From Blue Gloves to Bird Attacks: Educators Share Their Wildest Work Stories

Pull up a chair for an unfiltered peek into the lives of educators as we share our most jaw-dropping, hilarious, and sometimes shocking moments from the classroom. From confrontations with angry parents wearing blue plastic gloves (to avoid leaving fingerprints!) to being chased through school hallways by a vengeful bird, these stories capture the unpredictable nature of working in education.

The episode begins with nostalgic conversations about regional sayings, childhood memories of candy ladies, freeze cups, and five-and-dime stores like Woolworth and Ben Franklin. We reminisce about cherry sodas, blue light specials, and the unique aspects of growing up in different parts of the country before diving into our professional experiences.

At the heart of this episode are the extraordinary workplace stories that have shaped our careers. You'll hear about a parent who arrived prepared for physical confrontation, a colleague who contaminated a potluck dessert with bare fingers, unexpected classroom interruptions, and the community connections that make teaching in challenging schools so meaningful. These aren't just entertaining anecdotes – they represent the resilience, adaptability, and humor required to thrive in education.

Beyond the classroom tales, we discuss career transitions, side-eye moments of the week (including suspicious work assignments and financial requests from adult children), and our excitement for the upcoming fall break. Whether you're an educator who will recognize these situations all too well or someone curious about what really happens behind school doors, these authentic stories offer both entertainment and insight into the profession.

Join us for laughter, reflection, and a celebration of the unpredictable journey that is a career in education. These refreshingly normal conversations reveal the extraordinary moments that make teaching simultaneously challenging and deeply rewarding.

Send us your Questions or Comments and we’ll answer them on the show.

Don't forget to Like, Comment, Share, and Subscribe.

Thank you for listening!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:10):
the refreshingly normal podcast.
Welcome back you guys.
This is is Keeflup Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
This is Kareem.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
And what are we?

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Refreshingly Normal Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thank you for joining us week in and week out.
We hope that we have beenentertaining, because I'm not
going to lie, I listen to us onthe way to work.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Me too, and I be laughing.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I be laughing too I like, I like those guys I think
they're hilarious.
Oh my gosh I could be friendswith them me too they sound uh
fun, a lot of fun and sound, anduh just a good couple to be
around sure they do right andyou say that now, until you get

(01:07):
on your weekends, you wouldn'teven want to hang around
yourself.
You'll be like I got to have myown privacy from me.
Like who is it?
It's Cresha.
Oh child, what does she want?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I just want to sit down.
Act like we ain't here.
She's going to be talking aboutthat, anyhoo, who?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
said, you said anyhoo too much.
Oh well, somebody no no, who'sthe main person?
Malachi, yes.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
But today at work somebody said anyhoo, and then
so they said they noticed it too.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh, they were saying it, okay and so they say.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Now they say any.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Who like Cree would say yeah, I was like I don't
even know.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
I said any who that much?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
but any, who, any, who, hey, you can say it.
It's like people from Texas sayalready.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh please, I'm so tired of that phrase.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Detroit.
What do the people from Detroitsay?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Oh, they say it on.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
BMF.
What up though?

Speaker 1 (02:03):
What up though?
Yeah, they say that on BMF.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
And down in New Orleans, mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
What do people say in California?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
I don't know.
Remember back in the day you'dsay gnarly yeah, or when they
say something dude yeah, gnarlydude yeah, dude yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
But we know they don't say that.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
We ain't never heard that in California, not our part
, not where we live in.
Yeah, what do we say in Alabama?

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Hey y'all, what y'all doing.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
What do y'all say in Kansas?
Hello, oh, okay, all right,yeah, okay, whatever.
In Kansas, y'all don't saynothing.
I'm not even going to saynothing wrong, because I don't
want to mess up our listeners.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
We say pop instead of soda.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
We say drink.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
We say pop.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, if we say hey, give me something to drink, and
then we say what kind Go get mea drink, what kind?

