Dek Sprong (1931-1988) Part 3

   Although Dek enjoyed his life at school, he struggled to make passing grades in his classes. He seemed to have a particular problem with following instructions. In the fifth grade, Dek was evaluated by the school's speech and hearing therapist, Susan Kirchbaum. After putting him through a variety of tests, Susan realized that, under stressful conditions, the order and meaning of words became jumbled to Dek. For example, Dek was always very self-conscious about being called on in the classroom. So, when his teacher said, "Dek, come up her and write your answer on the board", what he actually heard was, "Dek, come here and light up your pants for the Lord." In an effort to be helpful, Mrs. Kirchbaum advised Dek, "When you feel tense, try to take it easy and relax". To Dek, this sounded like, "Let's flee to my tent and take Ex-Lax". When Dek left this meeting, he felt he had a greater understanding of the reason for his poor grades, but his hearing problem would continue to haunt him for some time to come.
   By 1943, the United States was fully involved in World War II. Manufacturing in support of the war effort, and the jobs it created, had come to Shelbyville the previous year. Dek's mother, Bonnie, along with her three sisters, found employment at a factory that produced litter boxes for combat soldiers. On the week-ends, the girls wrote long letters to servicemen stationed overseas, describing all the new and different types of omelets that people were making back home. Whenever there was a military funeral in town, Bonnie and her sisters would attend dressed as enemy soldiers. During the funeral service, they would let the mourners jab at them with forks and screwdrivers. Shelbyville's daily newspaper, The Hefty Observer, often mentioned the girls' contributions to wartime morale, and frequently reminded the single men of the town that, when considering candidates for marriage, they "would be foolish to be put off by the fact that, during the winter months, the girls were sometimes mistaken for bundles of smoked sausage."