Even though I was a model child, I occasionally got into trouble. Not so much trouble at home since I was afraid of the consequences, but I did manage to be quite mischievous at school.

One of my favorite grades was 4th grade. Mr. Goodwin was our teacher. It was his first year of teaching and he was so blessed to have me in his classroom. He had this old desk that went almost all the way to the floor on the front. It was so low you could barely see his feet underneath.

I came in from recess one day a few minutes early and crawled under his desk. It was very roomy. After a while, he came into the class room and sat down. I very carefully tied his laces together. Apparently he felt the motion or realized something was wrong but not before I finished getting them tied. He pushed back his chair to look under the desk. I was sitting there big eyed, grinning. He stood up, falling and catching himself on his desk. It was great and scary all at the same time.

After he fixed his shoe laces, he picked up the paddle. Back then teachers were allowed to paddle their own students for misbehavior. He told me to go into the restroom so he would not have to paddle me in front of the class.

Shaking and nervous I went into the restroom. I knew it was going to hurt but somehow thought it was worth the enjoyment. Mr. Goodwin told me that was not an appropriate prank to play on a teacher and told me that if I ever told anybody in the class that he did not paddle me I would be in a lot more trouble. With that, he slapped the paddle on his leg and sent me back into the classroom.

Fortunately, I was scared enough that I did not reenter the room smiling and smart enough to keep it to myself that I did not really get in trouble for that awesome 4th grade prank.