit through one more junior high assembly about substance abuse (these were in the “Just Say No” 80s and before the days of D.A.R.E.), I swear I was gonna be a junkie just to spite the lot of them…and Nancy Reagan!

   You mean the Doobie Brothers named themselves after a euphemism for marijuana? And they put a picture of one on their album cover?! BFD…made me wish I was back in Algebra class.

   posted by Marty on 10-23-2009 at 1:12 pm

7. i coach a soccer team. we made it to the high school championship game. there was a parent of some very talented players who could not tolerate players of lesser talent and was relentless! with about 15 minutes left, we attempted to sub a player back into the game. the player refused to play if we put him on the side of the field. said he put up with the guy for the whole season and had enough.

   this man clearly understood the purpose of high school athletics (not the sarcasm)

   posted by jon on 10-23-2009 at 1:19 pm

8. 2. We had a \special assembly\ once a month in junior high. i only really remember once when these amazing chinese acrobats came and performed and another time when a trick yo-yo guy/hypnotist came and set off the yo-yo craze for us

   posted by Georgia on 10-23-2009 at 1:25 pm

9. 1. This isn’t sports/arts related (although I teach middle school drama and some of those parents are crazy) but my son’s school has the PTA from hell. At the start of the year, they asked all the parents to donate $100 per kid. Last Friday they had a big root beer float party at lunch to celebrate the fundraiser – only the kids whose parents donated at least $100 got root beer floats.

   2. I teach at a prestigious private school, so our assemblies tend to be a bit on the extreme side. We’ve had Madeleine Albright, Queen Noor, Bill Friedman, Wendy Wasserstein – you name it. I think my personal favorite, though, was when Al Gore came and did his “Inconvenient Truth” PowerPoint lecture in the gym.

   posted by Kristin on 10-23-2009 at 1:41 pm

10. 1. Not sports related, but the father of one of the girls in my daughter’s ballet class goes on and on about how uncoordinated his daughter is and how she isn’t any good and he doesn’t know what he wastes his money on the classes. It is a class of 5 and 6 year olds – none of them are prima ballerinas!

    2. Our “becoming a woman” assembly in 5th grade. The movie was so old it talked about pads with belts. Nice and up-to-date for the 80s.

    3. I would recommend Joe Blundo. In my book he is just as funny as Dave Barry and is the only reason to read the Columbus Dispatch.

    posted by bev on 10-23-2009 at 1:50 pm

11. I second the nomination of Dave Barry. I miss his columns and he’d be ideal for Mental Floss.

    reCaptcha: Mr Nautilus (I think a hint that I need to work out today)

    posted by Suzanne on 10-23-2009 at 1:52 pm

12. 3. Billy Cox, formerly of Florida Today, now at HeraldTribune. devoid.blogs.heraldtribune

    posted by sara on 10-23-2009 at 1:54 pm

13. 1. Back when I was a ref for rec league soccer we had a team with a very loud and obnoxious coach and parents. In one game I yellow carded the star player, red carded the coach, got the coach suspended from the city league for the remainder of the season, got chewed out by a parent, got said parents suspended for 2 games. Coach was yelling and cussing after the game, parent was with him and doing the same. Co ref and I red carded the coach and asked the parent to leave. Field Marshall (my old coach) came over and told em both to leave and kicked the coach out of the league for the season.

    posted by Andy on 10-23-2009 at 1:58 pm

14. 1. Sort of. I played soccer when I was little, and my dad was always the single crazy parent screaming at the 10 year olds to \SHOOOOOOT!!!\ Even when I was a defender and nowhere near the other goal, it never failed when the ball came near me – \SHOOT, NICOLE!!! SHOOOOOOOT!!!\ It all ended, though, when after a tournament we went to eat at Ryans and our 30-something waitress came by and said, \Oh, I used to play in that tournament, too!\ From then my dad says he realized soccer wasn’t as important as he thought. And he got more interested in my sister and my grades in school, haha…

    posted by Nicole on 10-23-2009 at 2:00 pm

15. 2. Mine is also related to the “becoming a woman” lecture they did at school, but I only remember it because all the 5th grade girls were herded into a room and shown a video where the up-front, no-nonsense mom decided the best way to illustrate the shape of the female reproductive system was by making pancakes shaped like a uterus and ovaries. Ruined me on pancakes for a whole year.

