A Voice from the Past

 On Wednesday morning I woke up to a message on Facebook from a 5th grade student in 1968 wondering if I was the Mrs. Vanderkam who was the "beautiful woman" who was his teacher.  He said he saw my name through one mutual friend and if I didn't want to respond that was OK but if I did, he had "more to say."  

I remembered him--but have to say one memory was when he jumped out an open window when we had a fire drill.  The principal came on the intercom and said, "Mrs. VanderKam, tell your students to leave by the door, not the window."   I was not happy!  But I did not think I would remind him of that incident!

I sent him my email making it easier to communicate because I don't often use FB messenger.  He wrote me a long email.  And of all things, he said he wanted "to issue an apology for jumping out of the window of your classroom during a fire drill and inspiring xxxx to follow me.  Hope you didn't get in trouble for that."

I was so tickled that after 53 years, this was still on his mind!  It seems amusing now, but it was not funny at the time!  I was angry and embarrassed.  And as I was rarely angry at those students, it must have made an impression that lasted! 

He also remembered my doing a mock election and exactly what the numbers were--one for Humphrey, one for Wallace, and all the rest for Nixon--including his which he said would no longer be true.  He remembered my bringing in a TV for the World Series--and he found a note I wrote to his parents telling them that he was a good writer.  All good memories!

I was also amused that others at his recent 9th grade reunion remembered a class trip in which I did a very unteacher like thing--and wore a bathing suit!  He was not in that class he said or he would have remembered!    I laughed out loud reading that and hoped it was not the Italian bikini I had purchased the previous summer!  I still have a photo of Jim and me on a Mediterranean beach from that summer but I will not post it!  Maybe I can find a less revealing photo of those mini-skirted, long-haired days.

What a lovely thing to get his affirmations and thanks from so many years ago.  Those were three good years of teaching 5th grade and then 6th grade.