In high school, I was in JROTC. For those of you that don't know, that's a class where you dress up like you're in the army and learn army stuff (only the dull army stuff that didn't involve guns or killing).
JROTC, didn't even have a teacher, it had a Lieutenant Colonel from the army. They guy who taught the class had been in Vietnam. He had probably killed people! Anyways, he commanded a little more respect than the average teacher.
Attending JROTC with me was a very good friend of mine, a guy named Ron. Ron was a very charismatic guy who had such a problem with authority that his parents made him join JROTC, hoping it would do something to keep him out of trouble. It didn't.
One day in JROTC, "The Colonel" was delivering a lecture and was in a foul mood after Ron had sang a version of a Pink Floyd song with the apt lyrics, "Colonels, just leave us Cadets alone".
During the lecture, Ron started to get shiftless so he pulled out some blank note cards. Ron layed two of those blank note cards in front of him and said, "Hmmm. A six and a four, that's ten. Hit me!" Ron then layed down another blank note card and said, "Yes, an ace! Blackjack." Ron then dealt himself two more blank playing cards and continued to narrarate his imaginary blackjack game, "Fifteen. I'll stay."
Pretty soon, everyone in the class started to pay attention to Ron and his invisible casino. Once the Colonel realized no one was paying attention to him anymore, The Colonel shouted at Ron, "Ron, if you lay down one more card I'm going to call the security guard and have you taken to the principal's office."
Ron had two blank note cards layed out in front of him and one in his hand, poised and ready to be dealt. Ron stared straight into the Colonel's eyes, layed down the card and said with confident condescension, "Hit me."
At age 15, it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.