    4. Casemate – the Recession cases for iPhone they came out with (cardboard flat-packs for $0.99 each or 10 for $8) were a stroke of genius, and have so far lasted longer than any fancy rubber iPhone case I’ve bought.

    posted by Megan on 10-23-2009 at 2:09 pm

16. 1. We had a parent show up at one of our basketball games when I was in High School and proceed to walk out onto the floor to scream at the ref. The ref threw him out and the entire gym erupted in cheers. Needless to say, this man’s children were mortified.
    2. My favorite assemblies in elementary school were always the marionette shows. Hands down, my favorite.

    In middle school and high school, assemblies were always anti-drug/drinking and, contrary to what our administration thought, were not going to curb the problem. We had one that was particularly weird about the evils of alcohol and it involved a children’s theater company from a nearby metro area singing songs and performing interpretive dance.

    posted by bzzyb on 10-23-2009 at 2:11 pm

17. I coached 8th grade girls basketball. I had a mom take her daughter off the bench, walk her out of the gym, and leave the building in the second quarter because I hadn’t played her yet. She told her daughter “He won’t even know you’re gone.” Most coaches will tell you the worst thing about coaching is the parents.

    posted by Andy on 10-23-2009 at 2:12 pm

18. 3. I have a soft spot for Smiley down in Baton Rouge. he gives out moon pies, rc colas, and a bbq lunch as prizes for silly games.

    posted by MamaBug on 10-23-2009 at 2:16 pm

19. My memorable assembly was my senior year when the Princeton Tigertones, an all-male chorus, came and performed. Why they were traveling/performing in Texas, i couldn’t tell you. I just remember the girls all squealing like it was the ’60s and they were the Beatles. (Oooh, college men!)

    posted by Jen M on 10-23-2009 at 2:21 pm

20. 1. It’s pretty minor comparatively but I had to sit near a mother at a middle school basketball game who spent the whole game screaming at her kid and stomping rather violently on the part of the bleachers I was sitting on. I timidly and politely asked her to stomp on the floor part of the bleachers instead of the seat and she told me to shut up and that she would stomp wherever she wanted. Instead of moving (because I was with husband who was announcing for the game), I took to calling her “Mama Rhino” for the rest of the evening.

    2. I remember a pro-recycling rapper who sang, “Yo! Recycle! Yo! That’s what I do! Takin’ the old, makin’ it new!” I don’t know why I remember the lyrics, but the rap was terrible, even for the early nineties. I also remember a group coming in to demonstrate a sport that looked like hackey sack with wicker balls. It was interesting at the time, but considering that I can’t remember the name of the sport, it must not have had much long-term impact.

    3. Dave Barry, if you can get him to do it :)

    4. Does facebook count? I haven’t given them any money, but they seem to make it from somewhere.

    posted by Fruppi on 10-23-2009 at 2:24 pm

21. How’s this…at my then 6 year old son’s t-ball game two grandads from the SAME family got into a loud argument then jumped and started swinging punches over a call on the field. Daughter and wife of one left in humiliation. I bet Thanksgiving is fun

    posted by H on 10-23-2009 at 2:30 pm

22. Another memorable moment, in 6th grade our softball coach, a Dominican nun (in full long habit and veil) got into an argument with the ref and was ejected from the game! We still won the game and I still ser her from time to time and we laugh!

    posted by H on 10-23-2009 at 2:34 pm

23. 3. Patrick MacDonald, a Seattle Times music critic

    posted by Jon on 10-23-2009 at 2:40 pm

24. As a 500 plus game soccer ref, I’ve done everything from u-6 to Alumni games w/ college players. My most memorable send off was a U-10 coach yelling across the field threatening to harm a parent. I made him finish the game sitting in his car, as the other parents applauded. The next game as a coach was complaining about the way I was calling the game, my AR ran over and said”No,No, Don’t do that! I’ve had 10 times more trouble with the parents as the kids. (16 tryst for captcha!)

