MR. KERN

Mr. Kern (Dave) was the 8th grade English teacher at L.B. Clarke. He had short, red, curly hair. He also loved to suck on toothpicks - all the time!

Mr. Kern and I pretty much had a hate/hate relationship with each other. Almost from day one, he took an immediate dislike to me. I'd be lying if I said the feeling wasn't mutual. It wasn't bad all the time though. From time to time, he'd kid around with you. But there were plenty of times that I thought he was a total asshole as well.

Mr. Kern was also the detention monitor in 8th grade. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was probably kept after school with him more than 100 times that year. It wasn't all detentions though. At some point in the beginning of the second semester, I had failed to finish the first seven assignments or so. He then told me (in front of the entire class actually) that from that day forward, anytime I didn't finish an assignment, I had to come in after school. Actually, it wasn't a bad idea. More often than not, I ended up coming to see him after school. But at least I got my assignments done. It became a running joke actually. As he'd go around the room asking us for our grades, I'd say, "Not done." He'd then ask (more like confirm) "I'll see you tonight?" To which I'd reply, "Yep."

I can't recall what I'd done. But one day Kern got really mad at me and demanded my phone number so he could call my parents that evening. I gave him the wrong number. I must admit though, before the class was over, I went up to him and gave him my real number. That pissed him off even more though. He was furious that I'd even attempted to lie to him. Whatever.

Quite often during the year, Kern would have us use these really old textbooks that he kept in the closet in the back of his room. They had names in them dating back to the 1970-1971 school year. They were pretty beat up. They also had an interesting trend in a lot of them. If you paged through the books, you'd inevitably find something that says, "Go to page 67." Then when you went to that page, it'd say, "Go to page 114." This could go on for several pages. Once you reached the final page, there would be some sort of comment like, "Fuck you," or "Kern shoves that toothpick up his ass before putting it in his mouth." Brilliant... Of course I did some of that myself. I would have a trail of page numbers that would span 50 pages or so. In the end, I left some sort of clever message or vile poetry. Sometimes I would make a really long one, then not have it go anywhere. The last page would have nothing on it at all.

One day before class, Kern approached Kevin Dehne and I. He said, "Hey, I got a sniglet." For those who may not know, "sniglets" was a regular feature on HBO's "Not Necessarily The News." It was a segment hosted by comedian Rich Hall. It was basically a comedy segment about new words. He would name a word, then describe its meaning. The two I remember are "Carperpetuation" - which is the act of vacuuming something, (like a long thread) not having the vacuum suck it up, picking up the item, looking at it, then setting it back on the floor to try and suck it up again. The other one I remember was "lactomangulation" - the act of opening your milk carton on the "wrong side." Anyway, Kern's sniglet was "ruglump" - the act of stumbling on the carpet, then kicking the spot with your foot. The spot was the "ruglump." Kevin and I sort of snickered. Kern just shrugged his shoulders. His reaction was funnier than the sniglet.

See my entries on Kevin Dehne and Nick Novachek for a few more stories about Kern.

One day in the gym, after lunch, my friend Greg Flemal and I were screwing around on the bleachers. We were sitting down, but were sort of shoving each other back and forth. We weren't fighting or anything like that. We were just being slightly rowdy. Anyway, Kern comes over and give me five detentions. How many did Greg get? Zero! What the fuck?????? Yeah, don't tell me teachers don't play favorite (or anti-favorite) sometimes. I was so pissed about that. I'm pissed off now actually. Fuck him!

One day I came back to school after missing a day for being sick. Kern told me to get the notes from the previous day from someone else. I asked a few people. But no one had them. I told Kern that I can't find the notes. So he made me walk up and down the rows, asking everyone in class, until someone let me borrow their notes. It was sort of funny. But I had to ask about 10 people before someone actually had them. Thank you Beth Sullivan! I got the impression that Kern was less than thrilled that no one had taken notes from the previous day.

One day Kern busted me for running to the hot lunch line. He told me to go back to my locker, then start over. By that time, the lunch line would have been long. I didn't feel like doing that. So instead, I grabbed my coat and went home for lunch. I think Kern was mad that I had one-upped him. So what did he do? He approached me after lunch and said that I didn't have permission to go home. Then he gave me two detentions! I say again... what the fuck?????

During class, it was common that kids would go up to Kern's desk when they got stuck on something. A small line would form around his desk. Well one day my friend Mark Schreiber went up there. So I decided to go up with him. As I walked up to him, I poked him with my pen. Mark thought he'd be funny. So he shouted, "Ahhhh!" I certainly didn't poke him hard enough to warrant that response. In my mind I was thinking, "Thanks Mark..." Kern had an unusual delayed reaction. But about five seconds later, he put his pen down, looked up at me, then to Mark, and said, "Did he poke you?" I could tell that he was beyond furious. Mark quietly replied, "Yes." I could tell by Mark's reaction that he was sorry for getting me in trouble. Kern then said, "Put your stuff down and come with me." He then walked around to the backroom. As I followed him, Brenda Dax smiled at me, then leaned back against the wall, trying to hear what was about to be said.

As I stepped into the backroom, Kern grabbed me by the face, dug his hand in my chin, and violently rammed me into the wall. Then with fury in his eyes, he got right in my face and said, "I'd like to beat the shit out of you. But I can't. I'd lose my job. But I hope you say the wrong thing to the wrong person, and they go out and beat the shit out of you." He then went on for a little while longer, letting me know that he was demanding a conference with one of my parents. When he was finished, he pulled me from the wall, then threw me into a desk that was back there. He literally threw me so hard that the top of the desk broke off. He then informed me that I was to remain in that desk for the rest of the period.

Wow! To say I was a bit startled is an understatement. Anyway, about 20 minutes later, the bell rang. I calmly walked out, then realized that my pen was still up on Kern's desk. It was the only pen I had. So I had to get it. So I put on my best cocky smirk, waltzed up to his desk, and said, "Can I have my pen back?" Kern looked at me as if he were shocked that I'd had the balls to approach him. He looked around, found it, then said, "Is this your pen?" After I'd confirmed it, he tossed it to me and said, "Boy, you've got guts." As I turned my back on him, I had the biggest shit-eating grin on my face you can imagine. I was so proud!

So a week later, a conference was scheduled with my dad. Now backtrack a few weeks. Kevin Dehne had been in a similar situation. Kern had demanded a conference with one of his parents too. Kevin told me that when his mom came in to meet with him, the first thing Kern did was dump out a large paper grocery bag of papers and stuff, and declared, "This is what Kevin has been doing since I called you." Apparently Kern kept a diary of Kevin's every move during the days leading up to his meeting with Kevin's mom. If Kevin threw a piece of paper away, Kern snatched it out of the garbage. Thanks to Kevin, I knew all of this.