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Grape or red, go, get me a drink.
What?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
kind Grape or red.
Yeah, one of the best drinks,or drinks of all time.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Guess what.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Was the Czech black cherry.
The greatest soda drinkbeverage pop of all time was
Czech black cherry.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
We used to get them from Miss Heard in them house
right across from the park.
I don't know if we had Check,but we used to do more Shasta.
I don't even know if we hadCheck, but I remember Shasta.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Check used to always be in Piggly, wiggly and
Winn-Dixie.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
We didn't have neither of those stores.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
What did y'all have?

Speaker 1 (03:39):
We had Safeway Dillon's I think that's what
they were called Food for.
Less came later, after Safeway.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
We had a store called Greer's G-R-E-E-R-S.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
We had a.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Did y'all have?
Okay, what about your five anddime stores, like if you was?

Speaker 1 (04:01):
a kid, we had Woolworth.
Woolworth, that's just a five,and dime I thought Wool was a
kid.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
We had Woolworth.
Woolworth that's just a five.
And I thought Woolworth me.
When I heard people say stufflike Woolworth, I thought it was
like a Sears or something no,it was like uh.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Um, I think now we would think of it like uh.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Dollar General or something?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
no, that's too upclad Dollar General it would be like
a Walgreens, but it also hadlike a um, like a little sundae
ice cream oh god and tgny whatwas tgny um?
Kind of like k-mart, because wehad k-mart okay, well, that's

(04:37):
bigger.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
We didn't have a big source like that.
Yeah, we had k, we had k-mart,we had a Ben Franklin With a
blue light special.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
That was a real thing .

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Blue light special Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
That light go on.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
And you get a sale A sale was popping off Blue light
special for us men run Policecoming.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Oh man, we had that too.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, but we had a.
Ben Franklin was a five anddime.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Never heard of that.
Like we used to go get ourmarbles.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
We used to go get our little fish from you know.
We would get a fish for ourfish, our aquariums, uh, jacks
and all that kind of stuff.
We would get all those smallsmall things there, Um, all of
our candy.
Uh, so was that Ben Franklin.
Then, of course, we have familydollars.
Then we had another thingcalled Fred's.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
It was similar to a family no, I was like I've seen,
but I saw friends now withy'all no, they still got friends
.
Yeah, because when I used torun the rose garden trail oh,
that's right.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
That's right, it's down at the end of the rose
trail.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
That's right, I kept thinking but that was y'all not
not yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,that's right, that's right we
used to have a candy lady andlet me tell y'all my brother, oh
, when I was little he found aplace where he could get dollar
candy.
He would come back after adollar, have a hundred pieces of
candy, and I was like, oh man,where'd you get that candy from?
He was like I can't tell you,just give me your money and I'll

(05:53):
go get it for you.
And he never, ever would tell mewhere the candy lady was, and
he would just take my money,charge me a fee for riding his
bicycle to go get it and thenbring it back.
But we always had some sort ofcandy lady, but he never would
tell me who it was.
And because we have a six yearage gap I can't leave the block.

(06:16):
So he just kind of did me dirtyGotcha, anyways look at him.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
What did y'all call?
Kool-aid in a cup that?

Speaker 1 (06:29):
was frozen?

Speaker 2 (06:29):
I don't even know maybe we call them freeze cups
maybe we call it a freeze cupflip them upside down, but we
didn't do them in a cup, we didum.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Now maybe we were fancy.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Oh, my mom actually bought the ice pop I'm talking
about like from the candy,ladies, or whatever.
Oh, we ain't never bought thatfrom the candy ladies.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
No, we did pickles like now later.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, we had pickles.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
That sort of thing, but I never bought ice cream Now
.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Later we had Star Crunch, nutter Butters.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, but I never bought no ice pop.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Tony's mom used to sell freeze cups.
No, we didn't buy freeze cupsfrom the but she sold the big
ones, so they was that would becalled the ice cream man oh no,
we had ice cream man too, butnot cups, not the candy lady no,
freeze cups were like no, therewas people that sold freeze
cups.
There were people that soldcandy and chips and but, like
tony's mom, sold freeze cups.
Uh, um, remember sililus.

