Day 11
Dear Basil and Sabine,
As you know, children can have a lot of allergies as they grow up. Shellfish, peanut butter, pollen; if you aren’t careful and get a hold of the wrong thing it can make you quite uncomfortable. Well when Daddy was younger he was allergic to homework and the National Honor Society. I had a strong belief that if I got too close I might just break out and start scratching uncontrollably. I knew just how far I had to stay away in order to be safe. One of the reasons why that was just a ridiculous and lazy notion on my part is that I had some great teachers along the way that really took the time to push me forward and ask more of me than I was willing to give. This is part of what makes teachers so special.
Teachers are going to exist throughout your life. This is a good thing. There will be classroom teachers from nursery school through your college years and there will also be those teachers who you will be fortunate enough to encounter as you walk your life’s path, whose words and presence will help you evolve and mature as a person. I would like to use this letter so that I might share with you a few memories from the teachers throughout my life and have you know that their influence has been integral to some of the smallest details of my being and have also provided some of the strictest regimens and philosophies of thought that I carry with me every day.
Here it goes - I went to Hull Homestead Nursery School run by Judy and her husband John where I had my first introduction to true organic living (I mean they had a real tee-pee on the property). My Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Garish and her assistant Ms. Thomas at Fishkill Plains assured me that finger painting is not only safe, it’s encouraged at nearly any age. Vassar Road Elementary School: 1st grade – Mrs. Nichols may you rest in peace ma’am, with your smile and compassion, you touched us all. 2nd grade – Mrs. Pelton, who would always blow her nose and keep the tissue in the sleeve of her sweater; sweet lady, but that was difficult to watch every day. 3rd grade – Mrs. Synette, she made multiplication fun, best smiley faces on the top of your quiz EVER (seriously, they winked at you). 4th grade - Mr. Miles, well, he just made 4th grade cool (had a mustache only rivaled by Magnum P.I.). 6th grade – Enter Mr. Don Chisamore, he kept his class in line by having blank spaces on the black board every morning that looked like this _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. If we got too loud over the course of the day it would look like this: NO RECESS.
By the time I got to Van Wyck Jr. High I had several teachers over the course of a single day. Mr. Roberts in Latin once got really upset that every student purposefully left their textbooks in our lockers as a practical joke so he gave us a one-question test on who the publisher of the book was -- Touché Magister, touché. In Mrs. Hirschmann’s 6th period English class we once saw a very sad Space Shuttle launch where another teacher and her fellow astronauts perished. At John Jay High School Mr. Knickerbocker is the reason daddy can type without looking down at the keyboard; Mr. Eidle, Sir may I say gratias tibi ago; ego erubisco tu and may you too rest in peace. We should have treated you better. That spitball to the chest was (to quote Charles Barkley)… ‘TURRIBLE!’ Thank you Mr. Archimede for drilling me on solving for x and discovering the word hypotenuse, (I’ve never used it in a sentence until now, but I might name a pet after it.) Ms. Zimmerman, you made Chemistry interesting to say the least, but I’ll be honest with you I would take those NYC kids out for a steak dinner that “borrowed” the Regents exam back in ’89 and then shared it with the New York Daily News. Mr. Green, thank you for channeling my love of sports and incorporating it into my writing, somewhere there exists a miniature screenplay written by yours truly and produced by Mike Mostransky starring Jeremy Pond and William Monden that could possibly deserve a shot at a 30 for 30 (it’s a classic). And to Mrs. Barbara Searle who instilled a passion for English prose and Mrs. McCabe for making me focus on the freedom of IMPROV, I truly profess a humble ‘Thank You’ (My present and past tense use is all over the place, but I’m able to pay a mortgage now).
These teachers and several others left an indelible mark on daddy growing up. I have a great amount of respect for their ability to reach children of all ages to not only mentor and learn, but to aspire and achieve more than just settling for being average. You will have great teachers in your lives girls, and you may not even truly realize their impact until well after you have left their classroom. Relish the fact that their lessons will hold firm and true so long as your willingness to listen and learn stays forever a priority, no matter how old you are.