Mr. Hiken and the Firecrackers

May 1971

My favorite High School teacher besides Mr. Gunderson was Mr. Hiken. These two teachers were as different as night is from day. Mr. Gunderson was openly bi-sexual and taught New Age Philosophy. My Hiken was a devout Jew who headed up a Jewish boys camp during the summer and taught Math during the school year. Mr. Gunderson's classes were filled with discussion and talk. Mr. Hiken's classes were strictly lecture. Mr. Gunderson allowed the students free reign, Mr. Hiken was a no-nonsense teacher.

Mr. Hiken won me over the first day I had him in Math class Sophomore year. During my Freshman year of Math, the teacher was an adult nerd; the students controlled the class with spitballs, tacks on chairs, ripping the window blinds, cussing, swearing and anything else we could do to keep the class under our control. I was the worse in the class gaining the most detentions and leading the class in bad behavior.

On the first day of Mr. Hiken's class I resorted to my previous year's antics. I cannot remember what I did, but I do remember Mr. Hiken's immediate response. "There will be no horseplay in this class!" I could tell immediately that he meant every word of that. From that day forward I respected Mr. Hiken and gave every bit I could to study and learn Math. It was the only class in all of High School that I tried to do well in. By the end of my Sophomore year I had two A's and two B's. I also began thinking that I would be some sort of accountant in life because I loved Math so much. That summer I visited Mr. Hiken at his camp.

Two years later I was close to graduation. I had firecrackers and had been lighting them off from time to time in the bathrooms of the school. Nobody could figure out who was doing them because I tied the firecrackers around a lit cigarette and left them behind the toilet of any one of the bathrooms. Ten minutes later the firecrackers rang through the halls. The entire school was abuzz trying to figure out who was lighting firecrackers and how I could get away so fast - after all there were teachers who ran into the bathroom as soon as they heard the fireworks only to find that I was gone. Nobody suspected a cigarette, because the boy's room always smelled like smoke from kids like me who snuck cigarettes in during breaks.

I kept up with the fun for several weeks until one day, one week from the last day of school Senior year. Classes were just getting out so boys were lining up at the urinals and toilets. My good friend Sean happened to be there, so I showed him a pack of firecrackers I had. Faster than I could think he grabbed them, lit them with his cigarette, and tore off. The bathroom was filled with the popping of 40 firecrackers filling the room. Curiosity drew everybody in the hallways to the boys' room while I walked away trying not to look guilty. It didn't work.

Being the only teacher in the hall at the time, Mr. Hiken stopped me. "So you're the one." I think he had mixed feellings. Glad that he and he alone (among teachers) knew who lit the firecrackers, but not wanting to punish me so close to the end of my school year. He looked at me for awhile and then said, "You owe me one."

I slept through every History class and the teacher never said anything until the last week of school. I was called to his desk and he told me that I had to pass the final exam or I would flunk History. I didn't know what to do because I never read the homework or listened to any lecture. If I flunked History, I would not get my diploma and there was no way I could possibly pass. I studied 3 hours for the test knowing it was all in vain. I took the test and nothing seemed to go my way. As I usually did, I BSed my way through the writing section and guessed on the multiple choice questions.

Several days later I came into school during my day off, during teacher's grading day- and asked my teacher how I did. He said I passed. "What grade did I get?" He just repeated himself, "You passed." I knew that he was only passing me out of mercy for the kid who showed interest for the first time the whole year.