For the next few days, I had a few spies - Kevin, Mark and Ron Gretz for example. They would go up to Kern's desk and ask a question about their assignment. And they'd see Kern's "diary' on me. So I knew he was keeping tabs on me. And I do know that one day when Ron and I were passing notes, he wrote that down. And he even fished our notes out of the garbage when were done. So one day in detention, I decided to play a trick on him. Knowing he was watching me like a hawk, I took out a piece of paper and began drawing a huge figure eight on it. Then at some point, I crinkled it up and threw it in the garbage - or so he thought. I actually went up to the garbage can by his desk. It was after school, so it was pretty full. I leaned down, put my hand over the can, but held onto the paper instead of dropping it. From Kern's vantage point on the other side of the desk, he was unable to see the garbage can. About 10 minutes later (a delayed tactic in order not to be obvious) Kern grabbed the garbage can and began to look through it. He literally uncrinkled dozens of papers, in a vain effort to locate my figure eight. Of course he never found it. And I'm pretty sure he realized it. Because after several minutes of looking, he shot me the most evil-eyed look you can possibly imagine. It took every square ounce of my being not to burst out laughing.

So anyway, a few days later my dad showed up for this conference. And Kern went off on my dad! He kept saying stuff like, "If he was my kid..." He repeated this several times. My dad was getting angry at this point. And he looked at Kern and said, "Do you want him for a few days?" Kern sheepishly said no, and then was respectful for the rest of the meeting. Way to go dad!

I'm going to digress a bit here. A few years later, I became best friends with Richard Wheeler. For years, Richard had been best friends with Mr. Kern's son - class of 1990's John Kern. It was odd. Richard was friends with John. Richard's sister Kathleen (class of 1987) was friends with John's sister Jennifer (class of 1988). Richard's mom was friends with Mr. Kern's wife. And Mr. Kern was friends with Mr. Wheeler - Richard's dad. I want to say that the Wheelers and the Kerns all sort of went their respective separate ways sometime around the time I was in 7th grade. But anyway, Richard always had a ton of stories about the Kerns. By high school, Richard despised everything Kern-related. He'd make fun of them all the time. He had some good stories about John. For one, John had once believed that he was some sort of psychic mindreader. Richard was able to prove to him that he wasn't. He also told me a story of how John once crushed a Christmas tree ball in his hand - which required a doctor's visit and stitches. He also said that he had slept over at John's house once, and had accidentally caught a glimpse of Mr. Kern's bare butt in the bathroom the next morning. Apparently someone opened the door on him as he was getting out of the shower. Richard said it was "big and red."

At some point during that school year, John Kern got suspended from school for getting into a fight with my fellow classmate, Shawn Pickard. For the rest of that day, people were saying that we should all stay away from Mr. Kern that day, as he was no doubt furious over his own kid being in trouble.

Speaking of John Kern, I have a story on him. Since I'm writing about his father, this seems as good a place as any. And it is school related. During my senior year, I came back from lunch, and was headed back to my seat in study hall, next to my friend Dave Svatek. Well, John happened to be in the room ahead of me. And he apparently had something to talk to Dave about. He was leaning into my seat. So when I got over to him, I tapped him and motioned for him to move. He didn't. In fact, he completely ignored me, as if I wasn't even there. I remained calm. And a few seconds later, John left. But I was pissed - much more pissed than I should have been. But I was pissed nonetheless. I felt that he had no right to ignore me like that. Who the hell was he anyway? So what could I do? Well, if you read my entry on Brad Strouf, you'll see that I got some revenge on him by spreading my own feces on his front porch. But that was when I was in 6th grade. Now I was a senior, and 17-years-old. But I was immature as well. A repeat of history seemed to be in order.

So I enlisted the help of Scott Jaklin. I had him write a page-long letter to John, telling him how much of an asshole he was. It wasn't just a bitchfest. It was well-written, and had legitimate arguments. At one point it said something like, "Since you like to shit on people, I'm going to shit on you." My plan was to take some dogshit and spread it all over his porch. Unfortunately, the night I chose was the coldest night of the year. It was literally 20 below zero. And all the dogshit was frozen. So... you can imagine what I did next. I was determined to follow through. So I produced my own sample, and used some newspaper to set it inside a paper bag. Then Scott joined me. It was about midnight on a Saturday night. Neither one of us drove. So we walked two miles from my house to John's. It was so fucking cold! But we did get there. I discovered that my turd had just about froze up over the walk. But I was able to spread it a little bit - using the newspaper of course. I then shoved the note in the front door. We then walked over to Jason Krings' house - who lived about five doors down from John. I had told him about my plan. He told me to stop by when I was done. The warmth would have been welcome. But he never answered the door. At one point, we went to Super America to try and call a cab. But no one answered at the cab company either. So we walked back home - a round trip of over four miles in blistering cold. A few days later, John approached Dave (they shared gym class together) and asked him if I had done it. Dave knew that I had. But he simply told John that he didn't know. John never once approached me about it. In fact, he's never gotten near me since. Incidentally, when I told Jason Krings that we'd done it, he told me that he assumed I would, and that he was going to go out that night to see my work. But he said it was too cold! Gee, I walked four miles. And he couldn't walk half a block!

As for Jennifer Kern, Richard had an interesting story on her too. Richard's mom worked in a doctors' office. One of her coworkers was the doctor who delivered both Jennifer and John. Well, just prior to Jennifer's 1988 graduation, her mom sent a long letter to the doctor. It said stuff like, "18 years ago you helped bring into this world a wonderful girl..." The letter rambled on and on about how great Jennifer was. It also ended with the line, "As for her younger brother John - he's a peach too." Needless to say, the doctor thought the letter was very, very weird. And of course he passed it around for the staff to look at, and laugh about. Richard's mom had a copy, and showed it to Richard - who of course brought it to school. We would have loved to have passed that around. But Richard's mom would have killed us. So until this blog today, that little story has not been told. Speaking of Jennifer, I believe she now lives on the east coast - possibly in Boston. And I even saw something from her where she listed a woman as her spouse. I know a lot of people assumed that Jennifer was in fact a lesbian. I guess she's confirmed it publically too. So I'm not telling tales here. I believe Jennifer and her spouse are both doctors - or at least in the medical profession in some capacity.

