At my high school, students who arrived late were supposed to sign in at the office.

You would write your name, time of arrival and your reason for being tardy.

I can't remember exactly how it worked. I mean, in terms of follow-up on the part of a vice principal or some other administrator assigned to grill kids about why they were late.

But I recall one time I was looking at the late-arrivals list and saw that one young scholar's written excuse was simply "Was stoned."

This was the early 1970s.

Now maybe he had actually written that. Or perhaps one of our school's many fine humorists had erased his real reason and entered "Was stoned" for comic relief.

I just know that sometimes when signing in at the dentist's office or for a doctor's appointment, I'm occasionally tempted to fill in one of the blanks in a way that would be my personal tribute to the '70s.

Of course, answering "Has your insurance changed?" with "Was stoned" would not make much sense. But I ask you, what does these days?

Maybe the office staff would just think it was an allusion to medical marijuana.

What was the drill at your school if you arrived late?

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