THE GREAT CLOVIS HIGH SCHOOL CAPER: "BUT HE GOT HIS GLASSES"

Most of you readers have heard of "THE GREAT NORTHFIELD, MN. BANK ROBBERY" and "THE GREAT MISSOURI TRAIN ROBBERY," but I suspect you have never heard of "THE GREAT CLOVIS HIGH SCHOOL CAPER," (in April,1951, after the Senior Play, "I Remember Mama.")

Though I have long since given up a life of crime, I was one of the PERPS in that caper, and here is how it went down. It was 61 years ago...and it is all coming back to me now, just as though it happened yesterday.

Through many years of school musicals, Spanish plays, and the junior play, I had been "perfecting my craft," as we actors like to say. My role in the Senior play was Mr. Hyde, a thin, stately, scholarly gentleman, who read Dickens to the family circle gathered around him. I read my lines to the group, and the play wound down:

         
             "It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done.

              It is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known."

After the play, the cast celebrated upstairs with punch and cookies, then  LB, DM, JS, and I went to the basement boys' restroom, to scrub the  make-up off our faces.  When we were all through, and in no hurry, being the last ones in the building, we left by the basement door and the door locked behind us. The four of us walked out back of the dark high school toward JS's car--parked in back of the school.

All at once, DM, who was severely challenged optically, said: "Oh darn, I left my glasses in the boys' restroom!" "Hmmm." What do we do now? Well, finding someone with a key late on Saturday night would be a...federal case. BUT...we just left sixty seconds ago; we can just run back in and grab his glasses and be gone--if-- we can just find an opening. A quick check of the old high school building and we found an unlocked window in the girls' basement restroom.  

So LB and DM raised the window and crawled in. Figuring they didn't need me to find a pair of glasses, I just moseyed around the semi-dark backside of the high school, probably basking in pride over my acting career... just waiting for them, and their quick errand, which entailed entering the girls' room, entering the hallway, then walking to the west end of the basement, then going  into the boys' room, grabbing the glasses and reversing their route and out the girls' window.

 Dear reader, you must remember our mind-set. This all seemed very innocent to all of us. The thought that we were doing anything wrong never occurred to us. After all, it was OUR hometown, OUR high school, OUR building, OUR home for three years, OUR play, and OUR glasses; no evil intent, no ulterior motives, no vandalism...innocent boys---just get the glasses and away we'd go  to burn up some 25 cent gas...and celebrate!

NOT! Life, as you know, can throw its curve balls! Have you ever heard of Murphy's Law? Burns said it in To a Mouse, "The best-laid schemes 'o mice an' men gang aft agley." Yes, Friends, that's exactly what happened to us: our scheme went "agley," and pretty fast!

Back to me: I was relaxing, winding down, and waiting. SUDDENLY, and why and how I didn't know, searchlights from a couple or more police cars went on from the street, and I was in the spotlight, totally illuminated (but not exactly the way an actor visualizes it!)

Cops appeared on foot, a car somewhere backfired, and I IMMEDIATELY SURRENDERED! My memory is kinda vague, but LB and DM met a big surprise as they crawled out that rest room window! As I look back today, it is obvious: We were "sitting ducks!"

They took us to the police station; I'm glad we weren't handcuffed. (They nailed JS too-- he was our driver--thus an accomplice.)  I remember a lot of QUESTIONING-- repeat, a lot. We were so innocent, not having lived lives of hardened criminals, that we didn't fully appreciate our predicament.

 For my one phone call, I called Mom and said: "Not to worry, Mom, I'll be very late; I'm at the police station; but I think I can beat this rap."

After much chewing on us, and warnings about a life of crime, etc. we were released, very late, and had to walk five blocks back to the high school to J.S's car, still at the school. We had served our time, a light sentence of three hours. We dreaded what was waiting for us at home.  The Clovis News-Journal reported the story under the title: "BUT HE GOT HIS GLASSES!"

(Sadly, Donald Mardis is no longer with us; a wonderful classmate, friend, and a gentle person.)

 Read below how a couple of the other “perps” remember this story:

 Recollection from L.B.: " The Jig Was Up"

I recall that when Mardis and I re-entered the restroom,
intending to jump up to the window which was at ground level
and crawl through to leave the school, we heard voices and
assumed it was you guys or some other of our buddies.  We
were not especially quiet approaching the window and then
looked outside and saw the officers and knew the "jig was
up".  So I made the short jump from the floor of the room to
reach the window sill and as I did this it made enough noise
for the officers to become aware of our presence in the room
below.  Them I herd the ominous click of the hammer being
drawn back on a large hand gun and I looked up and saw the
barrel of a six-shooter pointed directly at me.  Fortunately
the officer showed restraint and I and Mardis climbed out
unharmed. and were placed in the back of a patrol car and
escorted to the station.

I believe the officers quickly realized that we were not
hardened criminals, but wanting to impress upon us the
serious nature of our offense, they were not at all jovial
or friendly.  They kept us separated the remainder of the
evening, I assume to check my story against his. They had
quickly told us to empty our pockets of everything in them
and were especially interested in any keys we had.  We
learned a couple of hours later as they released us that
someone had recently been opening parking meters in town and
making off with the contents.  I think that they at first
suspected that we were part of a gang who not only had been
robbing parking meters in town but now had branched out to
raid students' lockers at the school.

Thus the origin of the short newspaper article "BUT HE GOT
HIS GLASSES".

Recollection from J.S.:

Mil, I do not remember any conversation at the police station.  I do remember the policeman telling us, when they went behind the school looking for them, that L.B. and Mardis were lucky because if anything had reflected light such as a firearm, they would have opened fire. (Mil's note: At a September, 2008  CHS Class of  '51 Reunion, J.S. remembered that we waved at friends from the back seats of the police cars.)

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                                                          L.B and D.M.

By Mil, 3/18/12




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