My Worst First Day of School - so There Really is a Truant Officer

When I was growing up my parents moved us around a lot, to say the least. I didn't go to the same school one year after the next until the ninth grade. Up until then, I was in a new school every year. Sometimes bigger schools, usually quite small. To make it harder, they often moved in the fall, after school had started.

Couple that with the fact that I was a shy kid, dealing with what would later be called ADHD in constantly changing environments. Through earlier years, that often meant I was picked on. In junior high, I finally learned how those little town schools worked. You pick the loudest mouth who think he's the toughest and wants to pick on you, knock him on his butt, and the rest leave you alone.

Going into the fourth grade in Elko, Nevada, I still hadn't figured that out. I lived on a bus route that got to school early, so everyone was out in the playground. I don't know if they did it because I was new or because it was true, but some kids started telling me horror stories about the teacher.

I found out later they were right about her. After enough parent complaints, she was fired and last I heard was teaching military kids in Okinawa. She more than once bloodied my ears dragging me around the class by them - but back to my first day.

After hearing all the talk, I decided it wasn't for me. I waited around the perimeter of the playground for a few minutes, then began heading home. Looking back, it's impressive that I made it. We had only lived in our house a few days, and it was almost three miles away from the school. I remember stroking it down the road, making pretty decent time.

My timing was impeccable. As I turned into our house, I noticed a vehicle - my memory recalls a white jeep, but I could be wrong - sitting in our driveway. I found out he had only been there a few minutes, just long enough to cause my parents to get worked up wondering where I might be.

Their initial relief gave way to questioning, while the truant official was still there. He had some questions as well. After a little while, all was forgiven and I was allowed to stay home the rest of the day to try again the next. There was a little notoriety surrounding my return, but I settled in after a couple of days. Still, out of many trying first days of school for me, that one has to go down as the worst.