Mama Kat Thursday: Legend of the Paddling Machine

Today's Mama Kat prompt to share about, "a time I was sent to the Principals Office."

Frankly, I wasn't the sort of child that ever did anything required me being sent Principal's Office. But I do recall in first grade 

having some highly imaginative classmates who instilled an abject fear in me about anyone getting sent to the "Principal's Office."
They swore up and down that the Principal had a "paddling machine" hidden in his office, a machine with multiple arms, each loaded with a wooden paddle. 

I was too naive not to believe every tall tale these girls spun and the very prospect of being sent to the "THE Principals Office" now terrified me.

Later, when I was in 5th and 6th grade, the Principal's office also became the "school library" and I often went there to check out a book. They had a long wooden shelf unit along one wall loaded with books we could sign-out, including the whole hard-back Black Stallion series by Walter Farley.

I never forgot that "paddling machine," story, though. I'm pretty sure I gave the office a good looking-over the first time I went there to use the library. It was just a small room with a window, a large desk, filing cabinets, a chair or two and that shelf of library books.
There was clearly no room int there for a hidden anything.

Still, the "Legend of the Paddling Machine" lives on as one of my more significant grade-school memories.

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For another wild tale those girls told gullible me I totally believed, you'll enjoy "The Case of The Invisible Boy."

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So, has anyone ever told you a tall tale?

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