And the word sent me rocketing into the past, almost as if I hadn't seen or heard the word in 30 or 40 years. And maybe I haven't. After all, it's a faily mild invective, one that's almost quaint in an era where more and more of George Carlin's "Seven Words" can be said on television.
The memory that came rushing back was that of Little Twerp, our quaint name for one of the Playground Ladies when I was in 6th grade. The nickname came about because she was little, almost down to my size, which at that point in my life found me as traditionally The Smallest Kid In Class. You know, the one with the target painted on his back.
Anyway, Little Twerp had a craggy face and pre-Britain's-Got-Talent Susan Boyle hair, a stocky frame, and a voice that could peel paint, especially when she yelled "All right people, up on the playground!" when recess was over. It was a voice that carried for blocks and earned noise complaints from bowling alleys and the airport. It was also widely imitated by my group of friends, and most of us could gravel up our voices in a fair imitation, this in the years before Monty Python's Pepperpot Ladies.
But we always obeyed because we were afraid of her.
The whole reason I'm telling you about Little Twerp now is because I just realized, after all this time, that even though she spent her time herding us off the playground, she treated us with respect - she said, "All right people", not "All right boys and girls". Something in retrospect that becomes important later, even though I doubt most of us would have been considered civilized enough to be "people" for at least another decade. But she did it consistently, every day, sun or snow.
I suspect she's gone now, but this is my nod to a woman whose name I never knew, someone who did her job and whose influence, like that of some of those rare memorable teachers we encounter in our lives, would not be felt - or even fully comprehended until years later.
So I tip my hat to you, LT. And I hope that Gillette Junior High has someone like you prowling the schoolground as I write this, making sure that people stay in line, smile, and play nice.
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- At one point, Bantam Books asked me to come up with a list of people they should send Ferman's Devils to with an eye toward getting a blurb , and the top name on my list was O'Rourke. Nobody on the list responded, but O'Rourke had his wife call me to thank me for thinking of him - he was literally on the way to some foreign country when the request came in, and wouldn't have time to read the book. Funny, and a nice guy.
