To say that I wasn’t much of a student while attending Bennett Community School is like comparing a birthday cake to Brussels sprouts…it wasn’t even close.
As a kid I had a great life on the farm. My dog. My cats. My bike. The creek. Batman TV show in the afternoon. Drinking cool water from a garden hose. Feeding the hogs grass through the fence, why my day was already filled with cool stuff to do…why would I need school? Who would watch the barn, the hog house and garage while I was gone?! Who would keep an eye on Mom and her whereabouts? I had an already full agenda, now you just want me to drop everything and wear pants and get onto that yellow school bus? Yeah…sure…sounds like a blast. How about I just stay home and help Mom out around the house.
As an adult (of age, not of mental maturity…I have a fart app on my smart phone…so suck it) I’ve always felt a bit of relief when, at this time of year, I don’t have to go back to school. My thirteen year school prison sentence served, I’ve been on parole for thirty plus years. It would only serve as poetic justice that I would fall in love with and marry a school teacher. She enjoys her summers off (technically…she’s unemployed but whenever I suggest that she gain part-time employment during her summers she shoots me the stink-eye that lets me know that I will be lonely for several nights until I worm my way back into her good graces). While she loves teaching (she’s darned good at it…if I had, had a teacher like her I might have amounted to something…like an astronaut or something neat-o) she kind of dreads going back to school too (like I dread Monday’s I suppose).
Fall 1971. A young Dick Ripley starts his 13 year school prison sentence. I think that my facial expression says it all. So with that…I’m off the hook for yet another school year. Thank God!
Have a great week and may God bless you and yours,
R
RICH RIPLEY 
I remember getting the school supplies and one new outfit (ONE!) and thinking everything was going to be so much fun .. until .. it started and then all I wanted to do was stay home with my kitties, ponies and farm and not have to sit still, wear a dress, wait my turn and do math – ugh! I’m with you – don’t miss it all that much 🙂
Loved the memories & the picture, RR, and of course you have a fart app, I wouldn’t expect any less!
MJ
My mom would buy us un-washed blue jeans, and not wash them. It was so hot wearing those new jeans in mid-August…but somehow I survived. 🙂
R