(07:23):
They used to sell the smallones, like in the, like the
mouthwash cups.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
They used to sell small free stuff for like 10
cent no and um maybe y'all hadthat because it's so like hot,
yeah, that was very.
I mean we get hot in the summerin Kansas, but we definitely
felt we got all the seasons likewe didn't.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
We didn't do no, and all that yeah, we didn't do
shaved ice, that was new orleansthing, um but we did have
freeze cups and then of course,people would actually sell the
actual, you know, the littlepops and the little plastic
thing.
People would sell those to, um,we sold uh pears because we had
, uh, my grand, mygreat-grandparents had pear
trees and so we would sell pears, cause we had uh, my grand, my

(08:04):
great grandparents had peartrees and so we would sell pears
.
And sometimes we would sell uhlike those little small, uh moth
wash cups filled with, uh,blackberries or any kind of
berries.
So some people would come andbuy berries from us for like a
nickel and stuff like that.
But it was just a little, alittle hustle.
Everybody was selling something.
Yeah, yeah, that was the goodold days.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Good old days so what about y'all?

Speaker 2 (08:27):
What did y'all sell out there in podcast land?
What did y'all sell?
Freeze cups, what did y'allcall them?
Did y'all call them freeze cups, freeze pops, frozen Kool-Aid?
You know what did y'all callthem?
What else?
Anything else called him umwhat else?

(08:48):
Anything else.
I don't know how we got on towhat y'all sold and foley but
we're talking about.
I guess we'll use, I don't know, but anyway, those are good
things, good time, yes, so whatuh?

Speaker 1 (09:00):
what good has transpired.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
We went out for my um birthday.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
We did.
It was a nice outing, but Idon't know what was in that food
.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
It did not agree with my tummy.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, it was a little different this time.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, I don't know.
I think that might be the lastbirthday there.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah, it might be.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, yeah, well, we'll go somewhere else, but it
was still a good time.
The way the staff is alwayssuper.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, very good.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Um and um.
They even gave you some freegoodies on the.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah .

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Hook me up.
Uh, oh, man, I wanted His namewas.
Did I say Sebastian?
I do not Fabian.
His name was Fabian.
Okay, fabian Fabian at theOptimus.
Yeah, top notch customerservice at the front.
But, like I said, we frequentthere all the time.

(09:56):
I got a stack of menus becauseon a menu they stamp your
birthday.
We got them down there by thelaundry room on the particle
board.
But, yeah, he hooked me up witha nice, uh, trucker's hat and a
shirt, um, and let's see whatelse uh.
Saturday uh, I was glad kahariwas able to get off work so that

(10:18):
he and his brother can enjoysome uh personal time.
he went with kimani to see pjmorton I wanted to go to that
concert because I love pj mortontoo, but I wanted to you know
him and his brother to do somethings you know together because
, they've been kind of, you know, since his brother got to look
girlfriend, they always dothings themselves.
I wanted them to have some wayof school yeah, but I wanted

(10:40):
them to have their littlebrother time yeah and they said,
they said they enjoyedthemselves.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, yeah, I asked because Kihari's music is very
eclectic.
Yeah, he'll do some heavy metaland he'll do some rap.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Still, yeah, and his music Because he likes Tyler the
Creator.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, and his music is just very eclectic.
Yeah, it wouldn't be what wouldbe in my, I guess.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Neither one of their whole playlists would be in.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
No, here's something funny about Kimani.
So Kimani likes jazz.
And what's that?
One man?
He said when he got his car hewas going to ride around with
his.
When he first, when he got hiscar, he was going to ride around
and listen to Georgeorge bensongeorge benson I said kimani,
this was when he was 16.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
He was like when I get my?

