The Other Mr. T

Three steps at the Shelby High School Malcom E. Brown School/Civic Auditorium are mine. They were once black, and they are the only ones in the theater that were so. Here's why. One day, during my first semester in Tech Crew, we were working on a set, and black paint was needed. Burgin sent me to the basement to get some. When I got to the paint cabinet, I saw about four cans of black paint. Some was enamel, some was latex. I grabbed a can and headed for the stairs. About half way up the first flight, my foot caught on a step. I tripped forward and the can went flying. The lid that had looked tight wasn't. black paint spilled all over three of the steps. It also covered me rather well.



I trudged up the stairs, all the time thinking, "I am a dead man. Burgin is going to kill me." When I walked out on stage to tell her what had happened, half the crew there laughed or tried hard not to, and the other half just stared. I swear Burgin twitched, either from suppressed anger or laughter or a mix of both. I was covered in black paint, after all. At that point one of the seniors, Rhett Owensby, stepped up and told Burgin not to worry, that he would cleanup the mess. He also told her not to kill me, that it was just an accident.



Well, it turned out the paint I grabbed was enamel. That meant it was not going to easily come up. Rhett settled for taking old costume shorts from our production of Beehive and spreading the paint around, effectively painting the steps. They stayed that way until late 2002, but under a coat or so of grey paint is my mark at SHS.