No, no, no. Not that! Sheesh!
Our Art teacher was Mrs. Keim, a stylish, perky little 20-something. I say ‘little’ cause it was true–she was barely 5′ 2″ and rarely wore heels. I found her kind of plain, but some boys had unbridled fantasies about her undergarments. She chopped her hair in November and now wore a ‘Prince Valiant” cut [reference to an old comic strip—wiki it], like a girl named Anne who lived one block away from me. Mrs. Keim was the only teacher girls talked to about what she wore and where she got it.
I would add that being the subject of randy young boys’ uninhibited lust meant that her class was always quiet. I don’t remember her raising her voice very much.
Back from Christmas break, she announced she was pregnant and due in July. Now, this was a big deal because we never had a teacher get ‘knocked up’ [such a wonderful ’60’s slang, wasn’t it?] before. All the girls said “Awwwwwww.” The boys were, well………………….
Days and months passed, her flat stomach morphed into a small blimp. Now her wardrobe was straight out of Sears’ Maternity section. It was interesting to see a pregnancy up close; many of us never saw mom pregnant. But I have to say the bullshit about crabby pregnant women was not the case with her. Any time she raised her voice we deserved it.
By June, she was swimming in sweat. The Foon allowed her to use his special bathroom in the office; more than once she ran out classroom door without explanation. [How many boys’ mothers had to explain that???] At the year’s end, she told teary girls she ‘might’ be back next year, but no one believed her. Another face and name vanishing in the thickening fog of growing up.