An Unsolved Mystery

Incidentally, Allan, could you clarify for me the issue of potentially inappropriate sanctions that you were talking about with Scotty Boggs at the reunion? Even though I had consumed 8 Cokes by that time I never caught the full context of what you two were discussing.
Bob Athey

Yes, Scotty was claiming he "didn't remember" a curious incident that supposedly occurred in Fall 1958 when I was mayor; so, unless M.D. or David can assist us with corroboration, I shall have to conclude that it never took place....

Once upon a time there was a cherub-faced, smart-alec sophomore who attended a boarding school somewhere near Alabaster. The headmaster became furious when this obnoxious young man showed up for Sunday lunch with his head shaved totally bald, attracting much notice and comment from all who were assembled. Vowing to "discover the truth" behind all this commotion, the headmaster enlisted his elected student council, and was duly informed that a well-muscled member of his senior class had decided to teach the unruly sophomore some better manners, which he proceeded to do, possibly with assistance from eager co-conspirators, by subduing the sophomore and forcibly triming off all vestiges of hair, making the young man look like a plucked chicken!

What is curious about this story is the punishment that was prescribed, to wit: that the "victim" -- but NOT the "perpetrator(s)" -- should be suspended from campus for a period of three weeks, or at least until some hair had regrown. The student mayor never understood the logic of this disposition, yet was obliged to sit at the table next to the headmaster as sentence was being passed; and it struck this mayor, at the time, as being somehow oddly amusing that the student was being "suspended" for being bald by a headmaster who himself possessed a rather shiny forehead, and while the aggressor(s) in this episode got off "scott free." Surely, the mayor thought, there must be some additional ingredient in this story beyond what had been known at the time. Hence, forty years later, we come upon our perplexed mayor still trying to "discover the truth," but, alas, without success it seems.

Hope this fable clarifies the conversation you overheard, Bob. Never let it be said that one of our classmembers would break his blood oath -- not even after 40 years.

Allan Cruse

The confusion is now clear. My hypothesis (strained though it may be) is that in defense against his endogenous baldness, Doc identified with the aggressor and decided that anyone who accrues artificial baldness must have deserved it. (I am not sure I understand what I just said, but if you do, let me know).
Bob Athey