    posted by chris radus on 10-23-2009 at 2:43 pm

25. My high school invited a recovering addict to speak at one of our assemblies. They made the mistake of NOT reviewing her speech in advance. The poor woman spent the better part of an hour telling us all the things she AND her mother would do in a bar for free booze/drugs. The principal handled it pretty well. He took the mike when she was done and said, “That wasn’t what we expected, but sometimes it’s good to hear the uncensored version.”

    posted by Shannon on 10-23-2009 at 2:43 pm

26. 2. We had a substance-abuse type assembly once in high school, but it wasn’t your typical just say no assembly. Basically all they did was show us dozens of really graphic pictures of drug-related injuries, like people who got messed up in drunk driving accidents. The one I remember is of the arm of a heroin user who couldn’t find a vein so he peeled back his skin to find one…. still makes me shudder to think about it. They only did that assembly once–people were fainting or leaving the auditorium to throw up.

    posted by Jessica on 10-23-2009 at 2:51 pm

27. my most memorable assembly was in middle school when the high school choir came. one of the favorite teachers died the year before suddenly from a brain aneurysm. she was young and single and fun but was also known for helping at risk kids. ms. frasier taught most of the kids in the choir. They did Boyz II Men’s ‘Its so hard to say goodbye.’ I think the whole gym cried. It was a nice tribute.

    posted by spc on 10-23-2009 at 4:23 pm

28. 2. When I was in elementary school, sobeone in the school had some really good connections. That April we were told that we would have a special assembly. We filed into the cafeteria hearing jazz music. When I finally got to see who was playing, I reconized the people on the stage from my dad’s collection of records: Winton, Branford and Ellis Marsellis were our guests that day! My dad is a big music lover, so when I got home the only thing he said (and rather jealously, too) was that he’d wished the school had invited the parents too…

    posted by Angela on 10-23-2009 at 4:26 pm

29. I directed a kids show a couple years back for a local community theatre. There was one girl who gave a good audition and I was considering casting her in a lead role. As most directors I know do, I was contacting previous directors of hers to see how she did. It ends up she had a horrible case of stage fright and while she would give an awesome audition, on opening night she would freeze and not remember any of her lines. I would have overlooked it, but it was four different productions the same thing happened. One show they had to bring in another girl because the other actors weren’t able to cover for her lack of lines every night. But she was so good I gave her smaller role that only had one scene.

    After the initial read through with the cast I was approached by her mother. “Why didn’t my daughter get a better role? She is obviously better than the two little girls you choose for the lead. What didn’t you like about her?” My response was truthful, “I checked and discovered her history of freezing and never being able to remember lines as recently as last year. I could not risk it for my show, but I still gave her a role. There are at least seven or eight little girls that would love to be Father Christmas’ helper right now and I gave it to your daughter. That is my reasoning.” She left in a huff. (I want to note that I DID NOT say those things in front of the girl. I’m blunt but I try not to be an obvious jerk.

    Sure enough, opening night came, and Santa had to cover for his mute helper. She didn’t get her lines right until the last night.

    posted by Nathan on 10-23-2009 at 5:12 pm

30. I forgot to answer number two . . . We used to have a gentlemen who would come to our elementary school and teach us all about the American Indians and the west. He would set up a teepee on school grounds and show us how they lived on the frontier. His name was John Dillinger (I remember this because whenever I would tell my dad about him my dad would ask if he robbed any of the teachers while he was there. I didn’t get the joke until I was older) He came around once a year for about three years. He would show us how to shoot a bow and arrow, and he would fire an old musket in the gymnasium. (Something you could NEVER get away with now) He was great. The other interesting thing about him is he had two thumbs on one hand. Never forget him.

    posted by Nathan on 10-23-2009 at 5:16 pm

31. The most profound school assembly we ever had was when we had a former Navy Seal give his testimony on how he became a christian. A stray bullet hit a phosphorus grenade that he had and burned him until he was unrecognizable. His wife stayed with him through all of that. Truly unconditional love. They went on to have children and build a family together. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I’ll never forget that.

    posted by BRUCE on 10-23-2009 at 5:36 pm

32. I would love to be at one of those assemblies where Anita Renfroe (”Momsense”)is a guest speaker.

    Bleacher Creature and NY Daily News columnist Filip Bondy

    Freecycle – although we tend to get a lot more than we give away.

