Ricky Did It(Ric Wooldridge) Ricky Did It!

Keith and Ricky had a plan. They were both ten years old and had a thing about snakes. They looked at pictures in books. They caught garden snakes by the score on every warm day, and sometimes they would even bring them to class for show and tell. Mrs. Spring always praised them for their fine specimens that accompanied their reports. They’d been friends since the second grade and Keith had shown Ricky how to fish in the creeks and rivers close to his house in Yachats, Oregon. It seemed to Ricky that a trout or a salmon would walk across the water on its tail to get on Keith’s hook, as he would always catch his limit. Ricky would use the same bait and fish in the same place and never catch as many as Keith. But at this time snakes were the focus of their life, and in this their talent seemed equal.

Ricky lived four miles north of Keith’s house on Highway 101, in between Big Creek and Tillie the Whale, in an old mobile home. (Tillie the Whale was the decaying skeleton of a whale that had been dragged up to the highway as an advertisement for some old tourist cabins that were only lived in for two month every summer.) At that time, Ricky thought nothing of walking the four miles into the little town and spending the night at his friends house. Ricky’s grandfather owned the combination hardware store and gas station in Yachats, right next to Beulah’s Restaurant, so if Keith wasn’t home he could always spend the night at his grandpa’s house.

Actually, Ricky did pretty much anything Keith did most of the time. Keith was the kind of boy that made friends quickly and Ricky was the kind of boy who tried to make his friends happy. As they grew they both acquired different interests and hobbies, but they always had time to strike out on a new adventure in the woods, in the rivers and creeks, or among the rocks at low tide exploring.

One warm sunny day Keith said, “I got an idea. I always gotta feed these dumb ducks. What would happen if we got like a hundred snakes and dumped ‘em in the pen? I bet that would be bully!” “Cool” wasn’t around yet. At least not in the small town of Yachats, population 413, where it seemed that time stood still in the mid nineteen sixties. The in word was “bully” for all the kids from third grade to sixth. Things were “neato” or “bully”, and we were just sneaking up on “boss.”
“Oh yeah! That’d be bully!” Ricky echoed, suddenly excited at the idea of stampeding, flapping, squawking ducks, unable to get out of their pen covered in chicken wire.

So the boys set about their labor.

To catch a garden snake takes a certain amount of self control. Mainly it is about the only time that young boys will ever be totally quiet. That is, when they are sneaking up on something, or getting into mischief. The trick is to listen closely as you walk quietly through the tall grass at the side of the road and alongside ditches. It doesn’t matter how quiet you are, the snake knows you are coming and moves and the grass makes noise as it moves. Then you jump on it’s tail with one of your feet. You usually wait to identify your catch until after you’ve got your quarry grasped firmly by the neck just behind its head. (I know, but young boys all think their bullet proof and the thought of getting bit by a poisonous snake would never even cross their mind.) After spending most of the day so pleasantly busy the boys decided that their catch was big enough. On the way back to Keith’s house they tried to get a count.

“Man, they keep moving!”

“How many do you think you can hold at a time?”

“I don’t know. Fifteen or twenty, I guess if I put some in my shirt.”

“Nah! Then we’ll have to do something weird to get them out.”

“I didn’t mean while I was wearing it dummy! I meant that I could make a sack out of my shirt and count them as I put them in.”

“Oh, yeah. That might work.”

So after making sacks out of their outer shirts, which gave them a peculiar scent that only a snake has, they managed to get a count of ninety four snakes. Then they put them back into the cardboard box where they had originally kept them, put their shirts back on, and sneaked up very, very quietly on the duck pen.

Lifting the box, heavily weighted with writhing garter snakes, over their head, they dumped the entire box over the top of the ducks.
The result should have been obvious. Instead of the chaos of terror that they had hoped for, the ducks went into a feeding frenzy. Ricky and Keith watched in gleeful disgust as the ducks slurped the snakes down like living spaghetti. There were only twelve ducks in the pen that surrounded a small yard, a small pond and a three sided shelter. The whole thing was covered with chicken wire. Quacking and flapping their wings they made sure that not a single snake escaped.

Keith said, “Well I guess I don’t have to feed the ducks any time soon.”

“Yeah. They’re so fat they can’t even waddle,” said Ricky. “Look at that one! He’s almost laying sideways in the water.”

That night Keith’s mom made him go feed the ducks anyway. When he told her he didn’t need to feed the ducks and she found out why Keith and Ricky’s parents decided that the duck pond needed a good cleaning. Keith and Ricky really didn’t think that was fair after all, the ducks had liked the snakes and none of them had even been scared, let alone hurt.