When John and Richard parted ways, John began hanging around with class of 1990's Todd Wegner. They seemed like an odd pair. At some point during either during my junior or senior year, John began to carry a briefcase to school. He was of course the ONLY student to ever take a briefcase to school. Jesus, what was wrong with him? Of course shortly thereafter, his buddy Todd became the second (and last) person to bring a briefcase to school. Todd appeared to worship John. In fact, Richard said that Todd was the one who helped convince John that he was a psychic mindreader. About 10 years ago, I somehow tracked down Todd Wegner. He was living in Appleton. Meff and I prank called him at 2:00 in the morning. I grilled him about why he worshipped John. He claimed no knowledge of what I was talking about. Finally after several minutes, his wife started screaming at him about arguing with total strangers in the middle of the night. So she made him hang up. Incidentally, today John is an attorney in San Francisco. I don't believe he's ever married. But I could be wrong.

Anyway, back to Mr. Kern. For several weeks, he would show World War II movies after school during detention. The kids loved this. I think Kern was doing some sort of project that required him to watch a bunch of these films. Sometimes I'd get sidetracked from my asignment, and get hooked on "Tora, Tora, Tora" also. Kern would yell at me if he caught me watching. Remember, I was there to do my school work, not to sit in detention.

One day after school, Kern and I had been verbally going at it quite a bit. I was pissed. He was pissed. It was ugly. He had already dismissed all of the students from detention. It was just me and him. At one point, I had the assignment done. But it wasn't presented on the paper correctly. Kern had some sort of bizarre set of rules regarding how everyone's paper was supposed to be. We could only use 25 lines of the sheet. Not only couldn't we use the bottom line that was usually partially cut off. But we also couldn't use the line above it. Plus when we were doing sentence structure identification stuff, he insisted that we fold our paper in a certain way. He had some sort of exact science about it. If you deviated from it, you were in trouble. Anyway, he made me do it over. If you reread my entry on Mrs. Casey, you'll know I don't take kindly to doing assignments over again, simply because the teacher doesn't like me. So I ended up starting to do it over. But I purposely made it really large and messy. Knowing he'd be pissed, I called him over to look at it. I asked him, "Now what do I do?" He glanced at my paper, then said, "Now you pull down your pants and shit on it. Then you blow your nose on it. Then you take your finger and rub it all around. And when you're all done, it won't look any worse than it does right now." He was very angry. But believe it or not, it was actually 5:00. Yes, he kept me that late that day. He then told me to simply leave. I don't believe I ever redid that assignment.

On the last day of school, Kern gave us a spelling test. Why? Who knows. We'd already gotten our report cards. So there was no point. I had no paper. So he made me come after school to take the test. He even went to my 7th hour class to make sure I didn't duck out. When I got to detention, I refused to take the test. We began to argue. Troy Rezachek (who also was in detention) watched the whole thing. At one point, I began to walk away. He yelled at me to return - which I did. I honestly would have left, save for one reason. I had two glass pieces in my locker from the candle sconces I'd made in Mr. Ashenbrenner's class. And I didn't think I could safely get to my locker, retrieve them, and get out of school without Kern nabbing me. So after maybe 20 minutes, I gave in and took the damn test. Then I left without incident. So my very last day at L.B. Clarke school, I was in detention. How fitting.

I saw Kern a few times at the video store. By that time my rage for him has disappeared. We were always cordial to one another. I'm not sure when Kern retired. But I think it's been awhile now. He and his wife have left Wisconsin, and now live in Arizona.

UPDATE - 6/4/07 - No, it's not Mr. Kern. But it is a photo of his son John. Interestingly, one of his fellow class of 1990 members sent me this little tidbit about 10 days ago.

"For our graduation John gave a speech. The theme was, "Think globally, act locally". He was really heated and kept repeating this mantra. By the end he was practically screaming it. I think the crowd was a little taken aback. My sister still talks about it when his name comes up. Very weird."

Good stuff! Very funny! In Meff's comments about Mr. Kern, he mentioned a phenomenon called "Kern-mania." That graduation speech sounds like Kern-mania at its finest. I'd love to have a copy of it.

UPDATE - JOHN STELTZ (AND AGAIN) & RANDY ERTMAN

I got a nice E-mail from John today. You can see it in his entry. I wrote him back and encouraged him to login himself and leave some comments. So maybe he will.

Enjoy!

UPDATE #2 - John has indeed signed in. He's already left a comment for Shawn Mehlhorn and Erin Hynek. He's also given me the ok to post his E-mail address. So if anyone wants to write to John, I've put his E-mail address in his entry.

As for Randy, I have a very brief update, courtesy of Jenny Malley.

GO SEE GREG

Sat., Dec 2, 7:30pm

at

THE SANDS: On Holmgren Way, across from Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI

Greg Pagel, keys
John Salerno, sax/flute
Craig Hanke, bass
Terry Iattoni, drums

with
Dino Bilotti, voice

NO COVER!

PRIDE

I enjoy writing. It's something I think I'm fairly good at. Prior to this blog, I hadn't done any sort of creative writing in years - not since my senior year in college, when I wrote for UWGB's newspaper.

I missed it.

My pal Meff on the otherhand (a very good writer in his own write) - ha! Get it? "In his own "write?" Anyway, he has been writing for roughly 15 years. If you've read my entry on him, you'll know what I'm talking about. For years, he's had the hopes and dreams of breaking into the film business - on the writing side of things. Granted, this is a very tough thing to do - especially here in Wisconsin. The odds of breaking into the business in Hollywood is tough enough. Trying to do it in Milwaukee might be impossible.

Anyway, not long ago, a small time director (who does have a film under his belt) that Meff knows, asked him to write a script for a horror film. Meff said sure. Meff also enlisted my help to write some scenes - specifically some of the gory ones. I said sure.

Well, the director loved it. The director also (allegedly) has some financial backers ready to shoot this low-budget flick, possibly this spring.

Will it happen? Who knows. I believe Meff has been through this a couple of times in the past, and nothing has come of it. But I do know this much. A contract has been signed. And when (or if) the financing comes through, Meff and I will get paid for the writing. It's not $1,000,000 or anything. But it's nice, nonetheless. Plus we'll also share in a "back end deal" when (and if) this film makes any money.

Is this exciting? Sure! Will it come to be? I hope so. All you need is a foot in the door. Like I said, Meff has been through this a couple of times before. But I haven't. So I'm bubbling with pride - even though despite our 50/50 agreement, Meff probably did about 75% of the writing. But now there's talk of doing more. So hopefully that 70/30 work split can even itself out to a 50/50 split. I would like that. I'm excited, and want to do more.

Anyway, it's been a fun week. Tonight the family and I are driving to Sioux Falls, SD. Tomorrow we'll then be driving up to Fargo, ND. Then on Sunday, we'll drive back home. It's our little Dakota mini-vacation.

