Mrs. Bogan's Sixth Grade   

      I attended an elementary school named Laura Steele on the southeast side of San Antonio. The southeast side was considered a lower middle class area, but we had a good life. In 1966 teachers had much more leeway than teachers have today. My sixth grade teacher loved me, and I was the teacher’s pet. I pretty much could get away with anything. I was on a collision course with something I had never thought about but was going to turn my world upside down. I enjoyed being the teacher’s pet. I guess I’ve always been a people pleaser and that extended to my authority figures, which were teachers.

      Mrs. Bogan was in love with music and singing. I had sung at church with gusto during hymnals and thought everything was great. Mrs. Bogan decided to put her sixth grade class together and sing Christmas Carols for the parents. She wanted to put on a show just before the Christmas holidays. She devoted a lot of class time during the day to rehearsal and making everything just right.

      The first day she formed us up as a group I was in the front row. She was a band conductor and raised her hands in motion as we began to sing “Joy to the world.” I of course belted out the words with all the intensity of my classmates. It was truly glorious. Until I saw the look on her face. Something was terribly wrong. She cocked her head and started moving towards the terrible sound. She was coming at me. I’m thinking it can’t be me, but I quickly regained my senses and decided to lower my voice. I lowered it to the point where I was mouthing the words, and no sound was coming out. As she got close to me, I was acting like I was singing but nothing was coming out. She got a smile on her face and moved back to conduct her symphony. We had a successful show for the parents and thus ended my singing career. I also kept my status as teachers’ pet. It was a close call though.