The Cowsills In Magazines

Summer's over (sigh). . . and school's here again. Many of today's super-stars, like Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick, are still in school. Others, like David Cassidy, aren't in school any longer, but they remember their schooldays very well. On these pages some of these out-of-school stars share their back-to-school memories with you!

There was this one incident in the first grade that I'll never forget as long as I live! I was in the first grade and I went in to school and there was this girl sitting next to me and I thought she was really cute. She looked like Shirley Temple —I guess maybe everyone did then. But anyway, I went in one day and I sat down next to her—remember now this was in the first grade, so don't think I had a dirty mind—and I lifted her skirt! I don't know why I did, but I did. And I was in a Catholic school and she went up and told the nun who was teaching us.

And I'll never forget what the sister did. She got this girl's ribbon and put it in my hair. And in the first grade this was really humiliating. And she made me wear it all day at school. Then I went home and told my father the whole story. And he made me wear it back to school the next day! So I got the punishment from both ends.

And he told me to walk into school and take my hat off—we had these hats that were part of our uniform—he said to take my hat off like nothing was happening. But I couldn't do that. I walked into class and I kept my hat on. It was pretty obvious something was wrong for me to keep my hat on and that's against the rules anyway.

So the Sister asked me to take my hat off, so I took it off but I took the ribbon off with it. I took it up and showed it to just her. Then she started in praising my father and she put it in my hair again and even took me up to the second grade class to show them what a great father I had. And my brother Bill was in the second grade then and he couldn't believe it. I was never so embarrassed in my life.