Southside Story – Spring 1972 Part 33: Spring Drama at Bryant
When the snow melted, school got wild. Not bad wild— just loud, restless, unpredictable “spring fever” wild. Teachers felt it. Students felt it. Even the security guards felt it. The warmer weather didn’t just thaw out the sidewalks. It thawed out the kids, the chaos level went from a 4 to an 11 overnight.
It started Monday morning. Derrick was at his locker when Glenn—the kid who always showed up wearing sunglasses even indoors—started bragging loudly about “being the best basketball player in the whole school.” Tony walked by and muttered,
“Man, you ain’t even the best in this hallway.”
Glenn snapped back,
“Say that again!”
Tony raised his eyebrow.
“I said you trash.”
Five seconds later? Glenn shoved Tony. Tony shoved back. Glenn’s sunglasses hit the floor and skidded halfway down the hall like they were in a race. Kids screamed, “FIIIIIGHT!” even though nobody had thrown a punch.
A crowd formed instantly. Marcus stepped between them, holding both back.
“Man, stop! Y’all doing TOO much!”
But here came Ms. Turner— the teacher nobody wanted to get caught acting up by.
“What is THIS?!”
The hallway froze. Tony pointed at the sunglasses on the ground.
“His glasses fell.”
Ms. Turner narrowed her eyes.
“Uh-huh. And I suppose they just grew legs and walked off his face?”
The hallway erupted in laughter. She gave both boys detention—even though neither had swung. Spring had officially sprung.
Next, Mr. Latimer was preparing the room for spring dissections. He opened the cabinet to grab the preserved frogs. He gasped.
“Where is frog #14?”
The class went silent. Then Yolanda screamed.
“OH LORD, IT GOT OUT!”
Laughter. Kids jumped on desks. Somebody laughed,
“SAVE YOURSELVES!”
One boy, in mock fear, jumped up on a chair. Another girl, who was really afraid, grabbed her coat and made a dash to the door.
Mr. Latimer yelled,
“Nobody move!”
But the damage was done. Chaos everywhere. Forty-five minutes later, they found the frog. Alive. Sitting calmly under the heater in the corner like it owned the place. Turns out Lenny from 7th grade had taken it “as a pet” but let it loose after it croaked too much in his backpack. Mr. Latimer nearly quit teaching that day.
The first warm day, and the lunchroom was buzzing with the excitement of spring. The crew sat down at a table near the door. Everything was normal until somebody threw a carton of chocolate milk “to be funny.” Then someone else tossed an apple. Then a sandwich. And suddenly? A full-on food fight. Teachers ran outside yelling,
“STOP THROWING THINGS!”
while dodging potato chips like ninjas. Derrick ducked as a slice of pizza flew past his head. Marcus turned the table on its side for cover.
“For cover!” He said. “I’m gonna eat my food.”
Leon calmly ate his cornbread behind the overturned table as if nothing was happening.
Reggie said,
“I blame spring. Spring makes people stupid.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Tasha had her own spring moment. During English class, the teacher asked her to read her poem out loud. Tasha usually avoided attention. But this time? She stood up straight, walked to the front, and read in a steady, soft voice:
“Spring is the world waking up again. Even hearts learn to thaw.”
The room went quiet. A few kids actually listened. Even the class clown didn’t joke. When she returned to her seat, Derrick gave her a tiny smile from across the room. She saw it. Her cheeks warmed. Spring was doing its work on everyone.
Near the end of the week, two 9th graders—Jerome and Clyde—got into a huge argument in the stairwell over something ridiculous. (Depending on who you asked, it was either a pencil, a jacket, a song lyric, or who had better shoes.) It escalated fast.
“You ain’t talking to me like that!”
“I JUST DIDYou gon’ do something?!”
“I BEEN doing something!”
A circle formed. Kids chanted: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Derrick and Marcus exchanged looks.
“Here we go again…”
Just when the first punch was about to land, the vice principal appeared out of nowhere—like he teleported.
“BOYS! LET GO OF EACH OTHER!”
Both froze. He marched them straight to the office. And the entire stairwell groaned in disappointment.
Spring at Bryant wasn’t just craziness. It was awakening. Kids talked more. Fought more. Laughed more. Dreamed more. Derrick noticed it. Tasha seemed more confident. Tony got louder. Marcus picked up even more responsibilities at home. Reggie grew more thoughtful. Leon stayed Leon. And Derrick? He felt… older. More aware. More hopeful. More connected.
At the end of one particularly chaotic day, Derrick, Marcus, and Leon walked home together. Marcus shook his head.
“Man, school been crazy this week.”
“It always crazy.” Leon replied.
Derrick looked at the trees budding along 39th Street.
“But it feel different,” he said. “Like something new is gonna happen.”
Marcus nudged him.
“That’s spring for you.”
Leon added,
“Yeah… and summer coming pretty soon.”
The three boys stopped at the corner where they always split. Derrick looked down the street where he knew Tasha lived. He didn’t know it yet—but this spring was going to change everything. Not dramatically. Not suddenly. But quietly. Gently. Like the first warm day after a long winter.