In the past few years, I have been encouraged by my former students that I needed to relate the stories that have been a big part of my life over the past 42 years. I resisted for a while because it took me over twenty years to finish my first book. Along the Way was a novel based on the experiences I had in my first year in college. I had the story running around in my head all that time and gradually year by year I finally finished it. So the thought of doing that again scared me.
What changed everything was when my first grandchild Coen was born. I immediately wanted to make sure that he knew the experiences that I have had and the effect that they have had on my life. Still, I had the concept in my mind, but I did nothing about it. Then came the next two grandchildren, Cali and Bailey. The three of them solidified the concept of retirement for me and created the motivation for these memoirs.
So what you need to know before you start this ride down memory lane with me is that I have always wanted to be a teacher. When I was in high school, there were two men who influenced me to take this direction. The first was Bob Drummond my music teacher. I don't remember one day in that class when I wasn't totally enthralled with his knowledge and how he motivated his students to reach their full potential. To this day I can tell you when he built the confidence in me that I had always needed.
I was a bass player. You know, the stand-up kind. I loved to play, but I never really believed that I was any good. Not until he came to me and the other two bass players and told us to go to the choir room. He had loaned us out to the choir for one performance. For the spring concert my senior year, we were to play a break in the song "They Call the Wind Maria." Our basses would recreate the wind nature of the song. It was fantastic, and that gave me the confidence in myself that I needed to go to college and be successful.
Strangely, I didn't go into music although it has always been in the back of my mind as a possibility, even today. The direction I eventually took was because of the other teacher who had a distinct affect on my life - Ron Gershmel. Ron was my senior English teacher, and later my mentor and friend. In his class reading and writing came alive. It was there I started to write my first poetry. Through is love for Shakespeare, I discovered what the classics can offer me and anyone whom I might teach. More importantly, I learned from him that you don't have to beat students over the head with what needs to be taught. He showed me that you lead them to it, and then allow them to make it their own.
Anyway, that is where it all got started. From there, the path lead me to teaching elementary physical education; coaching football, baseball, and gymnastics; teaching high school English; creating a course called Humanities and teaching it for almost 30 years; coaching academic teams; sponsoring clubs like SADD, student council, and Key Club; being an assitant principal; being a middle school principal; and coming back to high school as an instructional coach after I retired from the principalship.
So, as this odyssey into my career as an educator begins, I feel that is necessary to thank those who made my career possible: Bob Drummond, Ron Gershmel, Warren Garner, Verna Adams, Dan Howe, Orv Schlatter, Dick Gardner, and of course, the love of my life and the navigator for this journey, Michele.
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