In the early 60’s through 1970, I
taught at Waterloo Junior High School on Howard County, MD. This became
Waterloo Middle School somewhere along the line and dropped the 9th grade and
added the 6th.This is another story from that time.
The young girl came home from school
and told her mother that the doctor at school said she needed glasses. Rather
than say “I’ll take you to the doctor”, the mother asked, “what Doctor?” The
young girl explained that many of the kids were all examined and she was told about her
eyesight. The mother got upset and demanded more information.
The next morning the mother called
school and spoke to the principal and asked about these examinations by the
doctor and the principal said, “what examinations?”
The parents met with the principal
and the police later that day and the teachers were all called to an emergency
meeting to see if we saw anyone suspicious in the school and we all said,” what
Doctor?”
The girl told the police that she
was examined with some other kids, in an empty classroom, but she didn’t know
the kids names. She said she could recognize them if she saw them again, so the
next day a policeman and the student stood outside of the cafeteria and watched
each lunch shift come in, so she could see all the children and identify the
other ones.
In looking back at it now, they may have been looking at every male
teacher as well to see if any one of us was the doctor.
She was unable to identify anyone.
When questioned a bit harder, she
admitted she made the whole story up because she wanted to get glasses.
We had
another teachers meeting that afternoon to assure us there was no problem and
that we could all calm down.
I remember you Mr. Greenblatt. I was one of your art students at Waterloo Junior High. I don't remember the episode of the Mystery Doctor. It may have been after my time there. I think I was in your first year at Waterloo. Or it may have been while I was there but was never quite "present." (few teenagers are I believe)
ReplyDeleteI thought of you the other day when I listened to some old Joan Baez music. I always remember you were a fan of hers and told us that she had perfect pitch. You told the story of her walking barefoot into a Jaguar dealer. You were, and I'm sure still are, so cool.
At work I came across a name, Greenleaf, in a database I'm working on. That was my second reminder of you. So I Googled you. Then read a few if your blogs and this one told me you were the same man I'd remembered from school.
You never know what teachers can give kids for their lifetimes. I'm sorry to say I don't exactly remember much of the art lessons but I still love to hear Joan Baez's beautiful voice and think of her and her Jaguar - and you.
Carol...Thanks for writing. It's great to hear you make any kind of impression especially after all these years. I was listening to Joni Mitchell's Blue album yesterday and realized it's been nearly 50 years since it came out and it still sounds great to me.
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