Speaker 1 (11:32):
license.
I'm gonna ride around fridaynight with my friends and we
gonna listen to george benson.
I said ain't nobody gonna ridewith you and then one day he
confessed to us and said that heused to love Frank Sinatra.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
He used to sing him in the shower.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
He's just all about this whole sophisticated vibe.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
He loves old stuff like nostalgia, old nostalgia.
Yeah, he just loves it, butit's not nostalgic for him,
because nostalgia is memoriesthat one will relive, but for
whatever reason he connects.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Maybe in his previous life, yeah, he kind of was that
you know like had the, thesmoker's jacket, and he loves.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
He used to wear fedoras all the time.
He's a kid.
That might have been like hisprevious.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Maybe he lived in the harlem renaissance yeah, and he
was just like, yeah, that hemight have his previous life,
might have been in the harlemrenaissance, yeah, so anywho um
because even his little thingwhen he would say something.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
What was his little gesture?
Wink and a gun baby.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
So he really enjoys PJ Morton and he has not well a
concert of his choosing.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, let him tell it .
He's been to one before.
That was the uh jingle ball jamback when we jingle, yeah when
we had our exchange student fromjapan with us hottaway and it
was at uh state farm arena,uh-huh, and it was 10 years ago,
right, maybe remember.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
We saw the thing said 10 years ago, hottaway was here
okay and it was justin bieberuh nick jonas nick jonas, sixth
degree, what are they called?

Speaker 2 (13:09):
fifth degree.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Fifth harmony fifth harmony, and I forget some other
people that were there and themain one was did we say justin
bieber, justin bieber, yeah?
And so our exchange student wasjust so excited about going she
was in heaven.
But never have I been to aconcert field with teenage girls

(13:29):
.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, yeah, me neither.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
And the pitch of their scream.
I mean from the beginning tothe end, they just screamed and
the boys were miserable.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
They were like when are we leaving?

Speaker 2 (13:45):
so they were sitting like right underneath, like a
family of them they were just,oh my god, they were screaming,
screaming, screaming anywho um.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
So this, this concert , was, he felt like, was his
first official concert that he'dgone to, so they got to go
together.
I asked kahari how was it?
And he said you know it's notmy typical music he goes, but it
was a vibe, we had a good time.
So he knew they had a good timeand he even had a old drink.

(14:20):
Oh, yeah, I asked mine.
I go what drink did you have?
A gin and tonic?
I go okay, I don't think I'veever had a gin, I've never in my
life had gin tonic and I don'tplan on it and you know I like
to experiment.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah, catch up on my 35 years of not drinking.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, nah.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
I don't need to do that.
So they did the concert.
Um, we just went, I guess, todinner.
Nothing big, but just had alocal pizza place, went and did
dinner.
Yeah, we wanted to go to getsome chicken Philly from the
Philly spot yeah, but they weresold out sold out of chicken
Philly, so I couldn't do that,so we knew that's what we did

(15:01):
and yeah, that's that was ourfun.
That was our fun for the weekthat was our fun.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
We enjoyed ourselves.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
So how's work?
Everything's good.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
It's busy.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Busy.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, busy Creating new presentations or
professional learningopportunities new presentations
or professional learningopportunities.
So I've been in the mix ofupdating, creating and
delivering.
So yeah, that's where work'sbeen Super busy.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
I'm about to get busy , but like because I was
preparing an IEP, but it comesright when we get back.
So October is always a busymonth for IEPs, for annual
evaluations, and then I got afew re-evaluations to make sure
that they're still eligible forservices.

(15:55):
But once I knock out October, Ithink I got four in October
because I only have 10 kids inmy caseload, and then I have one
in December and I'm over halfof my caseload for the rest of
the year.
But you gotta, I think wenormally try to get them done by
March, just in case kidstransfer and all that stuff.

(16:17):
You like to always try to havetheir stuff and so uh.
But once I get this first onedone and I because it's the
verbiage that you have to saywhen you're in the meeting, you
know, once I get that back, Ithink I'll be good Because, like
last time when I was doing it,support man, I would, I would

(16:39):
not IAPs out.
I'm talking about boom, boom,boom, no problem, no problem at
all.
So I know I'll get back to thatpoint and, like I said, I
thought about it.
I said, if they ask, you know,one of the teachers said so
you're going back to PE.
I said actually no, I think I'mgood.
I think this is where I'll be,because I love being able to
come home from work.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Praise Jesus child.
Just let me tell y'allsomething Before the year
started from April.
When did he find out that therewas going to be a change?
April or May I?

Speaker 2 (17:14):
think it was before April.
Anywho, I'm thinking aboutApril.
No, yeah, it was a little bitbefore April.
There was so much angst.
We're still in baseball, yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
And sulking.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
And just a gray cloud .