UPDATES - MANY PEOPLE

I got a few E-mails from someone in the last few days. This person would like to remain anonymous. So I just copied and pasted the information I got into the entries of the people this person knew. So you can now find some updates on Kief Giblin, Wade Wachholz, Trey Schenk, Dawn Debot and Pete Soucoup. The update on Pete is classic!

Enjoy!

JEFF & BRENDA GORDON - YOUTUBE

GREG PAGEL - YOUTUBE

This is the very first footage from trip #1. This clip is actually me picking up Kevin , followed by a brief glimpse of Greg.

KURT PSENICKA - YOUTUBE

MARKUS PETKEVICIUS - YOUTUBE

MEETING CARRIE COLLARD - YOUTUBE

WELCOME - NATE WALKNER

In my previous entry, I mentioned that my blog got mentioned on the message board of the Herald Times Reporter. The person who notified me of that was a fellow by the name of Nate Walkner - a former Two Rivers resident who graduated from Roncalli in 1994.

Apparently wanting to set a record for most comments left in one day, Nate has already left comments for Toby Schwartz, Jenny Dent, Scott Gauthier, Brian Klein, Chad Bennin, Kief Giblin, Patti Malley, Mike Zeman, Carroll Sturm, Tim Koeser, Dave Svatek, Larry Daffner, Lee Jacquart and Mr. Leinss. I know he has additional memories of Laura Fowler as well. So there may be more comments to come.

Welcome Nate!

In other comment news, I left one for Meff (Jeff Messerman) yesterday. Although it was more of a reply to Greg Pagel's comment.

A LITTLE PUBLICITY

Earlier today, I was alerted to a message board on the Herald Times Reporter's website. Yesterday someone posted a message about my blog. I'm flattered! Of course why do I suddenly have this strange feling that it's now only a matter of time before I get a nasty letter from Mr. Wood's attorneys?

Anyway, check it out!

HTR FORUMS

1989 BLOG POST

UPDATE - BECKY PRAUSA

I got a pretty good-sized update on her. I also have a family photo. It's in her entry.

Enjoy!

UPDATE - MR. LEINSS

I got an E-mail this morning with an update on Mr. Leinss. I put it in his entry.

PAULA JONAS - YOUTUBE

BOB PILZAK - YOUTUBE

LORI WAVRUNEK - YOUTUBE

MR. LEINSS

Mr. Leinss (Ken?) was the study hall "teacher" at Washington High School during my senior year. As far as I know, that was his only duty.

Due to the fact that I had failed a lot of classes during my freshman and sophomore years, I hadn't had a study hall since my first year in high school. So having it back was a welcome diversion.

I had study hall during 4th hour. As was the case for most of my high school career, I had lunch B. So our lunch break divided study hall. My friends Dave Svatek and class of 1990's Jason Krings were in there as well. So we sat together, in the back. Class of 1990's Sally Graczykowski sat in front of us. For awhile, Jason and I used to go to the library and borrow the New York Times. We would then sit and do the crossword puzzle together. It was hard. But we were pretty good at it. Mr. Leinss thought the two of us doing the crossword puzzle was the funniest thing. I'm not sure why.

I have an odd memory from the first week of school. In that study hall, a girl went around with a piece of paper. Everyone in there was to write down their name. This girl would then walk up and down the rows, and write down our names on a seating chart that Leinss had made. I had a strange plan. I sat between David and Jason. Some other meek kid sat on the other side of Jason. I need four people. After this kid had written his name, I had Jason grab the kid's paper. I then wrote underneath his name, "You cannot reach me now." Then underneath Jason's name (on his paper) I wrote, "No matter how you try." On my paper, I wrote, "Goodbye cruel world - it's over." Then on David's I wrote, "Walk on by." What does it all mean? I have no idea. But it's the opening lyrics to Pink Floyd's "Wating For The Worms." What did this have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing. But Jason and I were amused. When the girl came by to write our names down, she was completely confused by our cryptic message. And Jason and I got a good laugh. Ah... complete nonsense. I love it!

I had a brief, unpleasant encounter with class of 1990's John Kern in that study hall. When I write about his father (L.B. Clarke's Mr. Kern) I'll mention it.

I always got along with Mr. Leinss. He was a nice enough guy. Although I don't think he was highly regarded by the majority of the student body.

I only had one "incident" with Mr. Leinss. It was in the second semester. In addition to my 4th hour study hall, I also had one in the afternoon. In the first semester, I had it during 7th hour - which was the last class period in the day. I used to get a pass to go to the library or the guidance office. There was just more freedom there. After a few weeks, it dawned on me that there was nothing preventing me from simply going home. So I did just that - every single day. In the second semester, my study hall was in 6th hour instead. For 7th hour, I had Mr. Schwantes. So before the semester even started, I asked Schwantes if I could switch classes. He taught the same class during 6th hour as well. He was cool with that. So I got my 7th hour study hall back. And thus, I got to leave school 52 minutes early everyday.

At some point in April, my guidance counselor, Mr. Boehlke wanted to see me for some reason. He looked in study hall. He looked in the library. He looked everywhere but the city streets - where I was. Once it was discovered that I was missing, I was busted. Mr. Wood gave me two detentions - the only detentions I received during my junior and senior years, if you can believe that. And Leinss was mad. He thought I'd made a fool out of him by ducking out of school all year long. So from that point on, if I left study hall again, I had to come back and see him after school - just so he could verify that I had indeed stayed in school, and had not left and gone home early. In reality, that verification process lasted about a week. Then he simply forgot about it. So I started going home again. I was able to go the rest of the year without getting caught.

I ran into Mr. Leinss a few times at the video store. In fact, he is the only ex-teacher that I ever rented porn too. I don't think he was a "regular" or anything. But he did rent it on occasion. I think enough time had passed that he didn't recognize me anymore. I recognized him though! Truth be told, I rented adult movies to thousands of Two Rivers residents.

I have no idea where Leinss is today. I wouldn't be surprised if he's retired. But who knows.

UPDATE - 11/21/06 - I've just been informed that Mr. Leinss is married, and resides in Two Rivers. He apparently is the manager of the local Kwik Trip.

UPDATE - MINDY MOORE

"New" people continue to find me. This morning I got a very nice E-mail from Mindy Moore. I have since updated her entry. She also sent me four pictures. She's also promised to send me a few pictures from her mini-reunion nine days ago. When I get them, I'll post them here. Until then, check out Mindy's entry for the update and family photos.

Enjoy!

