IF YOU CAN READ THIS....

...THANK MY HIGH SCHOOL TYPE TEACHER.

Today I went to church in the town where I was born and raised. When I was going to High School I was pretty hard to handle. When I was a Senior five of us had to plead with teachers to let us come to class so we could graduate. One of the teachers that determined we could go to her class was the business teacher at the school....she said we could take her type class---if, and only if, we learned to type. We all laughed about it at the time and took the class with all girls except for the five of us. We were a little nervous because at that time BOYS did not type---not at school and not at work.

We (all five of us) were pretty nervous about all of this. The other classes we managed to convince the teachers they needed to let us participate were all going to be push overs---you know---the wrestling coach---the basketball coach---the shop teacher (this was also the year that we convinced a teacher that the five of us needed to take advanced chemistry but that's another story). We all knew we could graduate if we passed all our classes and we had no doubt we could pass them all except for TYPE. One of the five of us had been involved in a horse play shop accident our Junior year and had lost the ring and little finger on his left hand. Needless to say he was really worried about how he was going to type with just two fingers and a thumb. The teacher started him on a really nice electric typewriter and he did extremely well. About half way through the first quarter he was typing over a hundred words per minute and smoking everyone on the tests---the smart girls included---and he was really smoking us who were supposed to be his friends---

We figured out pretty quickly that if he could do it we could do it too and so we all set out to master the keyboard. We all competed pretty well and the smart girls found out that BOYS could type---in fact they could type better than GIRLS because it was just repetition after you learned where your fingers should go. We all aced the class and went on to College and all five of us did OK in the real world after we graduated from College. It is always fun to see one of these guys when I go home. The five of us haven't been together at one time since we left High School---probably a good thing.

Last week in my office I was typing a letter when one of the people that works for me came to the door and stood watching for a minute. After a minute he exclaimed "you type pretty good for an old guy." We laughed and I told him that I had never regretted weaseling my way into a TYPE class in high school so that I could graduate and being forced to learn to TYPE to get enough credits to make it out of school.

Why this post you ask? Or maybe you don't ask but I'll tell you anyway. Today at the end of the church service I was talking to a couple of old friends and I saw my TYPE teacher in the back of the chapel. You need to understand that it will be 43 years since I graduated in a couple of months. She isn't an old shriveled teacher looking lady and still looks way younger than her years but she was trying to get through the crowd and out the door. I walked up to her and gave her a hug and told her that she was one of five teachers that had had a profound impact on me. She laughed and said---"YOU WOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT FORTY YEARS AGO."

I told her no I wouldn't have but at that time no one would have ever believed that there would be a key board and computer on every desk in the work place. I also told her that being able to type was one of the skills that set me apart and ahead of most of the people that I was competing with for advancements.

She laughed and said "NO ONE WOULD HAVE EVER GUESSED THAT MY TAKING FIVE BOYS INTO AN ALL GIRL CLASS WOULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING OTHER THAN GET YOU GUYS OUT OF SCHOOL." She also said that she never again had five boys in her classes that were all in the top ten in the class. She said "It really was a good thing that I took you guys in. I always knew you would grow up---eventually."

DAMN IT WAS GOOD TO TALK TO HER AND TELL HER HOW MUCH I APPRECIATED HER HELP IN GETTING ME RAISED.

Hillary Clinton once said "It takes a village to raise a child." That is certainly true in this instance and I count myself blessed by all those that chose to help raise me.