I don’t remember the governor losing his pants

In my youth (one of the advantages of seniority is that one’s youth becomes extended) I did a fair bit of acting. The tale of those moments on the boards is recounted in ” Now My Proud Beauty I have you in my power. It’s a nice bit of writing and of great interest, particularly if you are me.

In passing it mentions that I remember nothing of my first play, a production by the Highmore High School Junior class. I didn’t even remember the title. I know the title now but I still don’t remember it.

That may seem like a paradox, but the explanation is simple enough. When I returned to the family home I acquired the trove of materials relating to me that my mother had saved. In its midst was the High School year book for my junior year. It had a description of the junior class play, to wit:

“Fresh Air”, a 3 act comedy by Glenn Hughes, was chosen by the Junior Class for presentation in November. The play, which contained up-to-the-minute laughs and many amusing situations, was centered around the losing of the Governor’s pants in the park when he was to give a political speech for the Iowa Society.

The disturbing thing is that I have no evidence other than that yearbook that there ever was such a play. The internet is supposed to be our modern universal encyclopedia of all knowledge but a search turned up nothing. The best I could do is to find a few pages referencing a dramatist named Glenn Hughes, born in Nebraska, who “has about 100 publications to his name, mostly light plays for amateur production.” That is an apt description of Fresh Air – if there was such a play. References to it may well appear in sundry publications, but seemingly none warrant transcription to the internet. In short, the existence of the play, let alone its contents, is restricted to ephemeral paper publications.

It is quite possible that there are no copies left of the play. Even if there are, the odds are that all will have vanished within another few decades. All things considered, that’s probably a good thing.