By Holly Heller Enquirer Editor
    BREMEN —Pulling strings is definitely part of Roland Huff’s job title as head custodian at Bremen High School.
    In more ways than one.
    “He’s the biggest prankster in the school,” said Principal Bruce Jennings.
    One string he pulled was connected to an opossum tail that he had strategically placed under the door of a closet. Huff then called Don Harrison, who was in his first year as principal at the time, to  help investigate the possibility of the creature on the other side of the door.

 “He called Don down there and said ‘Look what I caught. I wonder what it is?’ And then he pulled the tail back under the door  [using the hidden string],” Jennings said.
    “Harrison flew down the hall! He crashed into lockers. I’ve never seen him run so fast!”
    Huff has also tricked Jennings a time or two.
    “I went to his desk to talk to him and there was a horse fly just circling above his head, in a perfect circle,” Jennings said.
    What Jennings didn’t know at the time was that Huff was holding one end of a string that he had attached to the fly.
    Huff remembers Don Harrison’s son, Joey, asking, “Dad, can I have one!?”
    Roland Huff has been working as a custodian with BHS since the summer of 1970, just before his junior year of high school. During his senior year, he attended school all day and then worked from 4 to 8 p.m. as a custodian.
    “I had a full set of keys for the building,” he said.
    Those keys once enabled him to “pull strings” to help his classmates decorate the gym for senior prom.
    “We decorated to a certain time and then they told us to leave, but we were so far behind …” Huff said.
    They returned much later that evening with Huff and his keys leading the way.
    “We stayed all night,” Huff said.
    Huff has only worked one other job since high school — a brief stint at Avenger in Nappanee. He worked eight hours there during the day, while still working the 4 to 8 shift as a custodian.
    “But Avenger closed down due to the gas shortage,” Huff explained.
    Timing worked in his favor and a full-time opening was offered to him in 1974, right after Avenger closed.
    For the past 33 years, he has loved his job with BHS.
    “It’s something different every day,” Huff said. “And I like working around the kids.”
    Huff’s staff includes Kevin Pollard, who has been on board since July 1983, and Chet Middaugh, who is also a 1972 graduate of Bremen High School. This summer, the trio has had the added help of three young men — Ryan Hessler, Matt Bahr and Caleb Koontz.
    As they go about their summer work of stripping and sealing floors, cleaning desks and furniture, washing walls, re-setting locker combinations and trimming bushes, the crew loves listening to “Phantom of the Opera.”
    “It takes your mind off working,” said Koontz, a 2007 graduate who is in his fourth summer with the crew.
    Fridays are the highlight of the week.
    “We like eating out on Fridays,” Koontz said. “And Friday afternoon, we always have dilly bars on break. It’s something we look forward to on Fridays.”
    Huff elaborated, “We con people into buying us dilly bars all the time.”
    During the school year, the custodians add yet another duty to their list of jobs, serving as the “eyes and ears” of the school. According to Pollard, the custodians are often the first to know gossip such as where the hot parties are going to be, or who is in trouble with the law.
    “We’re like invisible,” Pollard said.
    Huff added, “They don’t even care if we’re around.”
    Like flies on the wall, the custodians just take it all in.
    “We always know what’s going on,” Huff said. “We’re not caught in the classroom. We know what’s going on in the auditorium, the gyms  — all over the building. We hit all areas, so we do know.”