He that hath an ear, let him hear!

Travel back with me if you will, to 1982. Lots of things were happening that year. We had the 1982 World’s Fair right here in Knoxville. Ronald Reagan was President of the United States. Marty Robbins and John Belushi died. LeAnn Rimes and Brad Renfro were born. The J. Geils Band hit #1 on the pop charts with “Centerfold.” The movie “ET” became the highest grossing movie in history. Tug got his ear pierced. Wwwwhhhhaaaatttt???? Yeah, you read that right, Tug got his ear pierced. Okay, let me tell it from the beginning.

You see, in 1982, I had this whole “tough/cool guy” image going on. All of the big stars at the time were “cool” and had earrings. Rick Springfield won a Grammy for his song, Jessie’s Girl and all of the girls were nuts over him. Well, ol’ Rick just happened to sport an earring in his left ear. He wasn’t the only one; John Cougar, Billy Squire, Paul McCartney, Loverboy, they all had earrings as well. This, of course, caused a bunch of teenage boys to go out and get their ear pierced. It had to be your left one because “right is wrong” when it comes to guy ears, it meant you were, uh…”queer.” Of course there was no way on God’s green earth that my parent’s would consent to me having mine pierced. I didn’t even dare ask. I’m sure it would have been one of those “I brought you into this world and I can take you out,” kind of moments.

Well I just so happened to take Home Economics my sophomore year. (Yeah, so much for that tough/cool guy image huh?) I really enjoyed that class. One of my favorite teachers of all time, Mrs. Donahue, taught HomeEc. She liked me too and even made me her student assistant, which meant that I spent like an hour just sitting around in her classroom eating and drinking and talking.

Anyways, during HomeEc class, we learned to sew. I was pretty doggone good at it too! We always sat in groups around the tables and my group was THE best! One person in that group was a girl named Carol. Her older brother, Ron, was one of my heroes because I played trombone in the band and Ron was like this legendary God of trombone players that had graduated from Gibbs and went on to be in UT's Pride of the Southland band. He would come to the school every now and then and help out Mr. Kyle with the band. The entire low-brass section would all but bow down in his presence. That doesn’t really have anything to do with this story; I just thought I’d throw that in there.

So, as I was saying, Carol was part of our group, I think she was the only girl at our table. I can’t remember if she was the one that instigated all of this, if it was I or someone else but for some reason it was decided that I needed to have my ear pierced. Me, being the big tough guy that I was, did not want to back down and show any signs of coward ness, so of course I consented to the whole thing. Now, here’s the rub. Carol said that she could easily pierce my ear with one of the sewing needles we were sewing with. I remember some of the guys saying, “Ah, you won’t do it, Chicken!” That was all it took for me. “Go ahead, push that needle through there!” I told Carol. The next thing I knew, she came up, grabbed my ear and jabbed that needle right through it! I can’t quite explain the feeling that came over me. It was a mixture of excitement, pain, fear, and regret all balled up together. I never wavered or showed a single sign of weakness.

Well, we didn’t have an earring to put in the hole so Carol just left the needle sticking through my ear lobe. The bell rang and I stood up to leave the classroom. My stomach was feeling pretty lousy and I began to get dizzy. I remember that all eyes were upon me. I was doing my best to keep from falling down. I got over next to the wall and held myself up. Slowly, I made my way down the hall. I could hear some of the guys telling others about my ear piercing. I strutted the best I could, making sure everyone could see the needle protruding out of my left ear lobe. I felt like some kind of superstar. I stopped in at the bathroom. I made it over to the sink and looked into the mirror. As I stood there staring at my bloody ear lobe with a sewing needle stuck through it, all I could think was, “my dad is going to kill me!” I wiped the blood off and splashed cold water on my face. I felt like I was going to throw up. Finally I regained my composure and made it to my next class. I went the rest of the day trying to act like it was no big deal and finally 3:25 rolled around and I was able to leave.

When I got on the school bus to go home I held my hand over my ear so no one would see it. By now my ear was stinging and really hurting. I got home and my parent’s were not there. I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. “Oh my gosh, what have you done?” I knew that I had to keep it hidden from my dad. I found a pair of my sister’s earrings and stole one of them. I managed to force it into the front of my ear but couldn’t get it to come out the back. Each time I tried it would shoot severe pain through my ear. My ear was very hot and painful to touch. I finally managed to get the earring to go all the way through and I put the back on it. It was so painful that it brought tears to my eyes. I somehow avoided my parents that night and fell asleep with my ear throbbing.

The next day I went back to school with my sister’s earring in my ear. I got a few funny looks and a few people laughed at me. I was sitting in first period class and my buddy, Scott Wilson, told me my ear looked really bad. Kim Chauvan turned around from her seat in front of me and said, "oooh, Byron, your ear is infected!" I went to the bathroom and looked at it. Sure enough, it looked bad. It was red, swollen, and oozing. I reached up and twisted the earring as pain shot through the side of my head. I guess some common sense finally kicked in. I pulled that thing out, cleaned my ear the best that I could and put my earring wearing days behind me, well, except for the time my dad accidentally pierced my ear. My parents never did find out about it. I guess they’ll know as soon as they read this post though!

The moral of this story, don’t be taken in by peer pressure. Always treat your body with respect. Obey your parents, and remember, your ears are made for hearing, not piercing!