Seeing that young boys, being what they are, often don’t understand the chemistry of events that lead to unpleasant problems. Coupling that with the universal desire in all males to make women happy and the delusion that they know how, sometimes life shaping misunderstandings come about. This was the case with Keith and Ricky and their fifth grade teacher.

During that same spring that they had gathered all those snakes for the ducks, Ricky’s parents moved to Portland, Oregon, leaving him and his younger brother David, to live with their grandpa and grandma until school was out. And it was during this time period that Ricky had the ultimate brainstorm.

“Mrs. Spring has been bully all year. I think we should do something she likes,” said Ricky.

Keith asked, “What do you think we ought to do?”

“Well, you know, she really likes our snakes,” said Ricky. “She always tells us how beautiful their stripes are. And when we tell the class how fast they are, and how they eat bugs and stuff, she always says how God made them for a reason.” Ricky had a truly thoughtful expression on his face. Mrs. Spring really was bully! Ricky really did like her. She was always nice. She always took time and explained things to him. She was kinda old and pretty big, but Ricky thought she was pretty anyway, at least when she smiled. He didn’t think Keith would make fun of him because he liked her, but then he didn’t really want to take a chance of being made fun of. But, oh well. “I think we should catch some real good snakes and give them to her.”

Keith got a funny look on his face for a moment and then said, “Do you think she’d really like that?”

“She always acts like she likes it when we bring them to class, even if she doesn’t hold them. She doesn’t get all girly and squealy. It’s the best thing I can get her,” Ricky said. “I can do it by myself, if you don’t want to. It’s ok. I just want to do something for her before I have to move again.”

So began the safari. No snake was acceptable under sixteen inches long, which is pretty long for a red racer. Yellow racers get about two feet long, but they’re all over the place. Their prize was a bull snake. He was about twenty inches long and fat enough to swallow a chipmunk real easy. He was so ugly he was beautiful. They only caught twelve snakes, but they were all special. They were big and colored, and if Mrs. Spring could come across a terrarium she’s have the marvel of the whole town. (They didn’t know that the bull snake would eat all the others.)

Late that afternoon they saw Mrs. Spring’s car in front of the school. It was Friday, the end of Easter vacation and they would be back in school on Monday. So Ricky had another idea. “Why don’t we wait by Mrs. Spring’s car and give her the present now? That way we won’t have to give it to her in front of everybody in class on Monday.”

“That sounds like a good idea to me, too.” Then Keith added, “I think I saw Mr. Spring in Mr. Hopkins’ office. He’d probably like to see’em too.”

So Keith and Ricky waited. And they waited. And they waited some more. They probably waited fifteen minutes. How long could they possibly stay in there?

Keith asked, “How long should we wait?”

“I don’t know,” Ricky answered. “It’s hot out here and these snakes are starting to stink.”

“That’s ‘cause they’re in the sun,” Keith said. “We need to put them in the shade or they’ll die.”

“The only shade is the car,” said Ricky. “Lets put’em in there. We’re giving them the snakes anyway.”

“You do it. I don’t want to open Mr. Spring’s car unless he says so,” said Keith.

Ricky thought about this a moment. Then he took the box and put it around back of the car in a little patch of shade that was due to disappear in a few minutes. Then he walked to the front doors of the school. His intentions were to tell Mr. Spring that they had a present for Mrs. Spring, but the door to Mr. Hopkins’ office was closed and they were in what looked like a serious conversation. Ricky was always told that it was impolite to interrupt adults when they were talking serious so Ricky sneaked down the hall to Mrs. Spring’s room to see if she looked like she was almost done with whatever she was doing. When he peeked all he could see was that she was sitting at her desk writing with a pen. Ricky stood straight and sighed and then left, going back to where Keith was.

“I’m gonna put it in the car and surprise her. She’ll know who its from,” Ricky explained. “I looked in the classroom and she’s workin’ at her desk, and Mr. Spring is still talking to Mr. Hopkins. They’re going to be there for a long time.”

Keith looked doubtful, but said, “OK. Let’s kinda look back as we go. Maybe they’ll come out anyhow.”

Sure enough, as they got about a quarter of a mile away, Mr. Spring came out and opened the back door of the car, where they had put the box. He lifted out the box and shook it.

Ricky and Keith had turned around and had started back when Mr. Spring threw the box down and slammed the car door, and yelled something. Ricky and Keith both ran and hid in the honey suckle bushes next to the road, hoping Mr. Spring didn’t see them. Both were confused as to why Mr. Spring was mad. “Boy, I hope Mrs. Spring can make him not mad,” Ricky said.

