More characters

I’ve written about people that I have lasting memories of. My last entry talked about noise that I made as a kid and the effects it had on certain people that lived in my apartment complex. I’ve also written about my 5th grade teacher, Miss Hurrell and how she helped me understand the meaning of trust and faith in the class that she was teaching. I thought this time, that I would focus on some of the more interesting personalities of other teachers I have had.

The more interesting personalities don’t appear until I reached High School. The teachers that I had for both Chem I and Chem II, never failed to provide fodder for stories.

Chem I was taught by Mr. Bramesco I’m convinced that somewhere deep down in his sadistic heart he was linked with evil. His sole purpose in life was to make things happen to us for his own enjoyment. Back in those days, there were no such things as whiteboards. Every class had a blackboard (or greenboard) which used a stick of dusty chalk that if positioned correctly while writing would create an ear piercing screech that would send shivers up your spine. Mr. B. loved that sound. He loved it even more, when he could run his fingernails down the board, which created an even greater reaction as your teeth vibrated to its sound uncontrollably like a dentist working on your teeth without the use of an anesthetic. There was one student in my class who had no tolerance for that noise or control of his voice when Mr. B, during a quiet work activity would decide to run his fingernails down the board.  A loud expulsion of “Holy S**t! was heard from that student, to the mirth of the rest of the class and Mr. B, who then had to respond to the foul language uttered. Mr. B. also liked to demonstrate explosions with chemicals and demonstrate the use of electricity with what I’m sure was the precursor to tasers. He would sneak up on an unsuspecting student and zap the metal rings of their notebook with his handheld electricity generator. Woe to you if you happened to be touching or near that metal when it was zapped.

Chem II was Mr. Rose. Mr. R was for all intents and purposes was a bully. He felt that you would become a better student by putting you down publicly. His taunts were made to get you to fight back and excel. I don’t believe he thought much of us as learners. I was often the brunt of his jokes. I’m sure others were too, but I only remember how he ridiculed me in class. My father had an independent company called “Walter de Paris” where my father imported little novelty items from France. It wasn’t a great moneymaker as far as I know or his main source of income, but it provided enough money so that he needed to purchase his own business cards and stationery. I made the mistake of handing in one of my homework assignments to Mr. R on my father’s stationery. From that day on he always made fun of my father’s company and me.  Mr. R taunted me endlessly “Walter de Paris and his son, Harv from Le Harve.” It was a long time before he finally did stop the name-calling. I’m not sure whether I confronted him or my parents doing something, but he eventually stopped. I hoped that some good in Mr. R would emerge as the year came to a conclusion. I knew that my final grade was going to be an 80.  Mr. R promised me that if I scored above a 90 on the Regents exam he would raise my grade.  I studied hard and scored a 92 on the Regents and to no surprise, he never changed my grade.

My final interesting personality was my American History teacher, Mr. Greenberg. Mr. G professed himself to be a standup comedian and MC in a previous life. He spent the entire semester proving it to us. He challenged the class to try and make fun of him or have a rank out contest. He swore he would beat us every time and he did. I never challenged him, but enjoyed watching the antics of those who did. His taunting and jokes were not vicious like Mr. R’s. His was always in the spirit of fun that we could all partake in. He would never make fun of anyone that couldn’t take it. He taught us a lot about being able to stand up for ourselves, by proving to us that students in general don’t question authority. He did this by stopping a random student walking through the hall one day by just snapping his finger and pointing to a seat in the classroom, whereby the student sat down.  He had prepped us by saying that without saying a word, he would make a student in the hall do that and the that the student wouldn’t question what he had done to deserve the action. The student intimidated by Mr. G’s stare immediately cowered into the seat that was pointed to. Mr. G then continued the lesson on American history as if nothing had happened. The student just sat there. We on the other hand found it virtually impossible not to laugh that anyone would just obey without questioning “Why?” After a few minutes, Mr. G let the student go, none the wiser. All of us said that we would never have allowed that to happen without questioning why, though I’m not sure we wouldn’t have succumbed to an forceful teacher without the same result.

Mr. G’s room had a well-built wooden door that we used to enter and leave the classroom. The door had a big window in it so that we could see out into the hall and people out in the hall could see in. Mr. G had a thing going with one of the students in our class. The student was a real clown and always tried to make fun of Mr. G. This particular day the student came late to class. After we were all seated, he closed the door, which happened to be locked, only to discover the student, his nemesis, had come late and couldn’t get into the classroom without one of us opening the door. Mr. G told us not to open the door and proceeded to inform us that this student would smile and agree with whatever Mr. G said. To prove his point, Mr. G went to the window of the door, looked at the student square in the eye through the window, and called him an idiot. The student, as Mr. G predicted smiled wide, shook his head in agreement and said, Yes.

I’m sure I would have liked to see Mr. G’s when he performed outside of school as his display of comedic talent always entertained me.

Of course this was not all that Mr. B, Mr. R and Mr. G did in our classes. They also spent time teaching us about Chemistry and American History, the content of which, I mostly enjoyed. The content of which I have mostly forgotten over the years, though the personalities still linger.