Nostalgia

I have been corresponding with old old friends, high school classmates.  One friend is on a quest with the "angle of death" down in South Texas.  He's been reading Don Miguel Ruis and Ekhart Tolle.  I don't have permission to post his adventures here but they reminded me of the Porcine Canticles by the poet David Lee from the early 80s so I sent him a couple of poetry books.  Another old classmate found me on Facebook and wrote me about his globe trotting adventures and the sad tale and his regrets of a failed marriage.

I've also heard the sad news of the illness and death of my junior high and high school algebra teacher, Bob Boatright.  I sent him flowers before he died and I'd just completed my PhD so I told him about it in the card.  Like my success is his success.  Who knows how much the teachers remember about old students?  I sure remember him.  He was scary strict and I never did my homework for that class (3 years worth) but managed to pass the quizzes. I think he took pity on my miserable life.  My life was hard in those days.  He'd say "Trigg, if you'd just do your homework...."   Somehow when I got to college I just "knew" algebra and did well in my math and science classes, so I must have learned something.  Here is a youtube of Bob in a fiddle medley.  If you watch long enough you can see him and his chubby cheeks as he fiddles.  I think I would have liked this guy if I'd known him in real life.  As it was, I just felt bad about not doing my homework for those years.

I've also heard from a college friend.  I don't know what has gotten into me but I've been looking my old self up and trying to remember who I was.  Most strange, I'm not that different now, if anything more myself.  And our class song, Freebird still applies.

Hurray for the Class of '76.   We were all that and more!