I started this blog a looong time ago and then never published it…….Seems like a reasonable way to tell stories of my life that one day might be something I make a lovely book and put into that book as a memoir…..Goodness alot of things happened since January 2019 but let’s go with what I have below as a launch!
From January 2019 —-Happy New Year (okay I am a day behind but I have a lot of days ahead….to celebrate this new and exciting year in my life – the year I retire – in 175 days according to my countdown app!) As others reflected on their new year and I read interesting blogs, news columns, and facebook posts I was inspired to start reflecting on what I had to write about, if anything. What I have been for so many years and so many individual days and nights of my life is an educator, which started me thinking about myself as a learner as the two seem blended in so many ways. So I think I will entreat myself to reflect on my career and the many incredible people I have met along the way, as well as the things I have learned about myself and others. I would commit to doing this 364 days of the year but I know myself well enough not to set a goal I suspect I will not keep…We will see what comes and goes.
January 2, 2019-Westminster Summer Camp
I played school as a kid and I have some vague recollections of being in my bedroom with my childhood pals, Mary Ann Williams and Linda Kulman teaching and testing using some old books I had acquired from somewhere… But it was Westminster Summer Camp that gave me my first entrée to teaching as a camp counselor. Paul Bligh was an earth science teacher from Lovett and he was my first “boss” as my first paying gig was as an assistant nature counselor under his leadership…I have great memories tromping through woods near and far looking for and learning about ferns, identifying sassafras trees, listening for bird calls which Mr. Bligh could mimic with incredible accuracy. I hated the boa constrictor that we had in a huge glass aquarium with a lid we’d weigh down with huge rocks each night. And each morning that thing would have gotten out and be somewhere in the nature hut for me to find. I always called upon helpers of the day to find and return the snake to his cage (all as a special assignment) – but really so I would not have to touch the thing! One of the more ridiculous assignments Alan Strand and I had one day was to purchase mice for the snake to eat. I don’t remember what pet store we went to, but I do recall them selling us and packaging up several white mice in a paper bag….Mr. Bligh would stage a near gladiator/ancient Roman forum kind of set up in the fire ring – featuring the boa constrictor and one or 2 mice that the snake would hunt and then swallow – much to the strange delight of the children gathered in the stands surrounding the fire ring…hard to believe that this stunt could be staged nowadays…as I think that nature of the event might be the cause of firing of a teacher!
Not long into my summer camp counselor career I got called up to work in the office – I recall helping Butch Cooper with the elaborate system of creating carpools for getting kids to camp. Families could earn fee discounts I think if they agreed to drive other kids to camp. Butch had this elaborate map of the city with push pins designating kids and then he’d use rubber bands to group carpools together. There were always kids from a vast swath of geography that did not quite fit with the size of the car driving in that area and these 10-12 odd kids would be made into a van pool – the camp had a couple of vans and I wound up driving one…as an extra duty. I don’t think I was much older than 18 at the time – had to get a special license and then I could drive this monster van all over the city….I was excited about earning what I think was the extra $250 for this assignment that had me weaving around Atlanta a couple of extra hours each morning and night! I do recall that this was mad money (not for college expenses) that I could spend as I desired and with it I purchased my first grown up suit (at a Lenox Square store whose name I cannot recall but it was next to either Rich’s or Davison’s and seemed really fancy in my memory!)….and a plane ticket to go see my brother, Jeff at Princeton – those were huge purchases for me at the time…..
Anyways this move indoors to the main office is what really launched my life as an administrator…vs. classroom teacher. I surely did not realize that this was a career option at the time – but clearly, I was destined to be a part of the learning enterprise but not at the front of a classroom.
Sal's Journey to Retirement 