A "Charlie Story," by GJ

It was over 30 years ago, I'm sure. I took a HS chess team to a state tournament in a city about 50 miles from school. I did this solely because a colleague had taken my debaters to a tournament, and I was repaying him, the chess coach.

I'm standing in the cafeteria listening to instructions for the chess players to begin, when two arms come around me from behind and someone picks me up a foot or two off the floor---and that was no small feat! (Pun?)

When safely back on floor, I turn, and it's CHARLIE! (He who was there because he was the chess coach at HIS school. We have a brief reunion and get the bright idea to go out for breakfast while chess kids do their thing. We weren't allowed in the room with them.) We drove down the street, maybe a mile or so, and had a nice, leisurely breakfast. As we returned to the site of the tournament, we saw dozens of police cars, fire engines, ambulances, and even a helicopter in the parking lot.

Our hearts sank! Here a disaster had struck and we were AWOL while hundreds of kids were in danger. How would we ever explain or excuse our absence to the distraught parents. Above all, how would we notify everybody? Yes, there were dozens of teachers who had stayed on the scene, but WE HADN'T! Would we both be fired? Disgraced, obviously.

We went around back to where we could park and discovered it was that town's annual disaster "drill!" One of our kids even volunteered to be taken to the hospital, because he wanted a helicopter ride! (By the way, Charlie, I sure hope we remembered to tell somebody where we were going???)