Wednesday, December 9th, 2020 - Teaching in Keokuk and becoming a parent!!

 Wednesday, December 9th, 2020

Teaching at Keokuk High School - year 2 to 4

I taught at Keokuk High School, in Keokuk Iowa for five years - 1973 - 1978.  The first year I was single (and got engaged), the last year was a little different (saved for tomorrow).

I don’t know if I hit my groove - but years two through five were okay.  

Year two started out as a married man.  I mentioned that we had bought a house for $10,000 - a huge old two-story house - with a walk-up attic, four bedrooms, two bathrooms - and some minor problems.  The house came with an empty lot next to the house.  I assume there had been another house there at one point but wasn’t anymore.  And we started work on the house.  It had wallpaper that was outdated.  Connie (my wife) loved wallpaper.  We lived in my old rental apartment for a few months while we looked for a house and while there, Connie decided we needed to wallpaper the entrance.  I am still surprised that our marriage survived that first wallpapering!!  I was on a tipsy ladder holding a long (ceiling to floor) piece of wet wallpaper, with wallpaper paste all over it and all over myself and she is giving me directions - left, no right, no stretch it more, push it up more into the corner.  

Somehow by the time we were in the house, the wallpaper wars had been won by my wife (and lost by me).  We stripped the wallpaper by steaming it, scraping it off the wall -without trying to damage the wall.  The floor was covered in old wallpaper fragments.  (And, I generally kept my cool!!).  

Then we put up fresh wallpaper.  She brought home wallpaper sample books, which I had to hold up for hours on end on the walls [probably only a few minutes], while she debated if that was the effect she wanted.  

Fortunately, by the time we got to the last bedroom, she opted to put popcorn paint on the walls!!!  (YEAH!!!)

Teaching was going relatively well.  I had moved out of general math and consumer math and had geometry and algebra I.  

I had loved geometry as a high school student with Lynn Schwantz back at Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  (Mr. Schwantz was also the coach for the chess team and I was the president of the Chess Club in high school).  

I loved teaching the logic of going from given properties to conclusions in proofs.  (As a source says “In geometry, inductive reasoning helps us organize what we observe into succinct geometric hypotheses that we can prove using other, more reliable methods. Whether we know it or not, the process of inductive reasoning almost always is the way we form ideas about things.”)  I thought geometry was practical - even though proving two triangles congruent wasn’t always important -but being able to think through problems was significant.

I do remember one student that seemed to be trouble for me.  His last name was “Subtle”, but he was anything but subtle as he continually complained about “why are we learning this”.  If anything, he taught me about being patient, about explaining the reasons for learning.  All too frequently we blindly trust our teachers.  (Like, learning real analysis and topology in my graduate work!!).  Fortunately, after the first semester, he moved out of town and the ‘thorn in my side’ was gone.

By the end of year two, we were living the American Dream - in debt for a house, in debt for a car, and <boom> the first OPEC boycott occurred and gasoline went from about 35 cents a gallon to over a dollar a gallon.  And, the first time I saw what occurred in our last three years in Keokuk - we ran out of money about the last week of the month.  (Aside, two cannot live as cheaply as one!!!)

Connie had worked a little part-time doing some bookkeeping for a local shoe store.  But, as the summer of 1975 arrived, I learned I/we were going to be parents!!  

Steve was born in January 1976 - my third year of teaching at Keokuk High School.  We quickly discovered that if two couldn’t live as cheaply as one, three definitely couldn’t live as cheaply as one.  Plus, the little income Connie got as a bookkeeper for the shoe store stopped.  We needed to change - somehow.

I looked at other employment.  I did have blinders on and was only considering education options.  If I was going to stay in education, it seemed like I needed to go into administration.  So, scrapping even more out of my salary, (and with Connie’s permission), I started in on a graduate program in administration from Western Illinois University - about an hour drive east of Keokuk.  The first semester, I took a school law class.  It met on Tuesday nights on campus.  While the class was interesting, by the time I got home, I was tired - but also wired - and had trouble sleeping.  I’m not sure how I got through my Wednesday classes!!!

A fond memory was coming home from school and putting Steve (our baby) on my stomach while I napped.  What great bonding.  While disposal diapers were available, we used cloth diapers to save money.  I got to be Dad and changed diapers and loved my son.  Connie didn’t want to breastfeed, so I volunteered to take the night feedings.  As many of you know, that first year of being a parent doesn’t allow for much rest!!!  We tighten our belts, thinking that eventually when I became a principal that we’d have more money. 

The ambitious me had stopped being so ambitious.  I should have taken a part-time job or a summer job. I have many teacher friends who painted houses in the summer for summer income.  I wasn’t smart enough to figure that out.  Instead, I puttered around for the summer - growing a garden, and watching my son grow - and spending money.

Tomorrow will be the last day for Keokuk - with the birth of our daughter - and a real divine intervention!!!

LOVE WINS!!

HUGS!!

Karen