My principle (my second grade teacher at the time) had a paddle with holes in it. On our birthdays we'd get a birthday spanking. You'd bend over his desk... He'd reach up and tap the ceiling with it... All of a sudden it came swinging down at the speed of light. At the last second he'd stop and just TAP our behinds.
He was pretty cool.
__________________ Motivation. If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots wil be doing soon.
I remember a principal, right hand thumb and index finger, long cultivated fingernails,whennyou were in trouble he would greet you by name, and then pick youup by the ear lobe with these nails.
__________________ Motivation. If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots wil be doing soon.
The small, green, road-side diner and convenience store at the top of the road? With gravel parking for about five cars in front and more parking in the rear, it was cinder-block structure that you could tell had been built in stages long before. God only knows when though. It was ancient, even in ’62 when we first moved in to the neighborhood.
I remember once it was snowing outside and we ran out of bread. My dad sat the four of us kids on the couch and told us to wait there while he ran to Pat’s to buy a loaf. He put my sister in charge. She kept us in line. We waited, patiently, kneeling against the back of the couch, watching for him out the window. Eventually he reappeared, trudging down the road, in the snow, carrying a small brown paper bag. Bread and candy.
In ’62 Pat’s was well past its hey-day. Maryland had a new prohibition on gambling, so its one slot-machine was gone. Truckers and travelers didn’t stop any more either. With the new interstate and highway, it was now cradled in the crotch of a clover-leaf intersection. It no longer had easy access. You had to turn off the highway early if you wanted to go there, and then back track to get back on your way.
So people stopped going. Eventually most of his trade became neighborhood kids buying candy—penny candy, candy apples, wax lips, Necco wafers, Mary Janes, Bonomo Turkish Taffy—but that wasn’t nearly enough to keep him going, so eventually Pat had to close Pat’s.
It reopened as a factory outlet store for a while, selling cheap, little, slightly defective trinkets. Still owned by Pat, I think. When I was in high school, it became an office machine repair shop, then later lawn mower repair. But by then, Pat himself was long gone and mostly forgotten.
Forty five years later, the building is still there, empty, but still green. A church was looking at it recently, possibly for a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. The neighborhood was all up in arms. Rumors abound over what it will be next. One thing’s for sure. It’ll never be “Pat’s” again.
__________________
Rick <---This is me
I've decided not to engage in pig wrestling any more. Although I might poke a stick in the pen every once in a while just for fun. :stickpoke
My new favorite quote (attrributed to Mark Twain, although i haven't been able to confirm the attribution or the wording):
"Those who don't read the newspaper are uninformed.
Those who do read the newspaper are missinformed."
I could go on forever, but here's a few - Remember when:
Having a hard drive in your PC was awesome.
Having two floppy drives (no hard drive) was awesome.
The Bomar Brain came out.
The first electric typewriter.
cc actually meant carbon copy.
The NFL played the AFL in the SuperBowl.
You could dim your high beams with your foot.
You could buy 5 gallons of gas for a buck.
All telephones had cords attached to the wall.
You could have any color phone as long as it was black.
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