    posted by Sue on 10-23-2009 at 5:59 pm

33. My junior year off high school I was in the winter percussion ensemble (marching band inside with only percussion instruments). During one of the shows, a bass drum player fell. At the next show, some parent from another school shouted, “Don’t fall!” as we were taking the floor. Classy.

    posted by Ethan on 10-23-2009 at 6:08 pm

34. 2. I think I was in 3rd grade. Our school did an assembly on stranger danger. The movie we watched made us a girl(first person) about my age (at that time), who followed a stranger (just his shoes–creepy–never showed his face) into his car (to get candy? see puppies?). The next thing we knew, \we\ were running away from these stranger shoes. Ended up hiding in a culvert with the shoes standing right next to it. Fade to black…

    Then the next shot was an actual picture of said culvert area with blood and water and maybe even a body(?). Need I say I was traumitized for years after that. So were many of my friends. I wonder how many phone calls the elementary office fielded after that…

    posted by Diane on 10-23-2009 at 6:08 pm

35. #4 – Facebook. Out of all the stuff introduced online the last few years, Facebook’s made the most impact on my life thus far.

    posted by Steve from San Diego on 10-23-2009 at 6:08 pm

36. 1. I used to coach junior high cheerleading…. i had a mom call me at home after tryouts and tried to convince me to let her daughter on the squad. We were on the phone for 2 hours. I didn’t cave, but she did make cry. Awesome.

    2. I loved the magazine drive assemblies mainly for the weeples they would hand out.

    3. This one is tough… I’m getting a masters in journalism so I have a lot of favorites.

    4. The company I work for (well, not after next week). It helped me make a ton of friends when I moved to Phoenix and when I moved on to another part of the company, I met my boyfriend (along with, again, helping me settle in to another new city).

    posted by LK on 10-23-2009 at 6:29 pm

37. Bruce,
    WOW!! I was just going to talk about the same guy, small world huh?
    as for 1) Being a varsity diver in high school allowed me to see some parents at their best, screaming at their kids on the swim team. This went on almost every meet we had. Egads! Jealous because they can swim better than you?

    posted by bryan on 10-23-2009 at 7:01 pm

38. 1. A parent (and school board member) was very upset with a ladies’ basketball ref (HS) and stormed across the court to dress him down. Not pretty. However, he did have enough sense to apologize to the school board the next night at the meeting.

    2. My favorite was the one just for the girls in 5th grade. What?

    posted by Hyacinth on 10-23-2009 at 7:19 pm

39. 1. I played in a 16U elite softball team last summer. Those parents are INTENSE.

    2. My personal favorite assembly was one that I recently had at my school about bullying. After he left, everyone in the school (including the faculty) made fun of his message throughout the rest of the day.

    3. I add my voice to those calling for Dave Barry.

    posted by Nora on 10-23-2009 at 7:29 pm

40. 1. My mother-in-law made a HS softball coach cry because she cut my sister-in-law from the freshman team. This was when I was still dating my no husband. I recently found out that she did basically the same thing when my husband was cut from a hockey team when he was younger.

    2. I remember an assembly in middle school with a man who was born without arms. He showed us how he did normal every day things that we would do with our hands with his feet. Basically I think it was to teach us that whatever problems we think we have, it could be a lot worse. It was quite inspirational.

    posted by Mrs. Coffee on 10-23-2009 at 7:39 pm

41. 2. I remember my “women only” talk, but it was done in the 4th grade with the meanest, oldest teacher in the school. We called her Mrs Vinegar, because of her sour personality.
    Anyways, she goes to show us the video, and tells us that if we laugh at any of the scientific names for private parts, we will be sent to the hallway, and a note will be sent home. Of course the first time she says “va—a” the class erupts into giggles. All but about 5 girls got sent to the hallway, where we proceded to come up with better names for our female parts.

    3. I’m not sure I agree with Jonny about Reusse, as he had it out for my high school, but Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has been around forever, and is “buddies” with just about every major athlete to pass through MN.

