Civil War Stories

[L Verge]

Ain't that the truth, Herb! And it was generally the rowdy ones who came back years later and thanked you for making a difference.

If you want to hear how old I really am, one of my 8th grade students from my first year of teaching ended up working for the same government agency that I work for now. I just went to his retirement party!

He used to regale people with the story of how I quieted one talkative young man in his class. Jimmy could not stop talking. One day, he got on my nerves so badly that I whirled around from the blackboard and threw an eraser at him. I hit him square on the cheek - and he was in the back of the room! That shut everyone up for the rest of the class!

The kids wanted to know how come I could throw so well. My answer was that I was an only child, so I had to learn to throw a baseball in order to please my father.

Of course, if I tried that today in a classroom, I would end up in jail - or Jimmy would come back with an Uzi...

Are we off topic, or what???