Requisitions
February 7, 2008Requisitions were magical things. You think credit or debit cards are “magical” ways of getting stuff for “free”? At Howe, any cadet would walk into the QuarterMaster, ask for something and get it. You just had to write down your list of booty on a little form as big as your hand and sign it. The carbon copy would get sent to your parents and they’d pay for your school supplies, socks, hygiene products, other clothes, whatever.
Whenever I go back to visit and see the way cool stuff they have – not for cadets, but for alumni … I sure wish I could just sign a little requisition form and take what I wanted.
My 5th grade year (‘80-’81), we had “QM Cards.” They were color-coded based on the spending level approved by your parents. There were three colors – white, red (I believe), and blue. If I remember correctly, white (for kids with rich families) meant carte blanche spending privileges at the QM, and blue (which is what I had) meant the most restricted spending privileges. So I could buy only maybe five items at the QM.
The QM (or, as Colonel Trout called it, “The Quartermaster Store”) was in an old (now-demolished) building across from the gym and had masters’ apartments on the second floor.
I remember that building. My science teacher – and yours, I believe, lived in that apartment. He also ran off with the other science teacher.
I won’t mention the science teachers’ names, but if it’s who I’m thinking of…..very interesting.