Lessons Learned

It's been hectic here in New Jersey, and I was a little worried about the topic for this week's TBT Blog. This evening, when I returned home from work, I was browsing through Facebook (a.k.a. procrastinating), and lo and behold, I spotted a really great status update that totally inspired me:

"Three words that I thought I'd never get to say: I AM RETIRED!!! 32 plus years of teaching and subbing for Panhandle School District :))"

This was posted by Nancy Weitekamp, whom I first knew back in the late 70's as Miss Edmiston. All of the sudden, it dawned on me that she is the person who is responsible for teaching me some skills that I have used daily throughout my adult life. Without her, I would not have been able to type papers in college, or write a blog, or efficiently update my Facebook status. I owe this woman a lot.

Mrs. Nancy Weitekamp

And teaching me was not easy. My freshman year was a bit of a "transitional" year for me, and I was much more interested in my social life than school. Pam (Mitts) Lanter, Curt Snyder, and I sat in the very back of the room in typing class, and it seems like we were always pulling some kind of shenanigans. Then there was 7th hour study hall. Mrs. Weitekamp had study hall duty that hour, which happened to coincide with my "social hour." I enjoyed talking way too much, and one day when she had really had enough, she made me write, I will not talk in 7th hour study hall, seven hundred times (yes, that's 700).  It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon when she imposed the punishment, noting that she wanted the sentences on her desk first thing the next morning. There was a home ballgame that night, and I wrote sentences up until it started and then decided to take my pen and notebook with me so I could finish up during the game. That's when Jimmy Jones tried to take the notebook away from me. I pulled back and the whole thing ripped in half. I stayed up half the night finishing those $%^&$ sentences, and as you might imagine, I was pretty bitter about the whole thing. I don't know if I learned an immediate lesson, but I'm sure the experience was in my brain percolating and somehow helped me grow up and be a responsible adult.

I'm happy to report that I am now Facebook friends with several of my high school teachers, including Mrs. Weitekamp.  I ran into her a couple of years ago at the 4th of July and we sat next to each other on the bleachers by the stage and had a nice chat. She told me about coming to Raymond for the first time, her initial impressions of the town, and her memories of my dad running the Raymond Variety Store. She's lived in Raymond a long time now, and she and her husband, Larry, have raised a wonderful family. She certainly made an impression on me and hundreds of other students who attended Lincolnwood High School. So, I would like to take this opportunity to tell Mrs. Weitekamp (I just can't bring myself to call her Nancy to her face), thank you and congratulations on your retirement. You deserve it!

By the way, I ended up doing pretty well in typing class (maybe it was really just Pam who caused all the trouble).  :-)  For all you skeptics out there, here's some proof: