I am vigilant. Have to be. Wally has found a nightly prohibited pleasure. And it’s making a mess. Although, thankfully I have a cleaning company I can page for times like this…
Whether you double bag or triple bag with Hefty extra steel plated trash bags, if the cupboard door is open a crack- the aforementioned crafty Wally will find his way to the raw meat container, turkey bones, rotten apples, or worse a half eaten yogurt. I can lie awake all night (9PM in my world) and not see a thing. Or hear anything amiss. But I think within seconds of my pulse slowing and eyes closing, he is back at the kitchen garbage. Speaking of garbage…anyone from my time at Marshall remember the garbage barrels in the boys’ room? I can’t even describe that day in enough accurate detail to do it justice. Suffice it to say, the expression burning dumpster comes to mind. Literally.
Which reminds me of what I wanted to share besides Wally’s misdeeds. As I stared into the mess strewn across the floor that Wally made, a thought came to me. Enduring the harsh conditions and occasionally flaming garbage cans, and ask Ms. Egan about the time there were at least 3 dead mice behind her desk…surviving those realities made us grateful for the students. They (for the most part) were appreciative and grateful for our being there. Their gratitude, and the staff’s consistent willingness to go above and beyond, taught me the importance of culture. Not the cultures that would have brought many positive samples of grossness, but the culture that kept teams and especially my cluster intact and on fire (get it) for what constituted the precious bulk of my teaching career. Thinking back to my time at Marshall, I am grateful for those connections for both the faith we had in each other, and the faith they demonstrated in me.
From my first classroom above the library and across from the men’s room which was dutifully and routinely occupied by the same crew that apparently was not allowed to use their home bathrooms by wise wives because of the damage they would leave behind…to my special moments as an Acting Vice-Principal I think I learned more about leading and teaching in one week on the job than all of the hours at Providence College. I can’t think of a cluster meeting that was held (unofficial, off the schedule, just because we liked each other meeting) that did not include the phrase, “They didn’t teach us that in school…”.
Back to the point of the story. No matter how much of a mess Wally makes, he will still get lap time at his regularly scheduled times. No matter how messy our bathrooms of life are, nor how fiery are bathrooms get, we should stick together. Like those mice on the trap in Ms. Egan’s room. Just sayin’.
