On October 3, 1955, Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC.
Before that, another Mouse Club ruled the halls of Sweet Grass High School. It was a very exclusive group – girls only – that had one strict requirement: you could not be afraid of mice, living or dead.
The Mouse Club, Jean, BJ, Betty
B J was not afraid of mice and neither were her friends, sisters Jean and Betty. That was the extent of the membership of their club.
B J grew up handling mice. When just a youngster, her great uncles trapped mice to give to B J for her cat. There was a catch – a price to be paid. The uncles said, “Go say, ‘damn the old ladies’, and we will give you a mouse.” B J walked out to where the “old ladies” were and paid her dues. True to their word, the uncles rewarded her a dead mouse for her cat.
When she started school, she got a live mouse and gently put it in a match box and took it to school. She must have been proud when she placed the little box on the teacher’s desk. The teacher slid back the box top and out jumped the mouse. She was not impressed, nor did she share B J’s fascination with mice. I do not know if they had Show and Tell that day, but I am sure it was Show and Yell!
The mouse-capades continued in high school when B J was joined by her two accomplices. A classmate of the three girl Mouse Club was deathly afraid of mice. How silly! The girl might as well have shouted a dare from the top of her lungs. Her fear of mice was the only fuel needed for the Mouse Club to jump into action. The plan was in place.
After capturing an unsuspecting furry creature to be offered as a gift, it was packaged up. It was suggested by one source that some of the boys might have taken part in the caper. This account was given by one of the Mouse Club members in later years who said they gave the mouse to the boys who did the deed. That is not the way I previously heard the mouse tale. I tend to think that version of the story was merely a diversion in an attempt to deflect blame.
The story as told to me through the years was that the club members put the mouse in the girl’s locker. When the girl opened her locker and looked in the box, she let out a shriek, you know, like a loud resounding scream. The principal got involved and accused the boys of the dastardly deed.
A few years ago, the sister of one of the Mouse Club members snitched to the mouse recipient and revealed the source of the girl’s teenage trauma. It might not have been the best gift, but it’s the thought that counts. Hmmm, maybe that’s not always the case.
