The Sledge

I recalled a fun memory from elementary school earlier as an old friend and I were talking.  We had a good laugh about it, since he went to the same school.  Once upon a time, a bunch of us boys were hanging around in the gym restroom after PE class.  Before I go on I need to describe this bathroom.  It was under the bleachers, so the ceiling sloped on one side.  There was one toilet with no stall, one sink, and a wooden bench to sit on while you waited your turn at the pisser.  There was a lot of writing on the ceiling and walls– peoples’ names, dates those people "wuz here," obsceneties, doodles, you name it.  There was also usually dried wads of toilet paper on the walls and ceiling, because several people had a habit of wetting handfulls of it and throwing it there. 

Anyway, one day somebody noticed that the sink wasn’t attached to the wall at all, but instead only suspended there by a length of pipe coming from the drain and sticking several inches into the slightly wider pipe coming from the wall.  Well, for whatever reason my buddy Kevin went over there and lifted the whole damn sink off the pipe, and then couldn’t get it back in.  Everybody did what any respectable bunch of elementary school boys would do– we freaked and ran a way, leaving poor Kevin to try and figure that shit out for himself.  I think somebody must have stayed behind to help, because they managed to get in line soon after the rest of us and I don’t remember anybody ever mentioning the event. 

I was thinking earlier how easy it is to get used to the length of the day during different seasons, and how strange it is for the first couple of weeks when you first start noticing the days getting longer or shorter.  I was driving home earlier at nearly 8 PM, and there was still the slightest hint of daylight on the western horizon.  A mere month ago, it was pitch black by 6.  I dunno, it’s pointless to muse about it, but muse I did nonetheless.