    4. I have to go with the hockey team from Minnesota, formed in 2000. Through being a fan, I met my boyfriend, arguing about the better team.

    posted by Rachel on 10-23-2009 at 7:43 pm

42. My elementary school use to go on a field trip each year to a play house in our city. A group of mental challenged actors would put on a show in complete darkness with glow in the dark props. Imagine the Lion King play only glow in the dark. Huge costumes, amazing effects and everything seemed to be floating. I wish I could remember what the show was called but that was 20 years ago. If any one knows chime in it was in the LA area in the late 80’s. I’m pretty sure it was at Scripps Collage in Claremont CA.

    posted by chris on 10-23-2009 at 10:19 pm

43. 3. Dave Barry, please! I know he’s rather expensive, but well worth it.

    posted by Chloe on 10-23-2009 at 10:24 pm

44. I once saw a father and a coach get into a fight at a little league game. My father and a few others broke it up but only after one of the men was bleeding. There was blood every where and even after they were separated both men kept yelling at each other. Finally the police came and arrested both of them. If I recall it was over bating order. We were nine, none of us had the power to hit the ball out of the in field and half the time the kids in the outfield ate sitting down playing with grass. What is wrong with people?

    posted by DC on 10-23-2009 at 10:42 pm

45. Mitch Albom. I don’t know if you guys have or not, but he’s pretty awesome.

    posted by Jen on 10-23-2009 at 11:49 pm

46. John Karras or Chuck Offenberger, both late of the Des Moines Register.

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 10-24-2009 at 12:03 am

47. 3. To fully appreciate my answer to this question, you have to understand that I go to a New York City gifted high school with a lot of jaded teenagers who would rather disdain popular culture than involve themselves in it.
    So last year, when we saw the Soulja Boy tour van parked outside our school, we were more than a little perplexed. The confusion increased when we realized that he was here as part of a–get this–anti-drug assembly.
    Of course his performance in our auditorium had nothing to do with preventing drug use. He mostly just pranced pathetically around the stage of our packed auditorium at 10:00am, oblivious to the fact that the hundreds of teenagers in the room were laughing hysterically at his antics. The situation became more amusing–and even a little sad–when we realized that it was the day of his CD release, and here he was playing a 1200-person high school.
    All in all, it was a very surreal day.

    posted by Claire on 10-24-2009 at 9:22 am

48. oops, that was supposed to be labeled #2.

    posted by Claire on 10-24-2009 at 9:23 am

49. The best school assembly I attended was in middle school. The man who whistled the theme to the Andy Griffith show was the attraction. I know it sounds boring and we all were just looking for a chance to miss class. That man, with just a microphone, filled the auditorium with a flock of birds, several different kinds, and then made it sound as if they were swooping all around us, from one side to the other. It was amazing. Then at the end we had a whistle-along to the AG show tune. I still think of him everytime I watch a rerun!

    posted by Stevie on 10-24-2009 at 1:54 pm

50. 1. My dad was once kicked out of the 8th grade gymnasium for going ballistic on one of the refs during one of my games. Yeah, that was a little embarassing, but still kinda funny. My dad was in his 40’s and here he was getting kicked out of the gym by the ref who was probably a high school senior at the time.

    Also, I remember being told by my volleyball coach that he wouldn’t be starting me for one game because one of the other girls on the team’s mom complained about her not starting. So the coach let her start for that one game…after she served he put me back in. She never started any other games that I remember. I kinda feel bad for her now that her mom was so overbearing, but at the time I HATED her!!! And I was not happy with my coach either because he even told me I was a better player but because she had a good serve he told her mom he would start her in that one game. High school sports politics!!!

    posted by Jenny on 10-24-2009 at 4:53 pm

51. POWER TEAM!!!

    posted by Ryan on 10-24-2009 at 10:52 pm

52. The children’s group in my church would practice songs to sing to the congregation
    for one of the meetings every year. It was just one of those cutesy things and since the audience was just friends/neighbors/parents it was just a way to get the kids involved, not win prizes. One year though, a mother ran up to her nine year old daughter, grabbed her face really hard and started yelling about how she had done a horrible job and ruined everything because she hadn’t smiled enough for the happy songs or looked serious enough for the sober ones, and how could she do that, etc etc. It instantly made a happy, simple thing into a super awkward situation. They moved soon after.

