In The Mailbox!

 I'm sure you have heard the phrase that teachers teach for the outcome, not the income. I believe that to be so true for the teachers that I know now and the teachers that I had over the years.  I'm not a teacher, although if I had to do it all over again, I think I would choose education as a career. The impact may not be immediately known, but an impact is made nonetheless and what an opportunity they have to influence so many lives in mostly a positive way. (I know many may have negative experiences with teachers but this blog is about the POSITIVE impact!) 

Why the silly title? "In The Mailbox"? Well, you see, "...in the mailbox" is a prepositional phrase and prepositional phrases by themselves do not make sense.  While my writing skills and grammar have certainly diminished over the years, this one phrase stands out. Why? Well let me tell you why:
My junior high English teacher, Miss Kestner would randomly shout out during class, "In the mailbox". The students would look at her like she had three heads and we didn't know what on earth she was yelling about! WHAT is in the mailbox? Who is in the mailbox? Please do tell us more about this mailbox!!
That is exactly the point she was trying to make. It worked.

My BFF from school (Debbie) and I were texting about this and I decided to look up Miss Kestner.
I can't even begin to tell you why I remembered her first name was Lillian because I find it very difficult even at 56 years old to call a teacher by their first name.  I found her obituary.  I sent it to Debbie.
That made me sad. I wanted to look her up and tell her that she had a profound impact on my life and I wanted to thank her! 

Obituary for Lillian Mae Kestner (jefosterfh.com)

She spent her later years as a Walmart greeter and I'm sure she was splendid - she had such a bubbly personality.   She died March 2, 2015.  She was to retire March 6, 2015. Debbie and I both found it sad that she didn't get to fully retire and reminded us both to do things NOW. Don't wait! 

This sent me on a wormhole down memory lane.  What other teachers impacted me? 
Elementary through the years: 
Mrs. Decker was my kindergarten teacher that made us put our heads down when we misbehaved.
Miss Cotton taught us about Japan and we sat on the floor to eat with chopsticks.
Mrs. Livingston paddled kids and I was a little afraid of her.   I do remember learning cursive in her class and Kellie and Kevin got to write their name on the boards on the same day. (Kevin Yantz) 
I always wanted to go to speech class and leave to a special room like other kids did.
Miss Pachuta got married and became Mrs. Buzzard. Mrs. Ihnat's class is where I met my friend Karen. 
Miss Fish read us amazing books and I still have my set of "Little House on the Prairie".  My favorite book though was "My Side of the Mountain". She taught me to like books. 
Mr. Clark was our principal and we called him Mr. Clark Bar.
I tried to do a book report once in  Mr. Warner's class and didn't actually read it. He busted me. He taught me not to take shortcuts.
Mrs. Shelly was so nice, but the boys in our class were mean to her.
Miss Grindstaff used to write me during the summer. (Back in the Pen Pal days). She was awesome.
I never had Mrs. Mihalik for class but she helped us do the morning announcements and I was always jealous to not be in her class.  She had a pool party at her house and I was invited. 

Junior High School we all came together, both Townsend Elementary and Bogart Elementary.  I knew some kids because I was in band and because I went to church in Castalia. It was a big change from our little classes at Townsend. (Not the Townsend School of today, but the former elementary school in Vickery, Ohio) 

Junior High Teachers that I remember well:
Mrs. Sanders, Mr. Czekaj, Mrs. Baker (She was THE BEST!!) Mr. Coburn, Mr. Young, Mrs. Mileto, Miss Riedy (She always busted me for chewing gum), Miss Kestner, Mr. Krill.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some. 
Mrs. Sanders used to hit Norm Welser with a bag of straw everyone time he yelled "HEY, HEY" she would say "Straw"...... When anyone says  "HEY" to this day I say "Straw" even if to myself. 
Mr. Czekaj called me a pollack and I told him I was Hungarian, and he said just "pollacks that migrated". 

High School Teachers:
Mr. Kleckner (More on him in a minute), Mrs. Oatley, Mrs. Moore, Mr. Thiede, Mr. Van, (Man I loved dissecting in biology) Mrs. Spayd,  Mrs. Connors, Mrs. Jackson, Mr. Edwards, I never took Spanish but Mr. Schoenegee. Mr. and Mrs. McCoy. Mr. Feisli (choir before the McCoy's) 

We read a lot of nuclear war literature with Mrs. Oatley. "Hiroshima" and "On the Beach" were two book  that I remember the most. (And actually read)  I also still use the word 'facetious' because of vocabulary lessons learned. 

All of these teachers made learning fun or interesting in some way!

Mr. Kleckner was the toughest teacher I had, and he will always fondly be my favorite. We so disrespectfully called him "Little Man" and he was always late to class as I recall he was in the breakroom smoking and we would take snow from the windowsill and put it on the thermostat to kick the heat on his room, but that's not what I remember the most.... 
He taught trig and statistics, both challenging classes.  We were a small class.  We all failed a test. 
He took those tests and threw them in the trash and taught us the lesson all over again.  I really honestly don't remember the lesson itself. I just remember him expressing his disappointment that we all bombed and then said he didn't teach us well. He didn't blame us for not paying attention, he didn't call us stupid and mostly he didn't let that one test be our defining moment of failure. He may not have even intended to teach me that.  He could have let us fail. Given us an "F" and let it impact our GPA and moved onto the next lesson.  He didn't want us to fail. He didn't want to fail at teaching us that lesson. He gave us an opportunity to learn and to be taught and most of all to not just give up.  This man cared that we learned.  I learned. 
He would tell us about life outside the hallowed halls of Margaretta.... And man,  he was so right. 
I didn't appreciate it then. I sure do appreciate it now. I have so much respect for him and that one act of forgiveness in failing a test and not only did he forgive us for failing, he didn't give us a free pass, we had to learn the lesson and re-take the test.  We don't always get a re-do in life, that is for sure.  
We also don't always get the chance to tell someone that we appreciate them or that they had a profound impact on our life, whether it's a former teacher, family member, boss, coworker or friend.  Tell them. You just never know when you'll miss the chance and it's better to tell them now and possibly "make their day" than to wait until you find out they died.  I wish I had caught up with Miss Kestner as an adult.  

Life is short, people matter. 
Thank you for reading and if you are reading you probably know me and I thank you for being a part of my life! 
Special shout out to my former teachers! Thank you for what you did!