As mentioned in and earlier blog, I taught middle school and high school shop, another lifetime ago. Now, most folks would think that middle school students would be the squirrlyest, but not so for me. My two years in the middle school shop were pretty mundane, with the exception of one “wild child” that I had removed, after he locked another student in the spray booth. Wonder if he ended up in jail?

No, my middle school students were pretty calm, compared to some at one of my high schools. Nothing dangerous, except when one discovered that you could tie back the safety on the framing nail gun and shoot nails across the shop. Yeah, that came to a screeching halt, very fast. Funniest thing I ever saw happened when I walked out of the classroom into the shop, and all of the sudden a group scattered.

“What’s going on????!!!” “Nothing,” was the chorus. Yeah, right. I pried a bit and one the guys said, “Go ahead and show Schindler, he won’t get mad.” “Right Shin?” “Right,” I replied.

Turns out this lanky kid, Roy Smith, discovered that he could balance on top of the hand held belt sander, reach down, pull the trigger and ride it across the shop. Was one of the funniest things I ever saw. Yep, that was his, and the other students’ last ride. Gotta admit, that Porter Cable was a beast.

Happy Wooding!