>>304294The first-grader came over to me and I said, "Turn around."
The first-grader turned around and I wrote "Trout fishing in America" on his back. It looked even better on the second first-grader. We couldn't help but admire it. "Trout fishing in America." It certainly did add something to the first-graders. It completed them and gave them a kind of class.
"It really looks good, doesn't it?"
"Yeah."
"Let's get some more chalk."
"Sure."
"There are a lot of first-graders over there by the monkey-bars."
"Yeah."
We all got hold of chalk and later in the day, by the end of lunch period, almost all of the first-graders had "Trout fishing in America" written on their backs, girls included.
Complaints began arriving at the principal's office from the first-grade teachers. One of the complaints was in the form of a little girl.
"Miss Robins sent me," she said to the principal. "She told me to have you look at this."
"Look at what?" the principal said, staring at the empty child.
"At my back," she said.
The little girl turned around and the principal read aloud, "Trout fishing in America."
"Who did this?" the principal said.
"That gang of sixth-graders," she said. "The bad ones. They've done it to all us first-graders. We all look like this. 'Trout fishing in America.' What does it mean? I just got this sweater new from my grandma."
