My First Brush with The law...

I mentioned Hula Hoops. Those bright colors, spinning wheels of blue and red and yellow and green, that every kid had to have, or immediately face death of embarrasment. I was in the first grade in Mrs. Bailey's room, and the proud owner of a yellow hula hoop. Purchased in our local Oklahoma Tire and Supply store from L.D. Dennis, my cousin and neighbor two miles out of Huntsville on Highway 23 south, I could keep this thing spinning for minutes around my (then) flat little stomach.Little did I know the trouble it would bring me. It was a rainy afternoon in Mrs. Bailey's room, and we all had our hula hoops to spin at recess, all stacked neatly in the corner of our class room. Tension was building as we watched the rain clear and the sun began to show. We might get to go outside for recess! Yes! We begged Mrs. Bailey to let us go outside, and she agreed, as long as we stayed on the sidewalk and didn't get our shoes muddy. To get away from the flying hoops near the classroom door, I walked quickly up the sidewalk to just in front of the lunch room and began to spin. And spin. I had never gotten dizzy before and I let the hoop fall as I tripped and fell...OFF THE SIDEWALK! Having a fortuitous sense of timing, Mrs. Bailey looked out the door as I stumbled into the mud. "David Harwood, get back in my room now!". I was dead, life was already over just in the first grade. I took my hula hoop and slunk into the room. As punishment for being the only kid in the first grade to disobey my teacher, I had to stand in front of the class and hop up and down for 30 seconds. Humiliation!. My first crime and I wasn't yet 7 years old.