My high school(bow my head) had an intercom system that would go throughout the bldg. if you flipped one switch, or just the main office if you flipped the other switch. You had to stand on a chair for your "broadcast" to be heard. (so I was told
) The sound came through like booming thunder. Some of us took it upon ourselves to keep the principal regularly pissed off for the duration of our attendance...which was four years. I think we did a credible job if I must say so myself. One of my buddies hated his mother's cat so one day he brought it to school. Our heat and ventilation system was made up of huge aluminum ductwork, rectangular in shape. Pete's desk was next to a cold air return so he pulled off the grill, tied some soup cans to the cat's tail and put it inside the duct and replaced the grill. That cat made a racket all over the school for over an hour before someone finally opened a different grill and caught it. A guy named John Barton was a little guy, short in stature but large in being a PITA. One Friday in the shop class while the teacher was out in the hall, we opened the trap door under the bandsaw and shoved him inside, then put the bandsaw back on top. Weighing about 400 lbs. we knew he wasn't going to get out. He disappeared when we went looking for him, he had crawled through the huge air ducts and knocked out the grill over the vent in the kitchen. There were no guards back then, he spent the weekend in the school and was found Monday morning by the custodians, sound asleep on one of the tables in the cafeteria. He had helped himself to all kinds of food and goodies in the kitchen, much to the dismay of the staff....and the principal. I really miss HS!
