KALICO: 1 Hypnotized, Naked in Hope Springs, Texas

Kalico: Preface

First of all, let's have an understanding: The purpose of a good Preface is to be boring, so readers will go ahead and skip over it. This preface should fill that bill; I'm making sure it's boring. 

This report is about how I got hypnotized at school and how I had to spend several days totally NAKED right there in front of everyone. Naturally I want you to think the whole book is boring -- I don't want people reading about me being embarrassed. Yet, I'm required to do my best to communicate how this experiment went, from the front row seat point of view of the one who was first in line.

Two programs got introduced at my school because the wise leaders of the town of Hope Springs, Texas, are attempting to persuade us to continue living in this the community after we graduate. I call these new programs the Get Hypnotized Program and the Get Naked Program. Participation isn't necessarily in that order. The school has different names for these projects, but I don't care.

These wise community leaders think they know why the town is dwindling in size, and spirit. It's become a tradition, for the last generation or so, for the kids to head off to college, or off to the big city for jobs, or join the military service, or whatever -- to leave town -- marry someone from someplace else, and never come back except to bring their own kids to visit grandparents.

Polls taken, rather informally, of students at Hope Springs middle and high schools have consistently had these results for at least 10 years: 

QUESTION -- variations on the theme of what do you want to be when you grow up, what career goals do you have, what life goals do you have?

ANSWER -- Lots of ideas emerge, but 75 to 79 percent of the responses have included variations on the theme "move somewhere else as soon as I can, and live there and not come back here if I can keep from it." Even my own mother felt that way when she was growing up. (A separate issue may be: Did my mother actually ever grow up?)

Not everyone has moved away, of course; but it's been such a trend that the smartest, college-bound kids would go away and never return, or the most skilled would find jobs elsewhere, and with this brain-drain, the general level of brightness of the few who remained, was significantly lower.

The cause for this trend among the kids to move away and stay away, someone finally figured out, is the dreaded Westermarck Effect. That's a tendency for kids who grow up close to each other to forget that their friends of the opposite sex are, well, are really of the opposite sex. ("Oh well, yes I suppose she's pretty, but kissing her, like she's my best friend, it would be like kissing my Sister!" -- That's the general impression I have of whatever this Effect might be.)

The two-fold solution, these same wise people decided, would be to shake up the students' thinking processes and attitudes with these:

A. Introduction of the controversial Naked in School Program, with some local refinements, to the curriculum.

B. Introduction of a pilot program of Hypnosis in School as a guidance tool, and for recreational purposes.

The general notion was "home is where the heart is, and if a man's heart is with a girl back in Hope Springs, Texas, then he will more likely return to make his home there." None of these issues were being discussed exactly publicly, meaning in front of the kids. Or if they were talked about, the kids weren't bright enough to catch on to what was happening. This lack of brightness among the kids only added an urgency to the project, on the part of the older generation.

Naturally, of course, I didn't know beans about any of it because we lived in another town. Then, toward the end of summer, Mom surprised us by announcing that we were moving back to the family farm. Meaning, "We're moving this weekend." Meaning, "Tomorrow morning; so don't stay up late tonight because we're getting up early."

Thus, I walked blindly into the machinery of this scheming community, totally clueless. No, that's wrong. I didn't walk in blindly -- I was pushed by my own Mom. Hoodwinked and pushed in, framed, set up and -- well read it and see what you think.

I've tried to keep most everything as it was originally written; after all, the bulk of it was put down in daily journals, pretty much reflecting the crude feelings of the moment. In some cases I've have included other peoples' journals, where they had a particular viewpoint relevant to the story. For those "guest journals" I have endeavored to keep the spelling and grammar errors just the way they wrote them. Aren't I nice? Sorry about that, I'm not always in a good mood when I think about the early part of this experience.

--- Kalico Katherine Johnson, Ninth Grade, Eternal High School, Hope Springs, Texas