The Days of Yesterday

Last night my friend Kris and I were reminiscing about our high school teachers; those we liked and those we didn't (she and I went to junior high and high school together). Two of my favorites were my English Lit and American Lit and one I disliked was my Humanities instructor (all during my Senior year).

Soon my thoughts drifted back to what is probably my favorite school year: 8th grade. I went to Trinity Lutheran School in Faribault (MN) from K-8th grade. Trinity only goes up to 8th grade, then you're in the public school system. Now, just because it was a Lutheran school, doesn't mean we didn't do our share of pranks. Later we were told, we were one of the worst 8th grade classes ever (Is it wrong I feel a certain pride about that? Hmmm...)?

Let me shed a little light on my class. There were approximately 22 of us from kindergarten till our last year, so we really grew up with each other. We really were like a family. During our 8th grade year, we got a few new boys who transferred over from Peace Lutheran School (also in Faribault). I think a lot of us were nervous about the new kids on the block (no pun intended). We weren't sure if we'd like them, all that. You know how kids are. But really, they were great guys. One in particular was the main 'troublemaker/jokester': Jeremiah. And we all loved him. I think almost every girl in class had a crush on him at some point during the school year.

Anyways, once they joined, our class changed. Not just in class size. Not just in the ratio of boys vs. girls. But more importantly, we changed how we acted. Now, we didn't do things to every teacher we had. Only two: Mr. and Mrs. Phiffer. Well, we really didn't "do" anything to Mr. Phiffer, but we were always laughing at him during class. He made it so easy.

Mr. Phiffer was our school Principal and he sometimes would fill in and substitute. Mr. Phiffer (or "Cleatus Ruppert" as the boys so ‘lovingly’ called him - yes, that was his first and middle name) was rather short for a guy - maybe 5'6"-5'7", somewhere around there - and he had this weird habit of standing against the corner of the desk and well, "bouncing" (for lack of a better term and trust me, I don't like the visual either) up and down. His pants fit perfectly against the corner. He was just the right height. You get the picture. We don't know if he enjoyed it. We don't know if he even realized what he was doing. All we did know was there was know way we could concentrate and take him seriously. And we didn't. He never really taught us anything anyway; just "bounced" against the corner of the desk (which no one ever wanted to touch afterwards). I still laugh at the thought (and cringe at the same time).

His wife, on the other hand… oh the torment that woman would go through. She wasn’t a very nice woman and a horrible teacher. To this day I don’t understand how she got her “teaching” degree (or if she even had one). Anyways, I won’t get into all the things our class did - particularly the boys, us girls would sit back, laugh and enjoy the show. However, I will share this one time. In the corner of the back of the classroom were a couple baseball bats. One kid, Scott Rickels (a very tall and big guy, who was HILARIOUS), loved to torment her. She wouldn’t be paying any attention to what was going on by him, so he’d pick up the bat and “tiptoe” behind her, holding the bat above his head as if he was getting ready to just wail on her. We would just start lauuuuughing. She’d turn around and yell at him and he’d abruptly put the bat down and stand there looking “innocent”. The minute she turned the other direction, he’d be at it again. It was a daily occurrence and she fell for it every. single. time.

I could go on and on about those days. And not just my 8th grade year, but being at Trinity in general. Those were some of the best times of my life and I will never forget them.