History Maker

One of the staple teachers at my high school was Mr. Beeler. If you were to ask anyone who attended my school, dating back to the 70's or 80's until now, they would immediately know who Mr. Beeler was and probably be able to tell you all about the Presidential portraits around the room, the maps charting the red vs. blue states during certain elections, and the Rapture letter he kept taped to the chalk board (which was later converted to a white board in order to keep up with the times). He taught all of the history courses, which included World History, United States History, and American Government, as well as Economics and the Junior/Senior Bible class. Considering I attended the same school from Kindergarten to 12th grade, Mr. Beeler, along with all of the other "lifer" teachers, knew me fairly well. (Unfortunately, they also knew my mother extremely well.) One of my fondest memories from high school involves Mr. Beeler and his U.S. History class.

Because of my over-achieving perfectionist attitude in school, I was pegged as a "smart kid." Rather than honors courses, my uncharacteristically small school had what was called the "advanced track." The advanced track placed the 8th grade smart kids into a high school Algebra course. Because of the class schedule, this advanced track then placed you in subsequent courses with different grades. Meaning, I took most of my science and history courses with either the grade above or the grade below me. English and Bible were the only classes that I generally had with kids in my own grade. That said, I took U.S. History as a Sophomore with the Junior class. My favorite part of this class always took place right at the beginning. Once the late bell rang, Mr. Beeler would bring the class into session my pulling out an old book. I remember this book looking like it was older than my grandparents, when in reality it was just a well-used book. In it was a section for everyday of the year. It listed the date, then various events that happened on that date in history. It was always exciting to hear what had been going on 50 or 200 years ago and I remember looking forward to my birthday so I could learn what totally awesome things I could tell people happened on MY birthday (because it was always about me). But the best part was that everyday Mr. Beeler would ask the class if there was anything important on that date in our lives (like a birthday or anniversary of some sort) and he would record it in his book. He would then share with us the other student birthdays and important dates from years past.

On April 19, 1996, I apparently raised my hand to share an important date with the class. It was my sister's boyfriend's birthday. As I look back on this, I see that I was using any possible thing I could to bring the class' focus on me and get in that book. My sister had only been dating this kid since February 23rd of the same year and she was in college, who cared about my sister's college boyfriend's birthday? The next year, on the same date, when I was in Mr. Beeler's Junior/Senior Bible class, I remember him looking in his book and then asking me, "Karyn, I see that today is you sister's boyfriend's birthday. Is she still dating him?" I did not remember ever bringing my sister's boyfriend's birthday up the previous year, yet after being asked that question in 1997, the memory is forever ingrained in my mind.

My friends, I would like share with you all now (ten years later) that yesterday, April 19th, was my brother-in-law's birthday.

Happy Birthday Steve!


(I apologize for the day late post but the creative juices just weren't flowing yesterday. You know, it's hard to waste my brain power on anything other than Mega Sudoku.)