MRS. FISCHER

Mrs. Fischer was the French teacher at Washington High School. She also taught some English courses as well.

Fischer was a younger teacher - perhaps even in her late-20's when I entered high school. I had her for French class during 4th hour. I found her to be one of the nicest teachers I'd ever had.

As I recall, Mrs. Fischer wore the type of glasses that "curved upward" on the sides. It gave her a sort of stereotypical "librarian" look.

French class was a mixture of all grades - freshmen through seniors. I recall that she told us that at that time, the high school only offered two years of French, as opposed to the four years of Spanish. But she was hoping that coinciding with our class, they would offer a third and fourth year. I believe her wish came true.

I enjoyed French class for awhile. It was sort of interesting learning another language. But I also recall feeling terribly shy and withdrawn in that class. Perhaps it was the ever presence of juniors and seniors in there as well. I just felt intimidated. I'm trying to recall what other freshmen were in there. But the only ones I can remember are Robin Richmond and Jason Anderson - two people I didn't particularly care for. Jodi LeClair may have been in there as well. I don't know. All I know is that I was a virtual mute in that class for the entire year.

One thing that does stand out from that class is a senior by the name of Sarah Noll. She may have been the daughter of Mr. Noll, the drivers' education teacher. But I don't know that for sure. Anyway, I was totally smitten by this girl. She sat across from me for most of the year. She was a major hottie. Her senior picture does not do her justice at all. And believe it or not, early in the year, she actually asked me for a picture. And what's even more hard to believe is that she wasn't even teasing me or being mean. She seriously wanted a picture. Was it a romantic thing? I hardly think so. She had a boyfriend named George. I think she was just being friendly.

Since I brought her up, I do have another memory of Sarah Noll. In that same French class was another senior named Shawntel Hooper. She and Sarah were best friends. They were also cheerleaders. And the two of them had an interesting little ritual. We had French class during 4th hour. And we had lunch B - which divided our class. Well, during lunch, Mrs. Fischer would leave, and lock her door. Therefore, when we came back from lunch, we usually had to stand around and wait for a minute or two, until Fischer came back and let us in. Fischer's classroom was right next to the stairs. Well, on the days that Sarah and Shawntel were in their cheerleader outfits, they would stand up against the window to the stairwell, lift their skirts and press their butts against the window - essentially putting on a show for anyone walking up and down the stairs. Please note, they weren't showing off their bare butts, or even their underwear. They did have their cheerleader shorts - or whatever the hell you call them, on underneath. Nonetheless, it was a nice view, to be sure. One day Fischer actually caught them doing it, and in a confused voice said, "What are you doing???" The two of them just pulled away and giggled. I think Fischer sort of shook her held in bewilderment.

As the year progressed, I sort of got lost in her class. She did a lot of stuff on the board. And I was blind as a bat. So I missed a lot. Oh yes, I'd had glasses since first grade. But would I wear them? Hell no! I got contact lenses during my junior year. I had lasik surgery in 2002. But both of those events couldn't help me in freshman year French class. I may have gotten a B for the first quarter. But I think I got C's and D's the rest of the way.

Sometime around Christmas, Mrs. Fischer (in French) told us about some sort of ordeal she'd had getting her family's Christmas tree up in their house. When she was all done telling it, she asked someone to interpret what she'd said. Jason Anderson answered. Thankfully she then described the story again - this time in English.

I recall another story she told us. It was something about her husband putting his shoes in the refrigerator. I can't recall the details on that one. Although I'm not sure I want to either.

Sometime during the school year, she brought in a French foreign exchange student that we had in school. Fischer told us that the girl was really shy or something. I got the impression that she really had to twist this girl's arm to come and speak to our class. Prior to her coming, Fischer metnioned that the girl was cutting her stay short, and was heading back to France. Some student (perhaps class of 1986's Dan Peterson - brother of 1989 graduate Shane) asked why she was leaving. Fischer sort of paused, then said, "Don't ask her that." The girl did come and speak to our class. And she seemed quite at ease actually.

In the spring of 1986, we had the Foreign Language Fair. This is something that the high school puts on every year. And every Spanish and French student has to contribute some sort of project. I ended up doing some really lame report on the Statue Of Liberty - which was a gift from the French. I slopped it together at the last minute. Since it wasn't really a "project" Mrs. Fischer said she couldn't display it at the fair - which I was happy about, since it was embarrassing anyway. But she did accept is as an assignment.

Also that spring I had some sort of freshman language course with Fischer. I felt much more at ease in there. I sat next to Bob Schmidt for the semester. Cindy Rohrer and Chris Thee shared the table in front of us. He and I got along pretty good. Jay Jiminez (a junior who had failed the class as a freshman) sat at the table behind me. He was an asshole. Because I often wore white T-shirts, he'd call me "Whitey." However, during the last two weeks of school, he was really nice to me. Why? Because I'd gotten into trouble with that whole ceiling tile incident. And he was impressed by that. Incidentaly, Jay died several years ago. I'm not sure what happened to him. Kevin Dehne found out what happened. But in his own words, he was very drunk when he was told the circumstances. And today he can't remember any of the details.

Other people in that class were Chip Pelnar, Mark Gordon, Rod Lumaye, Ben Franco, Jeff Bodwin, Ken Bartz, Jeff (Meff) Messerman and Kim Nokes. See my entries on Ben, Mark, Ken, Meff, and Bob Schmidt for other stories from that class.

A few times during the semester, we had to give speeches. I recall that Rod Lumaye must have been very nervous or something prior to one of his speeches. Because his shirt was soaked in the armpit area. It was so wet that people all around him noticed - and whispered about. I felt sorry for Rod - for I could relate. I too had that problem from time to time. Thankfully with time, that problem has completely vanished for me. Perhaps it has with Rod too.

At some point, Mrs. Fischer gave us a simple assignment - describe how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The next day, she brought in the necessary ingrediants and the proper untensils to do it. She then read some of the papers - and followed the instructions 100% literally. The results were pretty funny. For instance, when one of the papers said, "put the peanut butter on one slice of bread," Fischer set the jar on top of the bread. In the end, only one or two of the papers had specific instructions on how to do it properly. When it was all said and done, she invited people to come up and take the seven or eight sandwiches she'd made. I recall Jeff Bodwin grabbing one. Ken Bartz also grabbed one. But Ken ended up grabbing one that had nothing on it.

