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School pranks. Did you do them? Do you remember notable ones you didn't do? Let's hear about schooldays pranking, the bigger and more elaborate, the better. I'll start off with two from my own schooldays. High School Class of 1963 Let's hear yours!
The Church Bells
Our high school was immediately across the street from a large Presbyterian Church -- the one I attended in those days. Every day, precisely at Noon, and just before the last class before lunch was released, that church played a hymn on its electronic carillon. It was an important marker during the day, since we all got to leave the classroom and have a delicious luncheon prepared by the friendly cafeteria ladies.
Being an active youth member of that church, I was a familiar figure there, and was often in the church at odd hours, doing janitorial chores and the like. While visiting the pastor in his office one day, I notices a commercial-looking record player in his office. Making a casual inquiry, I discovered that it was the source of the noon carillon sounds. It played a stack of 78 rpm records, dropping a new one on the platter each day.
Later on that day, it occurred to me that there might be a pranking possibility in this. Our household was not equipped with a 45 rpm record player, so we had to buy 78 rpm records of our favorite music. In my collection was a Little Richard recording, the title of which escapes me at the moment. That seemed a likely selection. So, one Saturday afternoon, a time when I normally volunteered to do some janitorial duties at the church, I slipped the Little Richard 78 into the middle of the stack of carillon records.
A few days later, while sitting in my Junior English class, Noon arrived, and with it, a very loud Little Richard song playing right into the windows of the classroom. There was a momentary silence, with open mouths on the part of the student body, followed by applause and loud cheers.
The pastor of the church said nothing, but changed the lock on his office. I continued to be the Saturday janitor.
Rock 'n Roll Cafeteria
Our school cafeteria wasn't really all that bad. There was the mystery meat, of course, and the bland, overcooked mac and cheese, but it was all edible. About the only tasteless thing in our cafeteria was the music that played during lunch. The radio station selected for this music played hits from the 1940s, exclusively. Now, I didn't have any problem with Big Band music, but it was hardly the favorite of a high school in the early 1960s.
Attempts were made by several student groups to get the radio station changed to some other station...one that played music more in keeping with our interests. These requests fell on deaf ears, of course. Rock and Roll was highly suspect in 1961. Who knows what playing it in the cafeteria at lunchtime would lead to?
Something needed to be done. I was the drum major of the school's marching band, and the instrument room and band director's officer were in the cafeteria. I had keys to both. (Actually, I had a master key for the entire school). I also knew of an interesting closet in the radio room at the school's shop building and was an active radio experimenter.
After school one afternoon, I let myself into the school's shop building and headed for the radio room. TV/Radio repair had once been offered as a shop class, but the class was no longer being taught. I borrowed a signal generator (a very low-powered transmitter) and a clock switch that would let me turn on a device at a regular time each day.
Locking up, I went to the cafeteria. The radio that played the lunchtime music happened to be located in the band director's office, so I let myself in there. Also in that office was the access panel to the attic of the cafeteria, so I climbed up into the attic, where I installed the clock switch and the signal generator with a wire antenna. An extension cord snaked down invisibly behind a tall shelf unit to power them.
I turned on the radio and my signal generator, and tuned both to the station normally used for the music. A few adjustments and the radio station was replaced by a loud howling sound. I set up the clock switch to turn the signal generator on five minutes after our lunch period began, then covered my tracks and locked everything back up.
Next day, lunch period started as usual, with the Big Band music wailing. But...five minutes into the lunch period a loud howling sound came out of the speakers. The janitor was summoned, and he opened the band director's office and tried to tune in the station better. Nothing worked, so he tuned it to a station playing the hits of the day. The kids applauded. The radio stayed on the new station from that time forward, since nobody bothered to change it again.
After a couple of weeks of decent music, I reversed the prank and returned the equipment back to the radio room. Our cafeteria was a Rock and Roll cafeteria from that time on. A few people knew why, but were sworn to secrecy.
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There you have a couple of the many pranks I pulled. Let's hear yours, whether you actually did them yourself or were just a student who appreciated them.
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