Bye, 2010!

Almost Happy New Year!  Such a cliche, but the year really does go faster when you're older--especially when you're retired.  I think that's because I sleep about 2 or 3 hours more a night than I did while getting up at 5:30 am.


I wish all you Boomers and everybody else a wonderful new year!  It'll e 1/1/11, so that's pretty cool anyway.

john lennon

Yesterday, did everybody think about where they were when they found out John Lennon died?
 I was remembering it yesterday.  I was on my way to school in the morning--to teach.  It was about 7 a.m., and I heard it on the radio while I was driving, alone.  I cried, probably for the same reason as most of us boomers did.  First, because now the Beatles can never get back together again.  And second, because we're old now; when somebody from our youth, like John, dies, you feel old.  It can happen to you, too.

Later I felt bad for John, his sons, and how he was just starting to get back to work after the rough years in the U.S., when Nixon tried to kick him out of the country.  

I never felt sorry for Yoko, though.

That Toddlin' Town

Just back from the Midwest, in the only decent season, Fall.  And I was so lucky because the we   ather was decent--even good!  It was in the 60's and sunny every day for a week.  So that was nice, and so were the people, good ol' Salt of the Earth Midwesterners.  Everybody was very nice and helped me take buses in the Loop.  Of course, the drivers in Chicago are the same as 30 years ago--they pay no attention to red or green lights, and will kill you if you don't watch out for them first.

  i got to eat a lot of Midwestern faves, like Italian beef sandwiches, yummy Chicago pizza, and trips to my favorite heart-attack zones, White Castle and Steak 'n Shake.  Even the breakfasts were large and piled with pork products.  As it should be, in the Hog Butcher to the World (said Carl Sandburg)
  Here's the Water Tower in Chicago--no snow or ice!
  I was there plugging my book--Class Dismissed.  My memoir/how-to about my teaching career.  Holidays are coming, so let's all buy a book--available on Amazon and all other on-line booksellers.

My Book Gets Published!

My book will be published this week!   Very exciting, after working on it sporadically for about 10 years.  Of course, it's hard to do anything extra while teaching for 37 years.

 Speaking of which, my book is called Class Dismissed!  My Four Decades Teaching in the Inner City, by Cheryl Clark.  Available next week or so, probably,  from Amazon.

  It's partly how-to for teachers, partly a memoir.  And some photos from the 70's on.  I'm pretty glad I kept my word and finished the book.  I can't wait to see the first copy.

My Eyebrows

I was thinking about my eyebrows, and how my relationship with them has changed over the years.

I used to spend so much time on them, and now I largely ignore them.  Because they used to grow like crazy, and now they don't.  They hardly ever grow.  They're sparse, and soon they'll be gray too, I suppose.
 When I was a teenager, I was like some of my students who used to sit and pluck their eyebrows during my class.  They'd do it for 40 minutes, and I'd think, "How much eyebrow can they have?"  But it took a lot of pruning in those days to avoid the unibrow.  Now, It's a snap.  Now, though, I have to put pencil on them all the time or I look very unfinished.  
  Such is life, now, I see.  Things I used to worry about, like being hairy, have shifted from eyebrows to chins. This is what it means to be retired, I see.  It's one more nail in the coffin of my vanity.