Lesson Learned: Clean Hog Manure Off Boots Before Going to School

On this episode of Our American Stories, Scott Jones, author of Growing Up Rural, shares the story of one of the most embarrassing moments of his time in elementary school, and the lessons he learned from it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next a story from Scott Jones. God is a
pastor and the author of Growing Up Rural Lessons Learned
for a Lifetime. Today he shares with us a story
about a childhood experience from that book, entitled Thinky Boots,

(00:35):
Take It AWAYE Scott.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Transitioning from fourth to fifth grade for me was very difficult.
Our school in Zirng, Iowa, consolidated with the neighboring town
of mccallsburg and became known as NESCo or Northeast Story County.
Since we lived out in the country. A school bus

(01:08):
would pick us up early in the morning and we
would be on the bus thirty to forty five minutes,
stopping at other houses along the way to pick up
other kids. We would be let out at the Zering
School building and then get on to another bus that
would take us to Mccaulsburg, which was ten minutes away.
After school, we would go through the same procedure to

(01:30):
arrive home. There were new kids in the class from
mc caullsburg whom I had never met, and our fifth
grade teacher She seemed to be very strict and uptight,
which was much different than my fourth grade teacher. And
to top it off, we had to learn something they

(01:51):
called new math, and I got my very first failing
grade the first nine weeks. Now that did not sit
well with my parents, so Mom and Dad tried working
with me on this new math and I lipped along
for the entire year. Now, sometimes in the morning, before
the school bus arrived to pick me up, I had

(02:12):
to do chores. I had to feed the hogs, as
we did not have automatic feeders. The hog lot was
a mixture of dirt, mud, and hog manure, and depending
on the time of the year, if it was dry
or rainy, that would dictate the ground underneath my feet.
To feed those hogs at any rate, I usually wore
my buckle up rubber boots to keep my shoes cleaned. Now,

(02:38):
this particular morning, I was running a little bit late
in feeding the hogs before the bus came. It was
early winter it snows on the ground, but the hog
lot had not frozen over, so it was still quite
soft and gooey, thus sticking to my boots. Upon finishing up,
I ran to the house to get my school supplies
and catch the bus as I saw it coming down

(02:58):
the road. Worriedness, I did not clean off my boots.
I thought it'll be all right, I will clean them
off at recess in the snow. So upon arriving at school,
I went directly to my classroom. Our classroom had a
type of walk in closet behind the teacher's desk where
we would hang our coats and put our boots. Also,

(03:19):
our school was heated by those big metal water heater radiators.
There were a couple in the classroom and a smaller
one in the coat closet. As class began, everything was
going fine until about halfway through the morning. All of
a sudden, our teacher lifted her head and turned as
though something was annoying her. She started into teaching again

(03:41):
and stopped a second time, looking back toward the closet.
She placed her teaching material down and got up and
went back into the closet. It seemed like she was
in there a long time. She finally appeared with a
pair of boots in our hand. Something brown and ugly

(04:03):
was dripping off those black boots, and the smell, well,
it was horrendous and permeating the classroom. She was not happy.
She asked, whose boots are these? No one answered, I
shrunk down in my seat at my desk. She asked
a second time, whose boots are these? My classmates all

(04:26):
started to look over at me as I sheepishly raised
my hand and confessed my crime of bringing stinky, hog
lot manure covered boots to school, only to bring a
new type of unacceptable perfume to our fifth grade classroom.
I thought, oh boy, now what Well? She was very

(04:54):
gracious to me, as I was sure she saw my
worsome expression and even a hint of shame before my classmates.
She stated to everyone in the class and didn't just
pinpoint me, Please, for those of you who live and
work on the farm, clean your boots off at home
before coming to school. She then asked me if I

(05:14):
would please take my boots and place them outside the
door of the school building and leave them there until
it was time to go home. But what took the
edge off the incident was the way she looked at
me as she handed me the boots. It was as
if her expression toward me was Scott, it's okay, And
I understand that gave me the courage to come back

(05:36):
to class unashamed, and no one ever said anything to
me about those boots. Maybe the fact that she knew
my parents pretty well, as my mom also was an
elementary teacher, played a part in her response. Whatever the case,
I had a newfound respect for her and she became
one of my favorite teachers. Well through this incident, I

(06:00):
learned a number of life lessons. The old saying is
true as in this case, never judge a book by
its cover. When I said that my teacher always seemed
uptight about something, that was because her husband was very
sick and she was the breadwinner as well as her
husband's caregiver. She had a lot on her plate. I

(06:23):
also learned not to shame people when they make mistakes,
especially in front of their peers. This can be devastating,
especially in those formative years. My fifth grade teacher was
not only wise, but she was sensitive to eleven to
twelve year old kids as she had been teaching for
many years. I also learned a lesson clean your boose

(06:45):
off before going to school.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
And a terrific job on the production by Monte Montgomery
And a special thanks to Scott Jones for his story
stinky Boots. And by the way, he learned a lot
about his teacher, that she was a wise, sensitive person
who is herself going through a lot of things. Thinky
Boots by Scott Jones. Here on our American Stories Folks,

(07:32):
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(07:52):
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