Mr. Georges and the Class of 1952 started school at EUHS on the same day. That first day
most of us Freshmen were pretty cowed. All summer the kids in the upper three classes had been ragging us about how
we were all going to "get it" during the Frosh "initiation" week. There was no question as to who were Frosh, as
we all had to wear EUHS dinks.
That first week of school the girls were "made up" to suit the fancy of the Senior girls. The
boys all had to have shoe polish and rags with them at all times to shine the shoes of any Senior on demand. For the
boys the week was culminated on Saturday with the time honored ritual of liming the E. Under the intense supervision
of the Senior boys we Frosh had to carry bags of lime up the hill and spread the lime over the E. It always seemed that lime
day was the hottest day of the year. We were not allowed to carry water, while the Seniors made a great show of drinking
deeply from their canteens.
On our mutual first day of school Mr. Georges wasted no time in subtly (as in an adverb modifying)
making us aware that we were flat out going to learn something about the English language. In fact, the word
'subtle' might define Mr. Georges' approach to teaching. Some of us without the nuance of speech he had might
even use the word sneaky. No, 'subtle' says it all, but we soon learned that there was power behind that mild manner.
To illustrate:
EUHS had not had a wrestling team, so Mr. Georges sponsored one. There was a delay until special
canvas floor mats were procured and installed in a room just off the gym. Finally, a time was set after school for any
interested Frosh boys to report for tryouts and our first introduction to the sport. Right off the bat Coach Georges
let us know that he thought we were a bunch of out of shape 98 pound weaklings and that we had best start by doing 50
pushups right then. Well, we started out and one by one we reached the point where we couldn't get our chins off the
mat.
As we lay there gasping and suffering from muscle cramps Coach Georges made it plain that we seemed
to be a bunch of panty waists. At that point one of us, cockier than the rest (seems to me that it might have been Bill
Riley) said something to the effect that if we were such panty waists he would like to see Coach Georges do half as many push
ups as we had done. Coach Georges never said a word. He just got down on the mat and did 50 push ups so fast you
could hardly see them.....one handed!!!!!! From that point on he never got one smart remark from any kid, anywhere,
again.
Gary Breylinger
EUHS Class of 1952
When I first met Mr. Georges in 1969, he was teaching the parts of speech with the story of Uggh
the Caveman.....
To the best of my recollection it started something like:
In the beginning, there was no language. Life was pretty boring, because when cavepeople were
sitting about the fire each evening, all they could do was point and grunt. Jokes and puns alike, had to wait for the invention
of language.....
One of the cavepeople, an especially enterprising soul by the name of Uggh, decided that what
was needed was a better way of naming things and people than pointing and saying "Uggh!" So it came to pass that his first
contribution to the invention of language was the NOUN. This was especially useful when a caveperson, with a terrified expression
on their face pointed urgently at the back of the cave, could answer the puzzled looks and grunts of their fellows by saying
"Bear!" as they turned to flee. Over time, NOUNS were used to name persons, places and things.
While Uggh was not the "inventor" of fire, he was the inventor of the fireplace. However,
building a really large fireplace was an arduous task, especially the carrying and stacking of large rocks. Noticing his teenage
son watching, Uggh decided that pointing at a particularly nice rock and saying "Rock!" was not producing the desired result
of the getting the son to help carry the rocks to the cave. Thus, the ever-industrious Uggh invented the VERB. At first the
verbs were simple action verbs "Bring rock!"
The teenage son quickly discovered that some rocks were larger (and heavier!) than others, so
he quickly decided to always choose the smallest rocks possible. Uggh had to be more specific, thus he invented the ADJECTIVE
"Bring that large, pretty, red rock!"
Teenage son was quickly tiring of the work of building Uggh's massive fireplace. It was then
he discovered that repeating Uggh's words "Bring that large, pretty, rock!" caused other cavepeople to do the work for him.
Although he was pleased that his son was using his inventions, Uggh wanted the son to work also, so he invented the use of
NOUNS in the SUBJECTIVE and OBJECTIVE cases "Son bring that large, pretty, red rock!"
One morning, Uggh was looking across the narrow valley and saw the perfect rock for
the mantelpiece. So he told his teenage son, "Son, bring that very large, beautiful rock!" When the teenage son climbed the
steep hillside, he discovered that particular rock was very heavy, indeed. He had also discovered that it was far easier to
roll large rocks than to carry them. He was also inventive and applied his own innovation of using a large stick
to lever the rock. Because of the steep incline of the hillside, the rock quickly gained momentum and was soon rushing
across the narrow valley floor into the cave. It was at that time that Uggh provided his last contribution to language, the
ADVERB "Son, bring that very large, beautiful rock here slowly!"
Does anyone else know parts of that story?
Robert D. McKercher Jr.
Class of 1973