    posted by Beth on 10-24-2009 at 11:16 pm

53. #2 Worst was local ballet company the guy went to do a leaping move and got tangled in back curtain and fell flat on the floor..we didn’t see him again..I think he really got hurt

    Best..2 words…Ray Bradbury

    posted by Beth on 10-25-2009 at 10:05 am

54. One time one of the globetrotters went to my school. he went to advocate the whole not doing drugs thing. he had an hour long assembly. i still remember the entirety of his speech pertaining to drugs.

    if my girlfriend wanted me to do drugs i’d be like nah! because i dont do that.

    the end.
    this phrase was mumbled half heartedly amidst basketball tricks. it was barely understandable. only reason i do remember is because i was shocked that my school had paid him to talk about drugs and thats all they got. i hope he didnt get paid
    the rest was him showing us his awesome basketball moves and telling us how awesome he was. it was super super boring and in no way taught me anything about why i shouldnt do drugs.

    posted by mehmeh on 10-25-2009 at 11:25 am

55. 1)In high school I was playing running back when I went down with a significant leg injury(basically I ripped my calf in half internally). So Im laying there and all you here is this crazy parent yelling GET UP! COME ON GET UP! So the lady standing in front of him says “how would you like it if that was your kid?” He says, “lady! mind your buisness that is my kid!” Now I realize I just painted a terrible picture of my dad, he really isnt like that, its just the game was tight and we lost by one, everybody was emotional on both sides….and I finished that game on one leg.
    2)David Toma(New Jersey police officer who was the basis for the show barretta) came to my high school and told some pretty powerful stories.

    posted by CJ on 10-25-2009 at 8:22 pm

56. 2 favorites:
    The athletic recognition assembly where the girls’ basketball coach praised his players by saying, “these girls really put out.”

    The pep rally shortly after the school banned songs with dirty words from dances. The pom-pom squad did a dance routine to REO Speedwagon’s “Tough Boys,” which contains the lines “They think they’re full of fire/she thinks they’re full of shit.” Needless to say, every kid in the gym sang along with that second line. It was awesome.

    posted by Brachinus on 10-25-2009 at 8:48 pm

57. not sports but obnoxious- my then-10-year-old grandson was a cast member in a short film (shooting in Wilmington Delaware)along with a then-6-year-old boy. The boy’s grandmother was his chaperone and, I guess, his agent. Several child actors and their parents were crammed into a short hallway two rooms away from the filming, waiting for the children’s cues. The boy’s grandmother would not allow him to play with any of the other children “because”, she snarled as she yanked him back to her side, “I didn’t bring you here to have fun.” If she had hair-sprayed that child’s perfect hair once more, the other parents were ready to jump her. I remember that they came to the screening (held at the University of Delaware-but only for the cast and their families) in a limo. The child wore a three-piece white suit (in August!) and still had perfect hair.
    Worst school assmbly- high school: we had May Day -held on the football field. No one was excused. The students (2,400 plus)were divided into two teams (the Purple and the Gold) and competed in GROUP EXERCISES! Alternating columns of boys and girls were supposed to be mirror-images. The first time I was on the field practising, I realized that no one had told the boy on my left about proper support garments and the inadvisibility of boxers under loose shorts. I was at the at that school for 3 years and never again opened my eyes during May Day.

    posted by Catherine on 10-26-2009 at 12:19 am

58. I think my favorite assembly in highschool (which I’m not done with yet) would be the assembly we had on the day of Obama’s inauguration. Some friends and I came in early to set up AV equipment so that the whole school could watch the inaugural speech. When Obama was done speaking, the entire student body stood up applauding him. It made me really happy to be a part of making that experience possible for everyone at our school. That was the first time I can remember the entire student body actually standing and singing when asked to sing the national anthem. I’ll always remember that day.

    posted by N on 10-26-2009 at 1:53 am

59. 4. Without a doubt, Facebook. I don’t think most people under the age of 30 could imagine a world without it. People pretty much seem to live their lives on it.

    posted by Debbie on 10-26-2009 at 1:59 am

60. 2. I went to elementary school in Key West and a local theatre troupe came to perform “Cinderella”. The cast included very large drag queens as the Evil Stepmother and Stepsisters. Classic!

    posted by Tristan on 10-27-2009 at 2:39 pm

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