Teachers, rednecks, money

I was sitting here remembering high school teachers, and amazed that I can put together names, faces, and stories from 1963. It's also amazing that I cannot remember much of the content they taught me, but I can remember the people.

• Mr. Maclay, the retired Presbyterian minister, who told great stories about going fishing in Pennsylvania. He always remembered that he was the adult and we were the kids, but he wasn't above squirting a kid with a confiscated squirt gun before returning it to her.
• Mr. Sickafus, my band teacher, who was perpetually disorganized, passionate about his work, and always began the class with a great little story (usually one that ended up getting us to laugh at some little event in his life)
• Mrs. Boone, my French teacher, who kept a bottle of Coke in her filing cabinet (very much against the rules) and drove a Lincoln Continental. She explained that she loved the car and her husband made enough money to support her, so she supported the car.
• Doc. Merritt, the retired physician, who came to high school to escape the pressure. He drove a pink Cadillac.

Probably the most interesting thing is that they all influenced me strongly, but mainly because they were willing to let out the human side, just a bit anyhow. Miss Ruddle, who was all business, may have gotten a lot of English into me, but I don't remember anything positive that she contributed to my life.

About those cars

The Lincoln and the Cadillac reminded me of a story from Madison School District. When my kids were in school there, the Superintendent nearly lost his job over a car. The word went out through the barber shops and the beauty salons that Fred Slater had bought a new van with school board money. When he proved that he actually had leased it with his own money, things didn't get much better. Who was he to think he could have such a nice vehicle?

Redneck-ism is kind of funny. If he'd put $30,000 into a totally pointless four-wheel-drive pickup truck, nobody would have objected. But somehow leasing a van was a problem. It's all a "you people versus us people" class warfare thing. And that's kind of odd and, to some extent, anti-American. (Yes, Rednecks are essentially out of touch with America's basic ideas.) We are amused and amazed when we read an English novel where servants are cautioned not to socialize "above their station." We're dismayed when we read pre-Civil War accounts of a black person getting in trouble for being "uppity." But today's rednecks love their low status, defend their right to be ignorant, and really look down on anyone from any culture that is built on literature, art, or education.