Dave Barry in 2012 (Provided photo â Charlie Cowins, via Wikimedia Commons)
What began as a simple story assignment for a school newspaper ended up a trigger for parental hysteria and a brush with comic genius.
It involved an “encounter session” guidance counselor Marjory Volk had conducted in four sociology classes at the high school in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, a town of about 7,000 people 33 miles west of Philadelphia and the location of the 1958 sci-fi classic “The Blob” starring Steve McQueen.
I was the student writer given the assignment in January 1972, my first year on the paper. If I’d had some experience or even some common sense, I’d have talked to the guidance counselor and the sociology teacher for their explanations of an encounter session, and then asked them for the names of some students who could offer informed comments.