Blasts From The Past

One of the more interesting things about my new store is the location. As I've mentioned, my store is directly across from my old high school--and when I say directly, I mean I can look up from the bar, out the front windows, and see the front door of the school. This means we can watch the buses gather and prepare ourselves for the coming wave, and, if I'm not barring like the wind or floating like a badass butterfly, I scan the crowd for the familiar faces of former teachers.

I've seen a couple so far, as well as some of the non-teaching faculty. I've only seen four teachers that I actually had, all of them English: Mr. Barnes, Mr. Mingrone, Mr. Andersen, and Ms. Abercrombie. I had them for 11A English, 10A English, and Creative Writing, respectively.

Mr. Barnes was a great teacher in more ways that one. The best memorable thing I know about him isn't even my memory; it's my friend Michael's. Michael was in English class on September 11th 2001, when the school stopped the regular schedule to figure out what to do. Mr. Barnes had the TV on so everyone could watch the news. When the administration cut off the entire TV network, Mr. Barnes got up, went to his closet, and got out a radio without saying a word. He just turned it on to a news radio station, and the class stared at that instead.

Mr. Mingrone was my first high school teacher to assign creative writing work. I still have poetry from those assignments stashed away somewhere, partly because I like them and partly because of the comments he wrote on them. They were all encouraging, and not just generic "good job following the assignment." His comments encouraged me to keep going. I said hello to him this past week when he came in for coffee, but he didn't appear to recognize me. While I'm honestly not surprised--I was in his class nine years ago and he's had thousands of students before and after me--it did make me a little sad. He was a favorite teacher for his stories from his years as a carnie, and his alternatively whimsical and cynical sense of humor. When the TVs were turned off on 9/11, my friend Danielle was in Mingrone's class. He turned to the students and said "Well, obviously you guys aren't mature enough to deal with these terrible events. Let's instead turn back to our current book, The Crucible, where a person's biggest worry was being persecuted and burned to death on the accusation of being a witch!"

I also almost got in a car accident with him once. Anyone who has had to navigate the intersection of Spring Hill and Davis Roads can tell you that it's a tricky one. We had a good laugh about it.

Moving on.

Mr. Andersen and Ms. Abercrombie came in just last night, an hour or so before I clocked out. They're actually a married couple who hand Creative Writing back and forth every year. I forget if I took it in my Junior and first Senior year, or if I took it both Senior years, but the point is that I took Creative Writing twice, and got to enjoy both of their teaching styles.

They remembered me! They both gave me looks when they got up to the counter, like "Heyyy..." Ms. Abercrombie was on her cell phone and went to a table to finish her conversation, while Mr. Andersen ordered their drinks (and their son's pastry). I had to tell him my name, but he did remember me! And asked if I was still writing. We chatted a bit about how hard it is to find time, and how he's almost done with his novel that he's been working on for three years! Ms. Abercrombie came up after she got off the phone, and said "Ruth...it is so good to see you! I knew I knew you, bu your hair threw me off!" She seemed really pleased to see me, and said that I'd definitely be seeing her.

That really...really made my day. My whole week. My Creative Writing teachers, two of the biggest pushes I've ever had, remember me! Positively, even! Heeeeeeeeeeeee....

...and now I've sent friend requests to both of them on Facebook. Whee!

On the English note, NaNoWriMo is coming right up...and I'm torn. Do I participate? If I do, do I do a parallel participation, try to either finish or add 50,000 words to Found, the novel I started last November? Do I start a brand new project and be "official"? Do I only participate insofar as I spread the good word about it and encourage (that is, annoy) my friends who are participating?

Decisions, decisions.

I do know that it's time to get back down to business. We're settled, I'm comfortable at work, and the pressing matters in my life are either appointment-based or temporary (doctor's appointments, laundry, etc). While my store may be constantly busy, there are tables available once in a while, and there's also a cafe in Stafford that looks to be a pretty nice place to write an afternoon away. Somehow, I gotta get a groove going.

Speaking of getting going, it's noon now and I haven't really started the day yet. It may be chore day, photography day, writing day, or lazing day...not sure quite yet. Whee!