Bill Coleman

27/08/1983

University of New Mexico, University of Arkansas, UC Berkeley

See more at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wmgcoleman

Richardson West

Richland Elementary, Memphis TN

Carolyn Anderson, Ken Taylor, Abe Spangler and goofy Mr. Dillard

RHS Playhouse! Debate Team! Gemini Drive In Theater!

Physics teacher Ken Taylor brought a brand new orange light laser to his classroom one day, something most of us had never seen way back in 1969. Mr. Taylor would let us stay after class and mess around with it. Junior Russ Howell had the great idea that we should use the classroom telescope to sight in the laser on the RHS-facing Gemini Theater screen right as the sun was going down. The laser was so crappy (by today's standards) the beam would spread across the entire screen between Taylor's upstairs classroom and the drive in theater. We sent Russ to the theater one evening to get a close-up look at what was going on. He telephoned from the snack counter to let us know it was time. We sighted in... Snap! the laser beam went on... The orange light covered the screen... Horns began to honk. Headlights blinked on and off. People were yelling.

Back at RHS we could only imagine what the theater manager and projector guy must have been going through. We were laughing so hard we knocked over the telescope. That was the end of that.

Until the next time, that is, when we realized we didn't need a telescope to spot the laser on the sidewalk in front of school. ...In front of people walking down the street.

That orange circle, the size of a quarter, would pace them in front. When they balked, asking themselves what the hell?, the light would stop too. When they turned around there it was again. There was no beam to the laser light, and no lights on inside RHS to suggest where the trouble was coming from. Just this strange, quarter sized spot of orange light on the sidewalk. Pacing them. Silently. Whichever direction they turned.

People would eventually freak and run off. Good thing the windows to Taylor's room were closed. Our hilarious laughing would have given us away.