Ya Should’a Been There!

By Allen R. Remaley

Read and discover the march of a former marine as he changes direction and becomes a teacher of a second language. Look in on his students’ and colleagues’ adventures as innovative learning activities take shape and inspire, motivate, and amuse those in his school and community. Enjoy a visual trip in time, and mentally be there when interesting things happen. In the end, the reader might just say, “I should’a been there!”

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546268161

Allen R. Remaley

Allen R. Remaley has written fifteen novels, collections of short stories, letters and professional articles. While most of his novels are categorized as fiction, some are bathed in actual experience. He is a four-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, a thirty-seven -year teacher at the elementary, secondary and graduate-school levels of education. He holds a doctorate in French and in the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Dr. Remaley no longer skydives, but he does play pickle ball and strums the banjo. He lives with his wife in Saratoga Springs, NY and in Scottsdale, AZ.

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Copyright © 2018 Allen R. Remaley. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   11/14/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-6817-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-6816-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018913540

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Author’s Preface

Chapter 1    Hand-Me-Down-Shoes

Chapter 2    First Day Dress Blues

Chapter 3    Aupres de ma blonde…

Chapter 4    Active Participation in the Classroom

Chapter 5    School/Community High Water Marks

Chapter 6    Club Med Spinoffs

Chapter 7    Allons-y! Let’s go to Paris!

Chapter 8    The Origin of the Walking Dead

Chapter 9    The Hotel Dagmar and the Privy

Chapter 10    Boys and Girls at the Dagmar Hotel

Chapter 11    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Chapter 12    The Latin Quarter and the Metaphysical Transformation of Sister Kathleen

Chapter 13    Touching Every Base Before Home

Chapter 14    Saratoga Trunk

Chapter 15    Susan’s Story

Chapter 16    Dutch Pastries and Other Delicacies

Chapter 17    Second Sight and the Ghost

Chapter 18    The Ambulant Blue Comb

Chapter 19    Kodak Flash Cubes and the Mommies

Chapter 20    End-of-Career Reminiscences

Chapter 21    Kennedy Half Dollars and Wolfgang Puck

Chapter 22    Non, Je ne regrette rien.: Floyd’s Last Hou-Rah!

Acknowledgements

DEDICATION

To all those who might have thought that paying attention and completing assignments was worth it. And, of course, to my wife and children, all of whom make my life worth living.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Before any writing takes place, whether it be a novel, short story or any other piece of recorded history, the writer should ask some questions. Will the story portray some aspect of the past, present or future? Will the work reflect realism as observed by others? Is the document worthy of reading, i.e., will the reader find it interesting? And, most importantly, Will the author enjoy putting the piece together in a presentable format; will it please the writer? If at least half of the answers to those questions are positive, the writer should make the effort to record, if not for personal reasons, then for the simple fact that someone might react to the work and opine silently or more openly to others about what has been read. In my estimation, in this story, all the answers to the above questions are, Yes. That being said, let’s look at the topic of interest.

In one’s lifetime, if a drive to achieve above the norm exists within the soul, mind and body of an individual, things happen which should be documented. The missteps, the hurdles overcome, the happenstances of one’s actions and the more-interesting events of one’s life might be set to type and be worth an afternoon or evening’s read. This story is about a teacher’s desire to make his subject come alive for his students. But, perhaps the real reason for the teacher’s motivation had to do with his fear, his fear of failure in the eyes of others. The protagonist in this tale is a person who grew up without the privilege of wealth, position and social standing. Surrounded by others more blessed with the right stuff, and a clear pathway to a better future, this individual had to find the ways to overcome what he thought to be the yoke of inopportunity. This is an account of a boy’s wanting to succeed in life, and he wanted to share what he had learned along the way with those in his classroom. And, in the end, it, this testament, is a portrayal of those students and their experiences which cement the idea that the teacher might have achieved his goal. Ya Should’a Been There.

CHAPTER 1

Hand-Me-Down-Shoes

For Floyd Sarvey, it would be hard to pinpoint just what made him feel inferior to those around him. It didn’t seem to be the little shack he and his mother shared–a two-room shed used by his grandmother to store her gardening tools– lawnmower and odds and ends collected over decades. Once his grandmother, the woman who loved him unconditionally, realized that Floyd’s mother, her daughter, needed help because of a husband who had jumped on a boxcar and rode the rails all the way to Texas to pursue better fields of opportunity, the little two-room collect-all was offered as a place of refuge.

No indoor plumbing. A two-seater outhouse stood close by for grandmother, her two boarders and now, her daughter and grandson. Other than a coal-fired cook stove, no heating would warm mother and son during the cold Western Pennsylvania winters. A single electric line was strung from the grandmother’s home to the little house, and this third-world country-hookup allowed for a lamp in each of the two rooms to light the interior. Never once did Floyd complain about his living conditions. A WWII army cot served as his bed, and grandmother’s handmade quilts provided a cocoon-like warmth for the little boy who thought he was so fortunate to live in such a place.

Floyd’s feelings of inadequacy came from other things. Floyd’s mother had an older sister who had escaped the poverty of a town fueled by coal mines and weighted down by beer-selling taverns which catered to men suffering from black-lung disease and women who had little opportunity to supplement the wages of their husbands. Floyd’s aunt had moved to a larger town down river along the Susquehanna. There, she married a man who respected her, treated her kindly and gave her two children. The husband and wife then started a beauty salon, and in a short time, the two became the town’s leading hairdressers. The income that business provided set them apart from a dismal past, and, to some degree, Floyd was to benefit.

Floyd soon became aware that he had two older cousins. On irregular visits to her mother up river, Floyd’s aunt and her husband would arrive driving a big, new car and unload boxes of used boys’ clothing and shoes. Those shoes, always run over at the heels, and not always the appropriate size, served Floyd through high school. He never once complained about blisters or scuff marks left on heavily-used leather. In school, Floyd kept his feet crossed under his desk so as to hide the run-over heels. Other than a pair of P.F. Flyers, his required footwear for gym class, Floyd never had a pair of his own shoes until Marine Corps boot camp. But, it was the sneakers which helped Floyd climb the first rung of the ladder leading upward in respectability. Floyd was an athlete.

In gym classes in high school, Floyd’s ability on the hardwoods came to the attention of the football coach. By the end of his senior year in high school, he had earned All County and All-District first-team recognition. At the time, smash-mouth football in Western Pennsylvania was popular, and Floyd was not one to back down from any challenge on the field or off. But, size was still important. Floyd was only five foot nine inches tall, and college coaches were looking for boys over six foot whose bodies would grow during weight work and eating at the training table. There was no money available for college tuition. Floyd’s mother had worked hard in a sweat-shop clothing mill, and there was no savings account to allow Floyd the opportunity for undergraduate school. Three days after his high school graduation, Floyd got off a train just outside Parris Island,