Telling Tales Out of School

There's an old phrase that goes something like this "telling tales out of school"*. Was never really sure just what that meant, but always felt it was something to be avoided. Well, here's one that began "in school", or more precisely because I wasn't in school.

I got caught for the umpteenth time, skipping classes during my first time through the eleventh grade of my secondary education. They expelled me. I was fortunate after 10 days to be admitted to another high school where, as providence would have it, I met my bride of 42 years, Suzanne Mallory. That in itself is worth a chapter or three, but I'll save it for another of my "Random Thoughts from a Wandering Mind" blog entries, though I'll have to 'Eat That Frog' again before writing it.

My future father-in-law was an artist, working for the old Southern Bell Telephone Company, with the responsibility for creating the cover art for each year's telephone directories, both the residential (white) pages and the commercial (yellow) pages directories. That was back in the 1960s, before they switched to photographic and digitally altered stuff for the directory covers.

Jack T. Mallory also did a lot of painting, everything from landscape to portrait and abstract to nudes. When Jack passed away back in the mid 1990s, he left a treasure trove of artwork which has since been parceled out to various family members and friends. We have 18 framed pieces of his work in our home. Jack also participated in a good many art shows in and around Atlanta Georgia, selling an occasional piece for enough to buy art supplies for the next year.

One of his fellow artists and art show friend was a gentleman by the name of Harry Rossall, who interestingly enough, worked for my father in the U.S. Forest Service and was the creator of "Smokey Bear", the cartoon character which graced more than a thousand fire prevention posters over the years. Prior to his death in 1999, Harry had been commissioned by the State of Oklahoma to create a huge mural depicting the state's history from prehistoric times to the modern day Western state that it is.

My bride and I were invited to represent the Littlehales family and the Mallory family in Broken Bow Oklahoma for the unveiling and dedication of Harry's magnificent mural. The mural covers the wall from floor to ceiling for a distance of over 100 feet. It was to be Harry's last public appearance, as his health was declining and his passing came soon thereafter.

This past weekend, I was looking through a closet I've been meaning to clean out and I found a framed pencil sketch of Smokey Bear with the words "Remember Bill, only you can prevent forest fires". It is dated 1957, and is signed by Harry Rossall. Also uncovered in the closet were approximately 30 original Smokey Bear posters done by Harry that my Dad had saved over the years and gave to me. I really need to talk to the folks at the Antiques Road Show TV program about those posters.

Three separate families all brought together by providence because a smart-aleck teenager skipped school one too many times. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

 

*TELL TALES OUT OF SCHOOL - "Betray confidences. It was originally said only of children, apparently children who let drop at home things they had heard from schoolmates in the nature of gossip or happenings within a family. Now it applies to anyone who reveals confidences (usually not very weighty) he has received. The saying is old enough to have been picked up by William Tyndale in 'The Practyse of Prelates' : 'So that what cometh once in may never out, for fear of telling tales out of school.'" From "Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Wings Books, Originally New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985).