One day Mrs. Fischer passed out a potato to everyone in the class. She instructed us to write a creative story about the potato. She read some of them in class. I remember Meff's story being about the fact that his potato was upset at his appearance, and he planned to jump onto a knife, ending it all. Anyway, on that day, Jay Jiminez somehow got a hold of Ben Franco's potato, and broke it in two. I kid you not, Mrs. Fischer crouched down next to Jay, and told him that the next day, he had to bring a new potato to class. He laughed and said, "Are you serious?" She was. He never actually did bring a replacement potato in. I have no idea what repercussions (if any) he received.

In my sophomore year, I took French II. I was equally as lost. I'm not sure why I took it. But I did. Although this time I didn't feel quite so awkward in there. I sat next to clas of 1988's Richard Tess for most of the year. Pete Flora and Jenny Malley were also in that class. See Pete's entry for a brief encounter I had with them.

See my entry on Ms. Neveau for a junior year encounter with Mrs. Fischer.

After my sophomore year, I didn't have Mrs. Fischer in a class again. After high school, she ended up divorcing at some point. Her ex-husband was involved in local politics in some capacity. I saw her several times at the video store. I rented to her and her daughters quite a bit. They were always very nice. At some point in the early-1990's, there was an article in the paper about one of her daughters. I believe she had some sort of cancer. It may have been leukemia. I remember asking her about her daughter, and she said that she was doing great. So hopefully all is well. Since I moved away from the Manitowoc area, Mrs. Fischer is the only teacher I have come in contact with - pre-blog anyway. I saw her at Walmart back in 1999 or 2000. I was with my wife (or perhaps fiance at the time). She remembered me. She even hugged me - the first teacher to EVER hug me. I think she even hugged my wife too. That was interesting. She was still very nice.

Today Mrs. Fischer is remarried, and is now known as Mrs. Charles. And she still teaches at the high school.

MR FRANKO

Mr. Franko (Phil) was the health teacher at Washington High School. He started teaching there in the 1987-1988 school year - my junior year.

Franko had an "all American boy" look. I believe he hailed from Canada actually. Prior to getting into teaching, Franko played minor league baseball in the MInnesota Twins' organization. In fact, I remember him telling us a nasty story of how one of his teammates slid into second base, and somehow snapped his leg. Franko said the bone had actually punctured the skin, and was sticking straight up. I remember Richard Wheeeler laughed, and pretending he was a doctor at the scene, said, "Yep, it's broke all right."

When the class first started, Franko didn't have his own room. So the school shuffled him around from one room to another each class period. I think my class was originally on the first floor, in Mrs. Pohlman's room. But after several weeks, Franko found a permanent home up on the third floor, in a room above the library.

Franko was a decent guy. He seemed to get along with the students for the most part. I kind of figured him to be a bit of a pushover, based on his recent arrival. But he wasn't. He was pretty good at maintaining control and keeping everyone in line. He and I did get into a situation once though.

I had health class during 4th hour. The class had lunch B - which meant that the class was interrupted by our lunch break. Well one day after lunch, I was sort of milling around in the back of the room, as people began filing into their seats. Then the bell rang. I immediately began to walk back to my seat, when Franko said, "Burt, go to the office and get a detention." I didn't understand what he was talking about. So I argued with him. I kept insisting that I wasn't late - which I wasn't. I was in class. But he was mad that I hadn't taken my seat prior to the bell ringing. Whatever the case was, he forced me to leave. I was pissed. There was no way I was going to get a detention over this.

I didn't go to the office. Instead, I wandered around the hallways for about 10 minutes. I thought about leaving and walking home. But that made little sense. (Although five years earlier, with Mrs. Casey, it made sense to me). Finally I decided on an "adult" solution. So I walked back up to Franko's class. The door was closed, and he was teaching. I just knocked on the door. Franko sent Randy Klein to answer it. Randy came out and seemed somewhat confused. (NOTE: If you read my entry on Randy, you'll see that he informed me that during lunch that year, he smoked pot nearly everyday. So Randy being confused is not unusual). Anyway, I told him to send Franko in the hall. Franko came out. And I apologized to him. He was under the impression that I was "showing him up" by not taking my seat right away. But in all honesty, I was doing no such thing. He accepted my apology, and let me back in the room. Is avoiding a detention worth an apology? You bet! Later on, Richard chided me for apologizing to him. But hey, staying after school sucked.

One day Franko brought a guest to class. He was a local cop. We were learning about drugs. So the cop brought along his display case full of narcotics. He even had some marijuana - which he promptly lit, so we could smell it. I remember Jenny Malley catching a wiff of it, and getting a repulsed look on her face. I also remember Randy Klein smelling it and saying, "Yep, that smells familiar."

I never did too well in health class. I think I scraped by with C's and D's. But I passed. That was the most important thing.

Something tells me Franko coached tennis. But I might be wrong about that. He may have also helped out with football and softball.

I ran into Franko a couple of times at the video store. I don't think he recalled who I was.

In 2002, some Green Bay area educators received certification in the Institute for Learning Partnership's Professional Development Certificate (PDC) program. I'm not sure what that means. But it looks like it's a big deal. Anyway, Mr. Franko was certified.

Today Franko is still teaching health at the high school. I believe he and his wife have had three kids. As far as I know, he still lives in Two Rivers.

UPDATE - TREESA CARRON

Treesa sent me two pictures - one of her and her puppy, the other of her son. You can see them in her entry. Thanks Treesa!

SHANNON ALMAND - YOUTUBE

Shannon didn't want her picture taken. But Kevin had the camcorder going. So what the hell. This is a small portion of our conversation with her.

UPDATES

What a week it's been. This morning, out of the blue, I got an E-mail from Dave Svatek. He discovered the blog this morning, and decided to wrote to me. His E-mail, along with a picture of his kids, can be seen in his entry.

I also received an E-mail from Stan Conrad - someone who I'd had no contact with since high school. He said I'd done a great job on the blog. How he came to discover the blog, I don't know.

The "missed opportunity" I wrote about on Monday involved Becky Prausa, Mindy Moore, Becky Monka, Lisa Pauze, and Shannon Koch. It turns out that during their attempts to reach me this past Saturday night, they actually ended up calling Lisa Koch's husband - who they thought was me. They said "Burt." He said, "yes" thinking they'd said "Brett" - which is his name. Mass confusion ensued. The entire chain of events is too difficult to explain. I'm just sorry I missed it all. But I've been E-mailing with Becky (Prausa). And she said she'd let me know when they have their next get together. So maybe I can crash the party. She also said she'd E-mail me some photos soon.

I had a phone number left for me from those girls. So I called it on Monday. It ended up being Mindy's voicemail. So I left her a message.

It's been a fun week.

MIKE POLICH & ANN RANK - YOUTUBE

UPDATE - LENNY LEWIS

I added a new photo of Lenny - as a firefighter.

