A Student and Teacher Guarding The High School In My Hometown In 1973

In 1969, I was in high school. At our school we used to sneak off to the parking lot, as far away from the school as we could get, to smoke cigarettes. (Which was against the rules, of course, although we all carried packs of smokes around in our shirt pockets.) One time, out at our smoking spot, one of my friends said, “Hey, you guys wanna see my new birthday present?” He opened the trunk of his car and brought out a brand-new (unloaded) deer rifle with a 3×9 telescopic sight. We were passing it around from guy-to-guy admiring it, looking through the scope, pointing it down the street , looking at other students across the campus and other stupid teenaged boy behavior, when this deep voice loudly said, “WHAT ARE YOU ASSHOLES DOING?” We turned around, and there was Coach Carr, bigger than hell. The guy with the rifle quickly tossed it to the owner, who squeaked out, Eddie-Haskell-like “Oh, gosh, Coach, I was just showing the guys my birthday present.”

Coach Carr relaxed and said, “Oh. I thought you were smoking. Put that shit away and get back to class.”

True story. Houston, Texas, Lamar High School, 1969.