“We don’t know if Michael can read, because he won’t read out loud.”
It turned out to be the best thing to have happen at age seven. I got books. And Dad started buying classics like Moby ##### and David Copperfield that were included in some sort of deal at grocery stores in the mid 1950s. And as a bonus Dad would read to us at bed time from books like Call of the Wild by Jack London. And he took my brother and I to the library on payday weekends. It was an amazing time because Dad never did anything halfway.
I was shy. The Army and Nam helped to knock that out of me, but what turned the trick was teaching a college course on Railroad Transportation Concepts to adults. To quote my buddy Eddie, “That’ll learn ya durn ya.“. I used to dismiss the class early, because I was basically teaching the test that they had to pass to be considered for a job, and the students all worked full time at jobs that didn’t pay as well and lacked things like healthcare, sick leave, vacations and a dozen other incentives that railroad work would afford them. One night a lady complained about not understanding, so I told her to come back in and have a seat. She shouted over her shoulder that the students could all come back in and most did. So, I started asking questions to find out what the problem was. It was worry. The jobs they were trying for paid well and basically they were afraid of not scoring high enough...90 percent or more was the required average. The only person who failed to score 90 or better, in about a decade of classes...left and had left a test page blank. She missed it completely. Students were supposed to have a buddy They could call and who could call them, but she did not. She missed the cut by one percentage point. I explained to the folks in personnel that she had aced the rest of the test, but was a point shy because she had inadvertently skipped a page. The answer I got back was “safety concerns”...The Railroad did not cut corners when it came to safety.
"We don't have any law here. Just a graveyard." LL from TREASURE MOUNTAIN
#2. "RE: Quote from my second grade teac" In response to Reply # 1
No. With safety concerns on the railroad quite often you don’t get a second chance. Example...signal guys were working near a large interchange and hump yard. One guy was sent over for a simple correction. The rest of the signal gang was nearby, but working on something that required several signalmen. Suddenly there was a derailment down in the yard. The sound of metal on metal and cars hitting and scratching reached the gang. The sounds were coming from the area where the lone signalman was working. The gang rushed to the overlook and looked down at twisted rails with engines and cars spewed about in a twisted mess. Standing in the middle of the carnage was the lone signalman with cars and track laying obscenely in a rousted puzzle around him. He looked up at the gang with upraised arms and said with wonder, “You should have seen it!” My brother was their boss. I have also seen a guy who was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was impaled on the couplers, stuck between cars. He was still alive. They notified his family and waited until they had some final moments with him. After they had left they uncoupled the cars. He was dead within seconds. On the railroad they beat you morning, noon, and night with safety.
"We don't have any law here. Just a graveyard." LL from TREASURE MOUNTAIN
#3. "RE: Quote from my second grade teac" In response to Reply # 2
I read this earlier this afternoon. Then, I watched the next episode of Murdoch Mysteries from season 11, that I'm watching in order. The major plotline dealt with a man involved in an accident, pinned between a motorcar and a horse-drawn streetcar, who would die once they freed him because of the damage. It was more moving to me than it might have been, had I not read of your experience. Just thought I'd share.
#9. "RE: Quote from my second grade teac" In response to Reply # 8
The only one I can recall that old was second grade. She was a spawn of Satan. How she managed to become and stay a teacher has remained a mystery. She only lasted a month Or so and ended up out for the rest of or most of the year...she required surgery, which may have been the cause of her classroom actions, but I really don’t know other than in 16 years of school she was not just bad, but awful. The rest of my teachers and professors were awesome and I actually lived next door to two teachers who were fantastic. One of them never answered my questions but would help me look up and investigate the answer. The husband left the profession and went to work for Kennecott as a draftsman...he did not like the way he saw the education system moving in the 1960s. The result was I had six years of drafting...and drafting went from working with your mind, pencils and instruments to computers and an entirely different and boring skill set.
"We don't have any law here. Just a graveyard." LL from TREASURE MOUNTAIN
#10. "RE: Quote from my second grade teac" In response to Reply # 9
Ever had an ut-oh moment with a teacher (in my case a professor)? We were sitting next to one another discussing a final composition I had turned in. She stopped midway and looking into my eyes said, “You could have written this in first person...”. It was an accusation to which I pled guilty. To this day I regret not following up on the silent interaction and heat that lingered between us sitting there, and I left that college for one closer to home soon after. It dawned on me many years later that I never discussed a paper or test that intimately before or after. She was really good looking and we were about the same age...but I was really ignorant about such things. I did learn, but it took a wise, older woman many years and a failed marriage later to awaken me.
"We don't have any law here. Just a graveyard." LL from TREASURE MOUNTAIN
#11. "RE: Quote from my second grade teac" In response to Reply # 9
My older teachers in elementary school were hell on wheels! They would do everything from pull your hair to scream In your face. But all in all, if you behaved they would only scowl at you.
Tennessee Dave
"Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God" Author unknown
#12. "RE: Quote from my second grade teac" In response to Reply # 9
I lived across the street from the high school history teacher. When I entered high school, he took me into his storage house in the yard, where he had years of magazines: Life, Look, Reader's Digest and more, all stacked in order. When he showed me where the World War II coverage started, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. My Mom go to the point she would not call me for meals - she knew I was deep in some battle in the war - so she would come to the door to get me.
It was an education in itself. I read through almost all the magazines from the Great Depression through the Korean War. The disadvantage - when I was in his class, he expected me to know all the war details.
#13. "RE: Quote from my second grade teac" In response to Reply # 12
What a Treasure trove!! I am getting all the LIFE Magazines with 'How The West Was Won' and am enjoying all the other articles. Many around getting the Dalai Lama out of Tibet, (sound familiar :7)
Les Every sixty seconds you spend angry, upset or mad, is a full minute of happiness you'll never get back..
:7
Les The English Language is weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought though.
#14. "RE: Quote from my second grade teac" In response to Reply # 12
That sounds like it would have been so cool. There's an antique store in my town that has a section with probably a couple thousand magazines at least, mostly Time. The shelves are marked with month and year, but the magazines aren't really in that order very well anymore. Last year I bought a very early copy of Time magazine from the '20s. It's interesting because the style is completely different than how it's known now.
