The Way Back Machine: Push It

It's story time once again, so sit back, relax and let yourself be transported to a simpler time, a time of school bells and note passing, a time when "Push It" was the most offensive thing you had to worry about children listening to.

Once not too long ago (about 2 decades) I was a 6th grade student. One day during class, a teacher came upon a note folded up on the ground. She picked it up, and as teachers often do, began to read it aloud.

I've never really understood the point of this. Reading it out loud rarely embarrasses the writer of the note. More often, the person humiliated by the reading of the note is neither author nor recipient, but the student who was the subject of ridicule in the note. Nonetheless, this teacher, as so many others before her, decided to read the note to the class.

She unfolded the note and got everyone's attention. "You, come here and give me a kiss. Better make it fast or else, I'm gonna get. . . WHOA!!!!!" She stopped in shock at the next word and looked around at the class wondering who was writing such things. Much to her dismay, the class looked up at her and almost as one shouted, "That's Push It." Yeah, thanks to Salt-N-Pepa, there was no point in worrying about whether or not the kids hear the word "pissed" when reading that note.