This has been an exciting week for me due to the fact that I have "Reconnected" with two friends that I have not seen or heard from in over 20 years! I was very pleasantly surprised to hear from both of them.
College Chum's
One of them was a friend of mine from College days! (Not that either one of us actually did anything even close to studying during this time.) He has lived on the west coast since leaving college, married the love of his life and settled down. He and his wife now have 2 daughters of their own and they are thinking of adopting another baby girl.
He decided about 3 years ago to go back to school, and he and his family moved to Missouri to attend the college he felt led to attend. We were able to spend several hours on the phone just catching up and laughing about a lot of old memories, swapping stories and updating each other on our families and our ministries.
High School Teacher
The other person that I was able to make contact with was a gentleman who was a teacher back when I was in high school. His name was Mr. Jackson back then, (He told me on the phone that I don't have to call him "Mr. Jackson" anymore if I don't want to.) and he was one of the absolute "Coolest" teacher's I had ever met! Here is something that may seem a little crazy... I never had Mr. Jackson for a class! Not once! I met him through a rather unusual path.
In my high school, when you got in trouble for something, you received a "Detention". For each one of these you had to stay after school and go to "Detention Hall". This is where I met Mr. Jackson. He and I became quite good friends seeing how I was "Hanging Out" with him in detention hall almost EVERY DAY!!!
Detention Hall was part of my life. Let me explain to you just what it was all about. Mr. Jackson had made up some rules for my fellow students and I and here is how we spent our time together. If you were to serve time in Detention Hall you had to be in the room, in your seat with nothing on your desk, before the 3:00 pm bell would ring. Once seated Mr. Jackson would explain the rules. (Again & again, day after day, week after week, month after month, and in my case, year after year!) Here are the rules. (** Over 20 years later and I still remember them!) From 3:00 to 3:50 pm, you had to sit in your seat at your desk, facing forward. You could either fold your hands on the desk or you could place them apart on the desk with your palms down. (The palms down way was not a good way, your hands seemed to move more. When they are folded they don't seem to get "Squirmy"!) You had to sit still, Hands on the desk, head facing forward, your feet flat on the floor, (You could not move ANYTHING.) even if someone came in the room after 3:00 you could not move your head to look at them.
You were allowed to sneeze and cough, but you had to do this without moving. Oh and by the way Mr. Jackson was very good at telling a real sneeze from a fake one you made up just so you could try to move a little. (The man was an artist!) You were allowed 3 scratches during that 50 minute time period. He would keep track of it in his notebook and I must say that for a man with glasses, he had incredible vision!
After the 50 minutes you did not just get up and go, you had to be dismissed, so you might have to sit there a few minutes longer than someone else. Now get this, You were not allowed to talk, you could answer a question if Mr. Jackson asked you one, but if you talked, you failed. If you scratched more than 3 times, you failed, if you moved it was used as one of your scratches. The really interesting part about all of this is that "If" you failed, Mr. Jackson would not tell you until the time was over and that meant that you would have to come back the next day after school and do it ALL over again!
During my years in Detention Hall, by the way I do still hold the record for the most detentions in a career, Mr. Jackson and I became very good friends. He would many times ask me questions and he and I would have these wonderful discussions right there in front of everybody. We would just talk like we were sitting around visiting with old friends. (Only I was NOT allowed to move a muscle!)
Looking back now, I have to confess that the job he did was not easy. He was always surrounded by the "Trouble makers" and the "Misfits". I dare say that I owe a large part of who I am today to Mr. Jackson. In a time in my life when other teacher's were actually telling me that I was "Useless", I met a man who saw that I was good for something.
They say that a teacher has the ability to make or break a student. I for one Thank God for Mr. Jackson, he took time out of his life to invest in mine. He didn't have to, yet he did.
So, it is with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye, that I say:
"Mr. Jackson, Thank You Sir."
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