Speaker 2 (17:33):
I think it was the manner of it all.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Just a gray cloud over his head.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
And so some days I just let him stay, because one
time I tried to be positive andI got shut right on down.
So I said you know what?

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Cause I listen.
I'm not even gonna say it.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
I'll let you say that .

Speaker 2 (17:53):
No, I don't want to say it.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Why Cause?
I don't want to say it why.
Is it going to be offensive, no, just keep talking.
Um anyways, so I anyways.
So I said let me not saynothing because those are his
feelings, all feelings are validand I can't get him out of what
he's not ready to feel, and sojust let him go through all the

(18:17):
feelings.
So I just didn't try to saythings to help him to get out of
the dark cloud.
I just let him experience itand work through it on his own.
So that's what I did.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
You did a good job with that too, because both you
and I are both are fixers, andit's hard for us to just be a
sounding board.
You know what I mean.
It's very hard for and Iapplaud you for that because
sometimes we do need it,sometimes we don't need results,
we just need to.
Just let me get out what I'mfeeling.
Yep.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
You know, I realized that, so I said let me just let
him work through all of hisfeelings.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
But it was just a matter of it all really, and
because I would stay in PE if Icould do middle, preferably
elementary, because you know,once you're in middle and
elementary I don't have to coach.
But in high school you'rerequired to coach per you know,
principal's discretion and then,depending on your school, if

(19:17):
you don't have enough coaches inthe building, there are people
that want to coach then yes, ofcourse you're going to be
coaching.
But I didn't get into theprofession to coach.
Like there are some coaches,they'll tell you I'm not a
teacher.
I became a teacher so I couldcoach and I was like okay, I
became a teacher primarily so Icould have the summers off and

(19:39):
audition in the summer.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
I was going to say, wait a minute.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
That's why I became a teacher to have the audition in
the summer.
But, but I also chose it becauseit was something that was in
line with who I am as a person.
You know what I mean and youknow something that I do believe
I'm good at, and I didn't do itto coach and even though I like

(20:02):
, coaching is something that I'mgood at.
I'm good at being able to bringthe least of the talented up to
be able to perform, you know.
But you know it's justdifferent man, but I'm glad
where I am right now.
I'm blessed I got a job,especially in today's economy.
I'm saying I got a job we canstill keep the light on, you

(20:25):
know.
So, uh, let's see so today,speaking of work, that's why.
That's why I kind of jumped inwith work.
Okay, uh, let's talk about someextraordinary moments on the
job okay funny, scary, I can'tbelieve it, or whatever.
What are your moments that youcan think of?

(20:47):
We can go one for one, we can.
You can start wherever you wantto start.
I got a few and many of the feware in the same school, same
person, different scenarios.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yes, we share those together yes, we do.
Um, let me see, I will sharethis one story, okay, and then
I'm not gonna.
I believe, if y'all don't know,we have had the opportunity of
teaching in a variety of places,so, um, it'll be hard to decide
where is this at, because I'vetaught in Kansas, I've taught in
Texas, I've taught inCalifornia, I've taught in

(21:32):
Georgia, so, anywho, one ofthese places when I was a school
counselor.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
I may give it away no , because you was a school
counselor in two counties ohyeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, all right.
So in one of these places,school counselor, um, we had a
little family of children reallystruggling getting to school,
doing all the things, gettingschool on time, behaving while
they were at school, making goodchoices, all things.
And so the social worker wentout to figure out why are they

(22:09):
late?
Do they live where they saythey live?
And they did not live wherethey say they lived.
So, um, I just keep going.
And he said hey, miss Hare, Ineed you to call Miss such and

(22:30):
such and let her know we did awellness check.
They don't live where they saythey live.
We are unenrolling their herchildren today.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Now, was that your job, or that should have been
something he should have done?

Speaker 1 (22:45):
no, it may be the social workers.
That's the one who did thewellness check and I feel like
it was initiation.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
I feel like yeah, that's what I said.
Are you doing?
Are you doing a dirty work?

Speaker 1 (22:55):
yes, I think so, because I also it was my first
year as a school counselor andso you know, you just learn all
the things and I'm like, okay,you said I got to do it, let me
call.
So I called, I was like, oh,thank goodness it's the
voicemail.