Also, I added a link on the right side of the page for all the videos.

MEETING LENNY LEWIS - YOUTUBE

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

The E-mail account I have attached to this blog is not one that I check everyday. I usually check it during the week, but not the weekend. So this morning, I open up that E-mail and discovered that on Saturday night, I got two E-mails from five self-described "1989 chicks." Apparently they had gathered together for a mini-reunion at a bar/restaurant in Brookfield. And they were nice enough to invite me down to document the festivities.

This would have been a great photo/video opportunity. Four of the five "chicks" have yet to make an appearance on this blog in any form - comment or picture-wise. So I'm bummed out that I missed it. That would have been fun. Hopefully they'll get together again soon, and my invitation will still stand.

I did write back. So if by any chance some pictures were taken, and if they're willing to share them, I'll post them. Maybe they'll log in and leave some comments of their own. Who knows.

BARNEY'S CLUBHOUSE POW

As mentioned in my entry on Ross Remiker, here is a true blast from the past. Anyone who grew up in eastern Wisconsin, and was a kid back in 1980 or 1981 will undoubtedly remember Barney's Clubhouse Pow. Back in 1991 or so, I somehow found out that WLUK was going to have a "whatever happened to" news story about Barney. I'm glad I taped it. I searched and searched for the tape. And I found it today. Enjoy!

JASON ANDERSON & JEREMY KARMAN

This clip is from March, 1990. A week earlier I had purchased my first camcorder - one of those great big things you hold on your shoulder. Meff and I went out filming stuff. On this night, we were heading into Coppes when we suddenly heard our names called. As we were walking into the store, Jason and Jeremy (and two unidentified females) were walking out. Does anyone know who these girls are?

UPDATE - 11/13/06 - I've just been informed that the girl next to Jeremy is class of 1991's Brenda Lodel. Today she is known as Brenda Laurin - wife of fellow class of 1991 member, Jason Laurin. I believe she lives in Two Rivers. The girl with Jason is class of 1991's Tracy Sprang. Today Tracy is known as Tracy Vandrisse. If you're ever in Georgia, look her up.

VISITING KEN BARTZ PART 2 - YOUTUBE

VISITING KEN BARTZ - YOUTUBE

This file was too large to include into one Youtube clip. So this is part one.

GREG BURR - YOUTUBE

FINDING B.J. LUTTERMAN

From July 15th, 2006.

TINA SHORT & POOKIE BERGEON - YOUTUBE

Here's Tina, one of my favorite persons from the class of 1989. Joining her is Pookie.

JASON ANDERSON - YOUTUBE

THOMAS "GUSSIE G" HOLMES - YOUTUBE

DAVID DUVALL - YOUTUBE

LISA KOCH - YOUTUBE

Definitely in my top-5 list of prettiest girls I graduated with, even with the poofy 80's hair.

DREW KONOP & BRETT GRUETZMACHER

JENNY MALLEY & LISA KING

Damn, is that chick Jenny a hottie, or what? By the way, within 18 minutes of putting this video clip up, it had been watched a total of 83 times. Youtube keeps track of the viewings. Since the clip is too new to even be in Youtube's search engines yet, what that means is that one (or perhaps several) of my readers have watched this clip over and over again. And no, it wasn't me!

NA NA, HEY HEY, GOODBYE

Julie Landon, Kim Nokes and Kelli Kupsch perform a classic by Steam.

YOU'VE LOST IT

This is for my buddy Brad. By request, here are the Locker Room Boys - Brad Strouf, Wyatt Wood, Jeremy Karman, Ross Remiker, Jim Messman and Jeff Gordon.

CARRIE COLLARD - YOUTUBE

Look at this girl - too cute for words. I told you, she can't help but smile when she talks.

DAVE KANERA - YOUTUBE

YOUTUBE

I seem to have figured out the problem I was having. You wouldn't believe what I went through to find the information. Anyway, I will be putting the Youtube clips into the individual entries where they belong. I will of course let you know when new videos are put up.

I apologize for the quality of some of the clips. My VHS tape was very old, and on its last leg.

TRACY MESSMAN - YOUTUBE

LARRY DAFFNER - YOUTUBE

Yes, I think I have figured out how to get home video clips from VHS to DVD to the computer, then to the internet. It's no quick process, to be sure. Plus I'm going to have to edit a lot to get each person into their own little clips. But I am determined. It will be done.

Look for clips from the senior video, my own home movies, as well as all the videos from the two trips to visit classmates that Kevin and I made this past summer.

This should be a lot of fun. Here's Larry Daffner for starters.

MRS. CASEY

Mrs. Casey (Teresa) was my 6th grade teacher at L.B. Clarke. She is also the first teacher that I ever hated. I mean that sincerely. As scary as it sounds, I actually had visions of getting a gun and shooting her. At the time, I truly hated the woman. The feeling was mutual.

I had an odd relationship with Mrs. Casey. I think more than anything, I frustrated her. I didn't get into an over abundance of trouble in her class. But I was very combative and cocky. She and I just didn't see eye to eye on many issues.

See my entries on Randy Ertman and Ms. Maki for additional references to Mrs. Casey.

By late fall, Casey and I were butting heads on a regular basis. This usually resulted in me having to stay after school. Sometimes she would leave to go to the office and call my mom. She had my mom's work number memorized! It was usually just petty stuff. But the two of us had such a general dislike for each other, that our verbal barrages got really nasty sometimes.

On the second-to-last day before our Christmas break, I had done something to piss her off. So she kept me after school again. Whatever I had done, she was questioning me on. I simply sat in my desk with my arms crossed, and mumbled (in a mocking fashion) "I don't know" to everything she said. She was just fuming at me by this point. Finally she got up and said, "I'm going to go call your mother. And when I get back, you had better have some answers for me." I'd had enough of her. After she'd been gone for about a minute, I walked out, grabbed my coat, and went home. I was just as pissed off at her as she was at me. So I didn't even take any perverse pleasure from wondering what her reaction was going to be once she returned to her room and found me gone. Once I got outside, I ran into Trey Schenk. He walked with me. Of course with a fellow classmate, I had to put on the macho face, and brag about how I'd just skipped out on her. Trey thought it was funny.

That night, my mom questioned me about what had happened. She was well aware of the strained relationship I had with Mrs. Casey. She also knew that my relationship with her was so bad that it wasn't always my fault. Again, whatever happened that day was very petty. But my petty squabbles with Casey always escalated due to our combative natures. I told my mom that I skipped out on Casey too. She said I probably shouldn't have done that. Nonetheless, she wasn't mad at me.

