I read Roy Exum every day. Most of the time I agree with him. Some times I disagree and other times I really really agree or really really disagree. On the subject of teacher day, this is one of those really really agree times. I would be delighted to follow Roy's order and drop the lady who lit the bulb in my head a kind line, but I lost her email address.
She was very sweet in a direct kind of way and her instruction was always positive. It didn't hurt that she was good looking and, let's face it, that's probably why I began to hang on her every word.
Why in the heck would you do something to make a pretty girl who smiled with her whole face mad at you? She was horrified that I thought Jaws was a great book and made fun of me for it and I made fun right back at her. She made English fun and something to look forward to as opposed to the solid hour of boredom that I anticipated. She was relentless in making me stop thinking about sharks eating naked women and start listening to what Hemingway was doing in "Big Two Hearted River" and what the guys who wrote "The Red Badge of Courage" or "Lord of the Flies" did with their magic words. Then she introduced me to my permanent hero: John Steinbeck. He is the greatest writer who ever lived and I would have never really appreciated his genius were it not for this woman.
Anybody care to guess who she is? She's Roy's ex- Anne Exum, that's who. She taught English at Notre Dame High School about 40 years ago and that pretty much changed this guy who'd rather have had a stick in his eye than read 200 pages to someone who's depressed after reading great 1,000 pagers because they end too early.
A big, fat thank you to you, Ms. Exum. You made a difference in at least one persons' life and I love you for it.
Savage Glascock