Sadie's Place
by
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The following day Jim Collings buried himself in work. But thoughts of Nancy Skylar broke in. How would it end? Nearly lunchtime, he stayed with the job he had started. At that exact time a startling event was taking place in the senior high school. At ten minutes before the start of the first lunch period, seven boys abruptly got up and left their separate classes, shocking their incredulous teachers. They strode to the cafeteria. Once there, their mien became even more austere. They became zealots, determined to teach the school administration a thing or two about illegally suspending three students. All seven lay on the floor in front of the doors to the lunchroom. They held placards on wooden stakes--Free the Three Thoreau, He’s Our Boy; Ghandi Did It, So Can We. Arden’s first demonstration of civil disobedience had begun. The first students to arrive for lunch were stunned. It took less than a minute for them to get into a festive spirit, clapping wildly, shouting encouragements, stomping their feet. As more and more classes arrived, the clamor grew to a tumult. Soon hundreds of carousing students jammed the hallway. Pandemonium broke out. Two harried teachers, unlucky to be on lunch duty, struggled valiantly to herd the howling, shoving crowd back through the doors to the main corridor. Struggles broke out; a few students were knocked to the floor. Faintly at first, then raucously building to a crescendo, a chant went up Free the Three! Free the Three! Free the Three! Frantic, the cook called Principal Ed Siegrist. Ed rushed outside, dashed around the side of the cafeteria wing and entered the kitchen. Panting heavily, he ran through the dining room and faced the crowd. He saw the seven on the floor. Get up immediately. I order you to get up. Stoics, they ignored him, showing no expression. He rushed back to the kitchen to use the cook’s phone. He was out of breath. “Jim,” he said in a loud voice, “we’ve got a sit-in here in front of the cafeteria.” “Jesus, there must be ten classes, maybe three hundred kids, bunched like sardines in the lobby.”
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About the Book
For Jim Collings it is the perfect job--superintendent of schools in upscale suburbia. But then come the Sizzling Sixties, the Vietnam War their ominous backdrop. Even in staid little Arden, defiant students protest and demonstrate, get hooked on drugs, call in bomb threats, and line up with subversive groups. The heat becomes intense. Pressure shoots up a notch when malcontent Gertrude Palsgrave is elected school board president. She enlists two small-minded cohorts in her machinations. Conniving with Ralph Keffler, assistant superintendent, they make Jim’s life miserable. Adding to the intrigue is Keffler’s steamy romance with board member Nancy Skylar. When Jim receives a hot tip hinting at scandalous hanky-panky in high places, he sees better days ahead.
About the Author
Carl Frey Constein, born into what Tom Brokaw has dubbed The Greatest Generation, grew up in the eastern Pennsylvania town of Fleetwood during the Great Depression of the 1930s. He is a graduate of Kutztown (PA) State College and Temple University, where he received a doctorate in 1957, majoring in English and Educational Administration. He was a teacher of English, curriculum director, superintendent of schools, and education writer and columnist. After graduating from Kutztown, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. A C-46 pilot, he was awarded two Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his ninety-six round-trip flights from India to China across the Himalayan “Hump.” He recalled his year in the China-Burma-India Theater in his WW II memoir, Born to Fly the Hump, published by 1stBooks Library. Since the book’s publication, he has spoken to many historical societies, aviation groups, library groups, and civic clubs about the Hump and the CBI. This is his third book published by 1stBooks Library. His second, also a novel, is entitled Orchestra Left, Row T. Constein lives outside Reading in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He enjoys reading, music and the performing arts, travel, tennis, bridge, and golf.