Chapter 55

Mr. Kindle went to the blackboard and wrote the words, ‘Compiling Evidence About Historic Events, ‘ across it in large block letters. He turned to the class and asked, “Can anyone name a historic event of the last century?”

“Winning the football game,” Thomas Westerland answered without raising his hand. It felt kind of good knowing an answer to a question asked by a teacher for a change.

Looking across the room at Tom, Mr. Kindle said, “I don’t think that has sufficient significance to be a historic event.”

“You know not what you say,” Sean said looking horrified by the comment.

“It was the first win in a long time,” Max said indignant at the suggestion that it wasn’t significant.

“Perhaps, I should say that the event is a little too local to be of much significance,” Mr. Kindle said.

“Boo!” Tom said from the back row. He glanced down at this notebook to make sure that there wasn’t a wad of paper headed towards his mouth. There wasn’t. He relaxed a little.

Sean leaned over to Suzie and commented, “I don’t think he understands the historical significance of the events of last Friday night. You would think that a historian would recognize a historical event when he sees it. Perhaps I have over-estimated his abilities as a historian.”

“Maybe he is thinking of something with a little greater scope to it — like a war,” Suzie suggested.

“I’m still waiting for him to tell us about his tea-time conversations with Attila the Hun,” Sean said.

Overhearing Sean’s comments, Mr. Kindle rubbed his forehead trying not to get a headache. He asked, “Can anyone tell me why they think it is so historically significant?”

Speaking as if the answer was obvious, Max said, “We moved from being in last place to being tied for last place.”

“That’s a significant change,” Sean said nodding his head in agreement.

Deciding that it wasn’t worth arguing about, Mr. Kindle said, “Okay. Let’s assume that winning the football game is a historic event. How would a historian go about ascertaining what happened?”

“They could talk to me,” Max said looking at Mr. Kindle.

“Excellent,” Mr. Kindle said. He wrote on the board, ‘Interview participants, ‘ while saying, “You can interview a participant in the event. That is a first-hand account. If the participant is deceased, you can read any letters, diary entries, or memoirs he or she might have written. Now are there any factual errors that can be introduced as a result of getting information from a first-hand account?”

“Are you saying that I would lie to you?” Max asked giving Mr. Kindle a dirty look.

“This lecture is not going well at all,” Sean said leaning over to Suzie.

“I think you’re right. Max would never lie about something like that,” Suzie said frowning at Mr. Kindle.

Feeling a major headache coming on, Mr. Kindle answered, “Not at all, Max. I’m suggesting that your account would focus on the elements that were most important to you.”

“We won,” Max said.

“That’s true. However, I imagine that your account of the game would be different than an account given by a member of the opposing team,” Mr. Kindle said.

“Of course it would. I would be talking about winning the game and he’d be talking about losing the game,” Max said wondering what the problem was with that.

“Exactly. Your account would have a bias because it would focus on your role in the game rather than the game as a whole,” Mr. Kindle said.

“Maybe,” Max said not sure that he liked the idea that he was biased. He leaned over to Sean and asked, “Was that an insult?”

“I don’t think so,” Sean answered although he wasn’t quite sure.

Mr. Kindle asked, “Who else could a historian talk to about the game?”

Tom answered, “Me. I was there and saw the whole thing.”

“Yes, a historian could interview a witness to the event. That is also a first-hand account. Now are there any factual errors that could be introduced by interviewing a witness?” Mr. Kindle asked. He wrote, ‘Interview Witnesses, ‘ on the board.

“Are you saying that I would not be factual?” Tom asked. He was still a little perturbed that Mr. Kindle didn’t consider the game historic.

“No. I’m just saying that you might have been watching the cheerleaders rather than the game when something important happened,” Mr. Kindle said.

Debbie looked at Mr. Kindle and crossed her arms. In a chilly voice, she said, “He wasn’t. I was there. If he was looking at any women it would have been me.”

“I stand corrected. He might have been watching you,” Mr. Kindle said with a forced smile. He hadn’t thought this lecture was going to be so difficult. Nodding at Debbie, he added, “So there might have been events that Tom missed while looking at Debbie.”

“While gazing with adoration at Debbie,” Debbie corrected.

“And lusting after her hot sexy body,” Tom interjected earning a smile from his girlfriend.

“He’s become quite the sweet-talker, hasn’t he?” Sean commented to Suzie while pointing at Tom.

Suzie nodded her head and said, “You could learn a thing or two from him.”