Keith said, “I told you not to put it in the car without asking him.” Ricky just sighed.

Monday morning, Ricky was met at the school entrance by Mr. Hopkins, the principal of Yachats Elementary School, and escorted to his office. Keith was already there ahead of him. Neither Keith or Ricky, nor any of their friends, Dean, Robby and Edward, were the type to get into trouble. So when Ricky saw Keith in the principle’s office, Keith didn’t look scared like he’d done something wrong, but he looked angry that he was being accused of something he would never do.

Mr. Hopkins sat down and asked, “Mr. Wooldridge, did you put a box of snakes in the back seat of Mrs. Spring’s car?”

Ricky answered honestly, “Yes sir, I did. It took me and Keith all day to catch em. They’re beauties.”

“Excuse me. But why would you do something like that to Mrs. Spring?”

Ricky looked at Keith, who was saying nothing. Puzzled, Ricky shrugged and said. “She likes them. She always tells us how beautiful they are. We always get good grades when we make reports on them. I have to move away and I won’t see her anymore so I thought I’d like to give her something real neato. Those kind are real hard to catch. Me and Keith waited a long time outside the school for Mrs. Spring to come out. I even snuck in to see if she’d be out soon, but she was workin’ and you and Mr. Spring were talking so I put the box in the back seat. I knew she’d know who put it there because Me and Keith are the only ones who really like snakes so we knew she’d talk to us today. She’s been a bully teacher. I’m gonna miss her.”

Mr. Hopkins sat at his desk looking real mean at Keith and Ricky. Then, after a moment of silence, he got up from his chair and said, “Stay right there. I’ll be back.”

When Mr. Hopkins left the room Ricky asked Keith, “What are you so mad at?”

“Mr. Spring called my dad and now I’m grounded. Mr. Spring saw you and me and was mad we got his wife snakes and then put them in the car so they could get loose in there.”

“We did not!” Ricky was indignant. “Those were good snakes we would never turn them loose for a joke. Especially not on Mrs. Spring. That box wasn’t for him anyway. I don’t know why Mrs. Spring likes him, that’s really dumb. He could have hurt the snakes, throwing them down like he did.” Ricky was quiet a moment and then said, “I wonder why my dad didn’t say nothin’. That would be worth three whacks with the belt if he thought I did something mean to a grownup like that.”

Keith didn’t say anything.

After a few minutes Mr. Hopkins came back into the office. It was obvious that he was having problems keeping a stern face as he told us. “Mrs. Spring says that she will not have either one of you back in her class again. For the rest of the year you will be my students. To keep you two out of trouble, Keith will have a desk set up here in my office. Mr. Wooldridge, your desk will be set up in the music room.”

Keith exploded, “We didn’t do nothing wrong! She told us she liked snakes and even let us bring them in the class. And I didn’t put the snakes in the car, Ricky did it!”

Ricky remained silent. The music room was little more than a closet with a couple of windows. There was rarely anyone in there. It seemed that he was being cut off from everybody even before his parents moved him away again. That Keith seemed to be blaming him didn’t really matter. He’d gotten Keith in hot water at home before, the same as Keith had gotten him three licks more than a couple of times. It all worked out. What really mattered was the misunderstanding on the part of someone that he respected and that he felt robbed of the last little time he’d have with his fifth grade teacher.

The last quarter of the year seemed to last forever. Ricky had come to this school when he was seven years old and was in Mrs. Matthews second grade class. There he started making new friends, the first of whom had been Keith. There was also Dean and Edward, Howard and Clifford. It was against the rules of manliness to notice, but Vicky, Colleen and Penny managed to get the boy’s attention with many a bruised shin. Mrs. Van Gross’ third grade class turned Ricky into a book-a-holic. It’s one of the best things that ever happened to Ricky.

But Mrs. Spring pulled a double duty and taught Ricky’s fourth and fifth grade classes. That made her twice as special, and she knew them twice as well as any of the other teachers. Ricky knew she loved them. Do you think it possible that her feelings were hurt because students she loved did something that she misinterpreted as a mean spirited prank? Surely she also was robbed, for those boys loved her. They were just boys.

In growing up, Ricky moved around a lot, and went to a lot of schools. It’s sad to say, but the teachers that love their students as well as teach them are so far apart that it makes the ones we do find a real treasure. Mrs. Spring deserved to know that she was loved and appreciated by her students. It's strange that I was just thinking about it now, after all these years, and it's sad that it's too late for me to tell her, that when I went to Yachats Elementary School so many years ago, Ricky did it. I wish I could go back. Oh, well.

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