Jim F..er

[Box and one]

Had a dream about Jim Fz last night or early this morning , I was the HS principal and he was a science teacher . He was so smart and knowledgeable but an average HS teacher. He should of been a professor at a University.. He was to academics and above our HS students We gave him all AP classes -{advanced classes} and the other teachers in his department were upset with me because those kids were all advanced and there was no classroom management problems . Jim Fiz was a genius when it came to Science He taught Physics, Advanced Biology and Chemistry. He had no rapport with his students and had no classroom management skills . I would always get calls from parents complaining about things going on during his lectures . But the flip side was the advanced students were being taught on a college level.
What made me dream about him was my secretary is very sick and her daughter wrote me and told me her mom was asking about me. Mary was a great secretary.
Well at the end of the school year I would do a slide-power point presentation recap of our school year. It was very funny and the administrators from downtown would come and watch it I also ended it with a tribute to our teachers retiring with music and past pictures of them over the years.
Well Fiz was retiring and he gave me pictures of him when he 1st started teaching,pictures of his wedding,growing up and some pictures of his brother a world war 11 bomber pilot who was killed. When he dropped off the pictures a few weeks before my show he told my secretary " don;t lose these please". After preparing the my final presentation I made copies of his pictures and put them back in his original envelope that he had given to my secretary and put them in my office.
We had our final luncheon and I did my presentation and it was great We played Music as the slides were being shown Many were crying as Barbara Streisand was singing in the background " "the way we were " It was a very special event for the retiree's and the lead up to it was powerful. Anyway the school year is over and I;m on the Jersey shore on vacation and I get a call from Mary my secretary that Jim F is in our office looking for the original pictures. Mary informs me she looked all over my office and can't find them. I told her I gave back the envelope to Jim F the day before the presentation because I knew some of these pictures were very important to him. She called Jim and relayed my message and he claimed I never gave him back the pictures. But I knew I did and was 100% positive .. anyway have to go now ... back later

 

[MadJack]

Thanks for keeping us hanging.

 

[Box and one]

sorry had to pick up grandchildren and take them to school ..so to continue this boring story Mary also felt some guilt because she thought maybe she misplaced the envelope in our office . I always second guessed myself because I maybe didn't give it back to him and these pictures of his brother and wedding pictures were the originals.. anyway Jim F retired and for the next 2-3 years every time i saw him about me losing his pictures. would remind me in a sarcastic tone I was having lunch at an AW root beer place a year later and he and his wife were there, As he got up to pay the bill and walked past my table and said something nasty about : did you ever find them or did you ever look.. On the 4th of July we had a parade downtown and he was sitting in his driveway with his wife watching the parade and I was with our students marching and I heard him yell : where are my pictures. At some point I wanted to tell him to go F yourself but I had so much guilt because I thought I really lost them and never gave them back to him ..
About 6 years later I get a letter from him addressed to me here in Austin, I had retired and moved here , It was from Jim F The letters 1st words was Mr Box are you standing now because you need to sit down .. " my wife and I were in our basement going thru old stuff and guess what we found" The missing envelope with the pictures in it. Are you sitting I hope I want to apologize for hounding you all these years." You must of given them back and I put them someplace in the basement. I know I was hard on you with sarcastic remarks over the years because I know you felt guilty about them But I had them all the time", I heard you retired in Texas so please forgive me "
Wow what a letter. I called mary's daughter and wanted to tell her Jim F found the envelop to please tell her mother I or she didn't lose the envelope But Michelle Marys daughter said her mother has alzheimer and couldn't remember anything. I never wrote back to Jim F and he might have passed away by now but have that letter here in my office in Austin and have used that story at some of my speaking engagements to teachers . Not sure what the message is but maybe when you feel down and hopeless there is some relief and hope. Well that was my dream this morning. My Blue Ribbon basketball yearbook arrived in the mail yesterday and college hoops is upon us Take care. Sorry for this long and boring story and Like SMU over ECU in college football this week good luck

 

[MadJack]

I was into it. Thanks for the ending.

 

[Box and one]

I texted someone from my school this morning to see if Fizer was still alive.. I took so much heat from other people saying " tell him to f,,off" But these were his wedding pictures and his only picture of his dead brother. I know Mary had some guilt too thinking maybe she misplaced them but she didn't .. Its hard to think Mary has no idea of the incident and with what she has no memory... But I do with his opening line " if your standing you better take a seat " I also remember observing him a few times and in his observation I said something that he is so " above " the students that and his classroom skills were different .
Off the record I would say to fellow teachers or friends of mine " that Fiz with his back to the class he would write an equation on the blackboard and a Jim Bowie knife could be thrown at the blackboard into his equation and he would continue to write and go over the knife or under it and continue his focus of his writing.. Also when he retired we found about 10 bags of frogs,fish and a few cats in formaldihide bags for future disections from his Biology classes.. They all had expired .. lol

 

[Box and one]

I was just reading this today and remembered another story When he retired in his Science closet that he had hoarded for 25 years of stuff was packed We had to clean it out I found so may dissection kits he never used. Some were in their original packing boxes . I remember tons of dead frogs in their bags Also I remember a lot of fish. There was one cat and they were all shipped to schools Biology departments to dissect . We had the Delaware River that ran into the Suskahana river right on our school grounds. So 1 of the custodians and I dumped the frogs, fish and what ever Fiz had stored over the years into the river. We opened up the bags and just dumped them in the river . Really didn't think much of anything back then . About a week later my superintendent gets a letter from the Delaware Water Gap that the river had dead frogs and fish floating in it and to make sure no students go near the river because it was contaminated. I call my custodian and we both agree not to say anything about our dumping . A week later we see an article in our local paper from the EPA and Water Gap authorities about dead fish and frogs floating in the Delaware river. We both look at each other and wink .. Not a bright move on my part but the Mysterious frogs and fish floating was never solved. No one ever found out it was Fizers frogs.

 

[Wineguy]

Oh my God Box that is a classic writing and like Jack I was into it. Hilarious story dumping into the river, and if someone on here is thinking you are a dumbass to dump formaldehyde into the river, they need to get over it, the ppm of it to water would not hurt anything, depending how many bags you had. I always have images in my head when you write of your stories. Good luck this BB season, looking for some LOVE games out of you.