Sunday, September 5, 2010

A Quick Visit to Waynesboro (August)

Back in August I went to Waynesboro, VA briefly to visit my Mom (and to track down a mystery cave said to be in the vicinity--more on that another time). Mom was fine, thanks, pleasantly demented, but happy to see me.

She had a visitor when I arrived, which is unusual as elderly people who are doing well tend not to visit elderly people who are not (I guess they think getting old is contagious or something)--the former assistant principal and primary disciplinarian of the junior high school where she taught.

The junior high school I attended!

"OMG," I thought, "forty-some years later they've found out who was responsible for the Noodle Incident."

Nah, but that got me to thinking about the various things the group I palled around with did do.

See, way out on the outskirts of town was this apartment complex and in front of this apartment complex was a not-so-good reproduction of Michelangelo's "David" bowdlerized with fig leaf, the very embodiment of "attractive nuisance." Periodically, we found it, uh, necessary to gather all sorts of items and decorate "David"--aprons, skirts, kites, ties, hats, Easter baskets, whatever (it was a small town; we had to generate our own entertainment). Nothing damaging, nothing (truly) obscene, nothing permanent; we liked having a publicly viewable dress-up doll.

Sadly, others did not abide by our Code of Ethics, to wit:

(scan courtesy of JSam)

However, the tradition of decorating "David" did not die out in Waynesboro with the demise of David, Sr. as I discovered on my latest visit:



I cannot tell you how happy this makes me!

Historical Notes
Some of the usual suspects in the '70s incidents:



2 comments:

Tony said...

I live right near that statue -- and report for the local paper. Great post. I never knew the connection.

G. W. Ferguson said...

Pretty much ancient history, sad to say, but we had fun!