Sixth grade was an awkward time for me. I wasn’t pretty, popular or athletic; but had somehow gotten the “smart” label. In actuality I was just an average child with average grades who liked to read and write. My sixth grade teacher at Cave City was Ms. Elsie. She wasn’t very tall and seemed incredibly old to me. She always read a chapter at the end of each day to the class. This was one of my most enjoyable times of each day as I couldn’t wait to hear what happened next. Along with encouraging reading, she also required students to write stories or reports and read them to the class.

It was almost my turn to get up to read my report on this particular day. I was fairly nervous and had one of those old clipboards with the metal clips and hole for hanging. I was sitting in my desk sliding my finger in and out of the hole. All at once, my finger got stuck. I tugged and pulled to no avail. My finger was swelling and I couldn’t get it out. I sat on the clipboard while trying to yank my finger out of the hole.

Ms. Elsie called my name to come to the front of the class. Since my finger was stuck, I took my paper and put it on my clipboard to carry with me. As I was starting to read my report, Ms. Elsie told me to put my clipboard away. I just looked at her and said, “I can’t.” She again told me to put it away and to just hold my paper. Starting to tear up, I told her that my finger was stuck. She got up out of her chair and walked over to me. I was shaking and almost crying. She looked at my finger and told me to go to the sink and put a lot of soap on my finger to see if I could get it out of the clipboard. She tried Vaseline, soap, squeezing my finger nothing worked. Eventually, she called Mr. Foley, our ancient custodian, to come to our classroom.

Mr. Foley examined my finger and said, “We’ll have to cut it off.”

I was hysterical. I started screaming and really crying, “NO, NO, don’t cut it off,” while clutching the clipboard to my chest and wildly looking around to find an escape route. Ms. Elsie and Mr. Foley were just looking at me. Finally, Mr. Foley said, “We are just going to cut the end of the clipboard.”

It took me a few moments to process what he was saying. I started breathing easier and calmed down a bit before clarifying his comment. “So, you’re not going to cut off my finger?”

I have to admit, I’ve never stuck my finger into a clipboard hole again.