I had to pick Peanut up early from school today for a Doctors appointment. While I waited for her by the guidance office I thought back to when I was in 7th grade and my mother would come get me at school. Those rare occasions were usually for something that was less pleasant than being in school. I'm certain Peanut feels the same way.
As we pulled away from Ellicott Mills Middle School I asked her how they let her know that I was there.
“The teacher gets a phone call.”
“On her mobile phone?”
“No, she has a regular phone on her desk.”
More or less just wanting to keep the conversation going, I asked her about the ring tone on the teachers desk phone.
“I can’t remember but it’s not as crazy as some of the kids.”
“The kids have mobile phones on them?”
“Yeah, a lot of them do but they’re not supposed to use them in school. When a kids phone rings in class he usually gets yelled at and told to turn it off. Sometimes the teacher even takes the phone away.”
“Have you ever seen a teacher take a phone away from a kid?”
“Yeah, it happened once in sixth grade to Ben.”
In the interest of protecting the minor’s identity I will simply refer to him as Ben because Peanut tells me his head is in the shape of a football.
Apparently Ben’s mobile phone went off right in the middle of quiet reading time.
“He had a really funny ring tone,” she told me. “The whole class laughed.”
“What did it sound like?”
“It went dada dada dada da, dada dada dada da…”
"It's called the chicken dance song" I told her. I was admittedly surprised by Ben's musical taste. Then it occurred to me that this might be a tone assigned to a particular person.
“Did you ever find out who called him?”
“It was his aunt.”
I immediately conjured up a vision of Ben's aunt.
