more about the missing and Bobby Mlaker
Posted Friday, April 7, 2023 08:40 PM
 
And those are the missing kids I remember.  I have no idea why I remembered Debbie Milner's sisters, though I seemed to recall that remembering them was something of a neighborhood sport.  I never met any of them.
 
 
Someday I will learn enough about Bobby Mlaker to tell his story properly.  He was at Monticello JHS with me: a sturdy blond kid who was a star at everything academic and athletic.  Then came a Monticello assembly program which included Bobby and Mr Jones, the alcoholic gym teacher.  He was trying to demonstrate all the protective gear that our football players wore, so Bobby donned it piece by piece while Mr T. Jones explained it through a faulty P.A. system.  Thus I never heard the purpose of the white cloth harness-thing that fits across the chest, possibly something to do with shoulder pads.  Perhaps Jones was not fully aware of his surroundings when he fitted the device across Bobby's chest such that it resembled a well-known ladies' support garment. 
 
I don't clearly remember what subsequently happened, but suffice it to say that the entire auditorium rang with laughter.  Some kids, including me, cringed at the embarrassment and its likely consequences and remained silent, but I saw at least one teacher who should have known better shaking as she guffawed. 
 

I assume we were dismissed around then, and I never saw Bobby Mlaker after that.  Had I been his parent(s) he'd have been whisked off to a private school, never to set foot in a CH/UH school again, and perhaps that's what happened. 

I still feel bad about that incident.  Natalie, who always tries to see the bright side of things, thought that perhaps his family simply moved.  Then I explained that the entire student body attended assembly programs.