Every morning was pretty much the same routine in high school... and after a while things can get sort of boring. From time to time we would try and amuse ourselves in different ways.
Jeff & I would take turns driving to school, trying to beat the other 400 students who drove into the parking lot, to get the prime spot close to the front door. We would separately go to each of our lockers, get our books and drop our coats off, and then immediately head down the back hall next to the lunch room.
This particular hallway which ran parallel to the lunch room had a chest high portable shelf on wheels that was about ten feet long, sitting along one side of the hallway wall. This shelf was for students to put their books and/or book bags while they ate lunch...when lunch was finished they would return and retrieve their books, book bags and personal items, continuing on to the next class.
The reason for heading down this special hall in the morning was to periodically check the shelf for abandoned books left unattended.
It came to our attention, after traveling down this hallway numerous times, that leaving books unattended from the previous day was actually getting to be a problem. Both Jeff & I were witnesses to this growing habit...day after day we would see two, three, sometimes even four books left helplessly unattended and abandoned upon this portable shelf, as if stranded in the dry desert gasping for even the tiniest drop of water.
It was because of witnessing these horrible tragedies of neglect, that a special committee was created unbeknown to the students of Huntington North High School...a sort of secret society keeping tabs on these so called "abandoned" books. This underground club was dubbed the name "Hall Patrol". The duties of Hall Patrol were to serve and protect abandoned books, deserted folders, neglected book bags and just simply forgotten personal items.
If you happened to be one of the lucky victims of the Hall Patrol and forgot to retrieve anything on this shelf of yours from the previous day, you needed not to fear or worry...all would be taken care of.
Hall Patrol would gladly liberate, confiscate and transport your personal item to the safety of the men's room. There it would be gently and carefully placed into a secure and private porcelain receptacle, a sort of bowl, if you will, for safe keeping. After placing your personal abandoned and deserted item into the porcelain safety bowl, it was thoroughly cleansed with cool, chemically sanitized, clean water to assure that no germs and/or bacteria had infected it.
I know for a fact that many students were protected and served by this fearless, brave & noble underground secret society, some of them more than once.
Although they never knew their interests were being protected, students like Donnie Bruce & Bruce Schoeff owe many a thanks to.....
.....The Hall Patrol.
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