The next day, we had a Christmas party planned in class. My mom had actually gone out and had purchased a small gift - perfume or something. I prefered to think of it as a bribe! I was not looking forward to crossing paths with her that day. But when I got into school, after I put my coat in my locker, I walked right up to her. Before school started, the teachers in the 6th grade wing usually hung out in the hallway talking with each other. I held out the gift and said, "I got a Christmas gift for you. Where should I put it?" She looked at me and said, "Why did you run out on me last night?" I simply shrugged my shoulders. She then said, "Put it by the tree. We'll talk about this later."

We never did. Sometimes it pays to bribe!

In February, Casey and I had another ugly confrontation. For two or three days, I wrote a small "newspaper" which I dubbed, "The Daily Schnozball." The purpose of my newspaper was basically to poke fun at Lori Wavrunek and Sara Prust. It was all good-natured though. Both Lori and Sara were aware of it, and didn't have a problem with it. But Mrs. Casey did. Casey actually praised me for the writing and the creativity. But she had a definite problem with the subject matter. So I had to be punished. Her punishment was to make me rewrite the whole thing. In essence, it was equivalent to writing something on the board 50 times. There was enough text in my newspapers that she felt rewriting them was a sufficient punishment. So she made me stay inside during our afternoon recess to do it. It took me the entire length of the recess to finish. Things got ugly when I handed it in to her. She looked at it and stated that it was "too messy." So she told me that I would have to do it all again. What??? I blew a gasket! Mrs. Casey didn't like me. I knew that. And it was quite clear to me that she was simply being mean, and picking on me. There was no way in hell I was going to rewrite it again. And I told her so. As the rest of the class was filing back into class after recess, they were entertained by a shouting match between her and I. I was really, really pissed off at her! The school day ended about an hour or so later. I of course had to stay after and rewrite it. I refused. I sat there with the paper on my desk, and told her point blank that I wasn't going to do it. Casey got angrier and angrier. Then she said something about me being the worst student she had ever had, and that she was going to have to call my mom again. I grabbed the paper, opened my desk, threw it inside, slammed it down as hard as I possibly could, and shouted, "Good!" Then I stood up and started to walk out. The last glimpse I had of her was seeing her shift in her seat, as she made a move to stop me. As she did so, she yelled out, "Come back here you little shit!" That marked the first (but not the last) time that a teacher ever swore at me. Casey had to maneuver around her desk. But I had a straight path to the door. I sprinted out of there as fast as I could, with Casey trailing behind me. I had no time to grab my coat and hat. I just ran out the front door and bounded into the snow-covered playground. Mrs. Casey got to the door and yelled out, "Come back! You don't have a coat!" But I kept going. Near the door, I heard some older kid say to her, "I'll go get him." Whoever it was, he'd have never gotten me back there. But I assume Casey told him not to pursue me anyway. Thankfully I lived close to school. Because that was one fucking cold walk! It was about zero degrees and windy. And all I had on was a yellow "Great America - American Eagle" T-shirt.

Mrs. Casey went back inside and called my mom - again. I don't know what transpired between them. But I do know that at home, my parents didn't punish me. And I also know that I had no repercussions from Mrs. Casey either. I didn't even have to rewrite my newspaper again.

If you read my entry on Ms. Maki, you'll see that I had a rather ugly (and completely overblown) incident with her in the lunch room. It resulted in me being taken from the lunchroom that day, and spending the remaining time sitting by my locker. When Mrs. Casey came out of the teachers' lounge, Maki told her what I had done - which was practicaly nothing. All I had done was toss my milk carton into the garbage from about 20 feet away. But Casey must have been having a bad day or something. That, combined with her dislike towards me caused her to shout out, "He's just a pig. He's nothing but a big pig."

What the fuck???

I hadn't even done anything really bad. Even if I had, it certainly didn't warrant being called a pig. For whatever reason, instead of fighting back in anger, I just got bummed out. Those words upset me. I didn't get it. So when we got back to class, she started teaching us math. I raised my hand and asked if I could go to the bathroom. She gave me permission. But instead of going to the bathroom, I grabbed my coat and walked out of the school. I went home. Meff has since told me that from his vantage point in Mr. Stodola's room, he actually saw me leaving.

I found out later that my absence remained unnoticed for about 30 minutes. In fact, according to my friend Greg Flemal, Casey first noticed that I was missing when she called on me to answer a question. She then sent someone (perhaps Ross Remiker) to the bathroom to see if I was in there. Then she had to stop class and alert the office that I was gone.

I had gone home. I ended up calling my mom. She called the school. About a half hour later, my grandpa came and picked me up. He took me back to school and sat with me in Mr. Vogt's office. There was no yelling and screaming for a change. Instead it was just decided that there would be no punishment as long as I went back to class. So be it.

I was still a bit angry. So I didn't go back to class right away. Instead, I went to the bathroom and hung out in there for awhile. Somehow Casey had been alerted to the fact that I was back. And she came to the bathroom, knocked on the door, and asked if I was ok. She then apologized for calling me a pig. And I went back to class.

During the second half of the school year it was somehow decided that Mrs. Casey was to take notes of my activities throughout the week. It was more-or-less a progress report. On Fridays, I was to take it home and have my parents sign it. At least one of these notes still exists. You can see it below - both front and back. This was from the week after we got back from Camp Tapawingo. She's right. I didn't do shit that week. The entire 6th grade had substitute teachers. And it was a free-for-all! These progress reports carried over into 7th grade. By then they were called "trip sheets." In 7th grade, I was the first student to have one. By the end of the year, about 25 others had one as well. By the way, do you notice the grammar mistake in her Monday entry?





On one of the last days of school, Mrs. Casey brought her daughter to class. Her name was Trisha - class of 1996. She was about five-years-old then. The funny thing was, the minute she got into our class, she started asking, "Where's Burt? Where's Burt?" Obviously she thought of me as the Sesame Street character. Throughout the day, she would come up to me, touch me, then run away. I found it funny that the only way she would have known my name is if her mom had brought my name up in conversation while at home - which I'm sure happened quite a bit! "You won't believe what Burt said to me today..."

Although this entry might not seem like it, Mrs. Casey and I weren't at each others' throats all the time. Sometimes we got along just fine. But the minute any tension came between us, there was fireworks.

I believe Casey eventually taught at another school in the Two Rivers system - perhaps C.C. Case. Today she might be retired. But I don't know for sure. I do know that had I not moved from Two Rivers, she would be my neighbor today. While working at the video store, I ran into her all the time. I rented to her, her husband, and her two kids. They were regulars. And we were always friendly towards one another. I left the video store in 1997. I haven't seen her since.