“I know, but he has to work at it a lot more than I do. After all, she isn’t as pretty as you,” Sean said.

Suzie smiled and said, “You’re not that bad at sweet-talking yourself.”

Trying to get control over the class discussion, Mr. Kindle asked, “So we have active participants and witnesses to the event as sources of information. Did anyone film the game?”

“No,” Sean answered.

“Why not?” Mr. Kindle asked in surprise. Normally parents would record any games in which their children participated.

“Considering our past game history, who would want to watch us get creamed a second time?” Tom asked as if the answer should be obvious.

“That’s true. My parents stopped coming to the games,” Max said shrugging his shoulders. They had been very surprised when they had learned that his team had won the game. He could have knocked them over with a feather when he had told them he had scored a touchdown.

“Why?” Tom asked. His parents would have been overjoyed if he participated in any school activities. His parents had gone to the Thanksgiving school play back when he was in second grade. Of course, his role had led to him getting called ‘Tom the Turkey’ for the rest of the school year. That had dampened his enthusiasm with regard to participating in school events for life.

“Friday nights are their game nights,” Max answered. He wasn’t quite sure what kind of games they played while he was out playing football and he didn’t really want to know. He suspected that lots of leather and toys were involved. The less he thought about the subject, the better.

“They play sports, too?” Tom asked shifting to look at Max. It made sense to him that the parents of a jock would be jocks.

Max shifted uncomfortably and answered, “Not really.”

Curious, Tom asked, “So what are they doing?”

Max growled and answered, “They are probably having sex.”

“That’s gross,” Debbie said wrinkling her face.

Susan shuddered and said, “Old folks shouldn’t be doing things like that.”

Jerry said, “It isn’t natural.”

With his experience at having caught his father reading poetry to his mother, Sean said, “You would probably be shocked if you knew what your parents are doing when you aren’t around. It is truly disturbing.”

“Somebody should be supervising them,” Debbie said.

Mr. Kindle cleared his throat and said, “We’ve established that there aren’t any recordings of the game. Where else can a historian get information about an event like that?”

The whole class stared at Mr. Kindle trying to come up with an answer to that question. After waiting for a minute, Mr. Kindle held up a newspaper that had been on his desk. He asked, “What about the newspaper?”

“I clipped out that article,” Max said. “There weren’t any details about the game in it.”

Frowning, Mr. Kindle looked down at the article. He hadn’t read anything beyond the headline since he had planned on reading the newspaper when he took his break in the teacher’s lounge. Thinking that Max had to be exaggerating; he read the article aloud, “It appears that the Fighting Ferrets actually won a football game last Friday night. It is their first win since Coach What’s-his-name retired years ago.”

Faltering, Mr. Kindle said, “It is a little short of details.”

“See,” Max said. He would have liked it if his name had been in the article. After all, he had scored a touchdown.

“You’re right. So what can we say about newspaper reports of events?” Mr. Kindle said. He went over to the board and wrote ‘newspaper accounts’ on it.

“They can be a little lacking in details,” Max said.

“Exactly. They can also have political biases,” Mr. Kindle said.

“Like what?” Tom asked.

Mr. Kindle said, “Well, let’s take the example of the article that I just read to you. Does it strike you as odd that the article starts with the phrase, ‘it appears?’”

“That does suggest that we might not have actually won,” Max said with a frown.

“That’s right,” Mr. Kindle said.

“I’m going to write a letter to the editor,” Max said getting angry.

Mr. Kindle said, “Now for this to be a truly historic event there has to be some consequences that extend beyond the event itself. Can anyone give such a consequence for the game?”

Suzie answered, “We now have two reporters on the school paper.”

“Tom and I work on the school paper,” Debbie said raising her hand to get Mr. Kindle’s attention. She leaned over to Tom and said, “That will teach my parents to try grounding me for a hundred years.”

“How many did we have before?” Mr. Kindle asked wondering how the game could have affected the number of reporters on the school paper.

“None,” Sean answered.

“None?” Mr. Kindle asked incredulous. He wondered how they managed to have a school paper without any reporters.

“It appears that last week’s newspaper was written five years ago,” Sean said.

Nodding her head, Suzie said, “They just changed the date.”

Shaking his head, Mr. Kindle went to his desk drawer and rummaged through it for a few seconds. He pulled out a copy of the student newspaper from a couple of weeks ago and looked over it. He asked, “Do you mean that we didn’t send Mary Marcher to the state capitol to meet with the Governor’s commission on education quality?”