I was late to class after noon recess once in first or second grade, I think it was. I was playing “tag” with the Russel twins, Terry and Tom and I was “it”. We were at the far end of the playground and just as we reached a patch of tall weeds, the boys split apart, each running on a different side of that patch of weeds. I decided to take a short cut through the weeds to catch one of them. Just before I entered the patch of weeds, they both stopped and shouted, “No, no!” I thought the were just trying to trick me, but they were trying to warn me that I was about to run into a patch of sand burrs. Well, I ended up coated with burrs just as the bell rang to call us in from recess. A couple teachers (or playground aids or whatever) hurried over to me as they heard my cries of shock and pain. They patiently pulled all the burrs off of me, but I was so afraid I was going to be in trouble for being late back to class, I think I was crying more from worry about getting in trouble than I was crying from pain. One of the teachers walked me back to class to explain what happened. I was told later that the janitors were really mad at me for running through the sand burrs because then they were sent out there to cut them all down. Why they allowed the things to grow there in the first place, I will never be able to figure out.
I was late to class after noon recess once in first or second grade, I think it was. I was playing “tag” with the Russel twins, Terry and Tom and I was “it”. We were at the far end of the playground and just as we reached a patch of tall weeds, the boys split apart, each running on a different side of that patch of weeds. I decided to take a short cut through the weeds to catch one of them. Just before I entered the patch of weeds, they both stopped and shouted, “No, no!” I thought the were just trying to trick me, but they were trying to warn me that I was about to run into a patch of sand burrs. Well, I ended up coated with burrs just as the bell rang to call us in from recess. A couple teachers (or playground aids or whatever) hurried over to me as they heard my cries of shock and pain. They patiently pulled all the burrs off of me, but I was so afraid I was going to be in trouble for being late back to class, I think I was crying more from worry about getting in trouble than I was crying from pain. One of the teachers walked me back to class to explain what happened. I was told later that the janitors were really mad at me for running through the sand burrs because then they were sent out there to cut them all down. Why they allowed the things to grow there in the first place, I will never be able to figure out.