During the early and mid-1950s, I was attending A.P.I. (Alabama Polytechnic Institute), which is now Auburn University. A few other boys from Cullman were also in college at this time. Two of these boys were friends of mine, and we had attended grammar school and high school together.
The fall quarter had just started, and football practice was in full swing. These two friends and I had gone to the football stadium to watch the players scrimmage. It was a beautiful fall day, and we were enjoying the afternoon.
Now, you know that boys will usually have a little horseplay when they get together. The big thing, in that day, was to pretend that you had cleared your throat really good and blow a dry puff of air on the back of someone’s neck to make him think that he had really been spit on.
I’ll call my two friends Bob and Don so as to keep straight what happened. We were standing around watching the football scrimmage when Bob decided to pull the trick on Don. Bob gave a very good performance as he pretended to clear his throat. He then walked over behind Don to blow a dry puff of air on the back of his neck. Accidents will happen, and Bob actually spit on Don’s neck.
I can never recall seeing a gunfighter’s hand move any faster than Bob’s did as he wiped the spit off of the back of Don’s neck.
Don turned to Bob, as he reached back to wipe his neck, (which was already dry by Bob’s quick action) and said, “Dad gum, Bob, you spit on me.”
Bob, with his face red and a big guilty grin, said in his most innocent voice, “No, I didn’t.”
Well, boys will be boys, and I guess there will always be some horseplay between them, but don’t spit on anybody.
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