Here is something I posted on another site about something my friend and I did our Senior year in high school.
... Yes indeed, I do remember Mrs. H. You are correct - it was Marty and I who put together the infamous "Mau Mau" tape. The genesis of the story is as follows: first period Social Problems our Senior year (1969) and somehow the topic of pen pals came up. Suddenly Marty raises his hand and in his best Tommy Smothers imitation he starts to talk about "George", his Mau Mau pen pal.
Now, Mrs. H hated Marty but she was so happy to see him participating in class that she started asking him questions. By this time of year we had discovered just how gullible she was (early in the year Marty had her convinced that Telly Savalas had invented the telephone!). Marty sensed another opportunity to snooker her so he started spinning this incredible tale about "George", all the while making it more and more outrageous.
"How do you communicate with each other, Marty?"
Thinking quickly on his feet Marty answers, "By cassette tape." Her curiosity piqued, she enquired about how George learned English, to which Marty answered, "He learned English at the local Peace Corps center." All the while she kept saying how "fascinating" it all was.
At lunch I came up with the idea of making one of George's "letters" and bringing it to school to share in class with Mrs. H. Marty wasn't too sure she would fall for it, but I figured she had swallowed so much bait by then that a little more might make her completely comatose, a rather interesting prospect to me. So that night I brought my bongo drums and a tape recorder to the Holiday Station where we both worked and we proceeded to engineer the tape.
We discovered that the clear plastic wrap that shirts were sold in made a perfect sounding "rainstorm" when crinkled up right next to the microphone. We used the bongo drums to tap loud and alternately soft sounds while continuing the rainstorm sound effects, all this liberally sprinkled with crackling explosions of "thunder", courtesy of Marty mouthing the sound close to the microphone. This "letter" continued for 20 minutes.
Along with the tape we tore out pictures from National Geographic Magazine which we felt matched Marty's story. Now I don't remember if we actually did this (and if any of my classmates remember please let me know) but there was talk of taking dice and breaking them up and then passing the pieces off as elephant tusk. If Mrs. H were to ask about the black dots the answer Marty would provide is that they were cavities.
We brought the tape to school (the next day?) and played it in class and passed around the pictures (and tusk?). Of course the whole class knew what was going on and it was a terrific exercise in self control for us students not to completely lose control of ourselves. But Mrs. H was absolutely enthralled. When she asked about the meaning of the drumming Marty's imagination came shining through once again.
"A big storm is coming and George's tribe is signaling to the tribe nearby that it is coming their way, and they are answering back." Mrs. H asked, "What does George's tribe do during storms, Marty?" to which he replies, "When it's a really big storm like this one, they all go down to the local Peace Corps center and wait it out. Then after the storm they take their grass huts down and hang them up on the clothes lines at the Peace Corps center and let them dry out."
This was all just too interesting for our class alone so Mrs. H. asked Marty if he would be willing to bring it in for the afternoon class to hear as well. Of course Marty was only too happy to accomodate her request, so he got to pull another coat of wool over her eyes in the same day. Naturally, word got out to the other class and we all looked forward to another Oscar winning performance from Marty, and of course he rose to the occasion. Hey, thanks for the reminder, Nancy. It was fun getting the story in print. And please people, don't think too badly of us. I'm a teacher myself and I've had my share of stunts pulled on me. What goes around comes around.
