Show Me the Place, 18

“Show me the place.”

Duke Senior in As You Like It (2.1)

18: The Hiram School Study Hall, 1956–62

I’d never heard of “study hall”

When I began at Hiram School.

(I didn’t study much at all—

Which, looking back, is kind of cool.)

We had to sit there quietly

And look as if we were at work—

That wasn’t really hard for me,

For, as you know, I was a jerk.

I learned how I could make time fly—

I’d read a book—or draw dumb stuff.

The library* made time go by—

And, soon enough, that was enough.

I sat there and read Moby-Dick

And looked at cartoons in the Post.**

I thought about some things so sick—

But I don’t really want to boast.

And so the years just soared along—

And soon—too soon—they all were gone—

In ways, just like a favorite song:

It’s over—next is Forest Lawn!

*It was up in the front of the study hall room.

**Saturday Evening Post

HHS study hall, 1962