(23:15):
So I left the voicemail andsaid, hey, listen, give us a
call back at the school.
You know we've done a wellnesscheck and realized that you all
don't live at the address, so weneed to figure out some
enrollment things.
Just know that, as of today,your children are unenrolled

(23:37):
from our school.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Okay, hold on, put a pin right there.
Yeah, when you say voicemail.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
And that just made me laugh, because think about
where we have taught yeah whenthat number shows up on caller
id.
They don't answer.
It's gonna go what voicemail?

Speaker 1 (23:55):
because they that's what made me laugh.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
it's like, oh well, pretty much all our calls would
go to voicemail whenever we yes.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Because they know their children are challenging.
So, anywho, so I didn't hearback from her the next day, the
kids did not show up to school.
And then the next thing I know,their front office says hey, Ms
Hare, such and such is here tosee you.

(24:24):
And so I go up and who?

Speaker 2 (24:28):
was such as such.
Was it the parent?
Okay, there we go.
The parent, the mama that youcalled and left a voicemail.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
So I really wasn't that nervous about it.
But then when I got up there Isaid, oh, she pissed, and so um
how could you tell just herdemeanor?

Speaker 2 (24:49):
did she have a hand on her hip, with her hand
backwards?

Speaker 1 (24:52):
I can't remember how it was cause.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
You know, when that hand backwards like this on that
hip that's business.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
The one reason why I knew she was was because then
she started walking like likeGeorge Jefferson, like yeah,
yeah like she was like yeah, soI was like oh, like I might, I
might be, getting ready to getwhooped.
So I just said okay.
So I just said lord.

(25:21):
So I said come on in, just comeon in.
Like I try to use my littlehigh pitched country tone
because that gets me out ofeverything.
It helps, it helps, it doeshelp this one teacher I work
with.
She said Cree, you think whenyou, if you use that high
pitched country tone, that it'snot offensive?

(25:44):
But it is.
But anywho, I I said come on,just come on in.
So she came into my office andshe was like what y'all mean?
Y'all enroll my children.
I said listen, now I will tellyou.
When I was in college and partof cause, I graduated early from

(26:05):
high school, a semester early.
So I started working at thebank.
The biggest thing for the bankwas customer service because
you're dealing with people'smoney, and so the training on
customer service for the bankhas helped me with dealing with
parents really yes, becausemoney is as sensitive as their
children.
So the biggest thing is tolisten to them and then to agree

(26:29):
and then to say I'm here tohelp you.
Let's figure this out together.
We want the children here, butlet's figure out what's going on
, and so I try to keep that kindof tone, and so I could see her
kind of just coming down, likeI was bringing her down,
bringing her down, bringing herdown oh, bank teller yeah, my

(26:52):
bank teller skills, okay,customer service.
So I finally got her all theway down what bank was this?
um interest banking oh interestinterest bank, um, and so I
brought her down and find, andso, anywho, later that day my
principal said whew, I'm so gladeverything went all right.

(27:14):
I said what you talking about?
You didn't see her with themblue plastic gloves on.
I did see her with the blueplastic gloves, but I thought
those gloves were.
Maybe she worked, you knowmedical field, you know I was in
the hood oh yeah so I was likeI didn't know why she had them

(27:36):
on.
I mean I mean it's been.
It was lots of craziness um andshe and I said the problem is,
they saw them.
Yes.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
If it would have went left.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
So, that was the problem.
And so then I said, no, whydoes she have on the blue
plastic gloves?
And you know, this person hadthe nerve to say to me he said
it's funny now, but it wouldhave been funny if it would have
gone the other way.
He said, because she said shedidn't want to leave no

(28:13):
fingerprints on your face.
Y'all heard what I said.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Y'all heard, I heard.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
And I said what?
Hmm, she's going to leave somefingerprints on her face, so she
brought them blue gloves.
So she brought them blue gloves.
But luckily I did have somesort of customer service, some
sort of training, some sort ofsomething, because I might have

(28:42):
felt like I got to go toe-to-toewith her, she walking in here,
like you know, and so, anywho,it worked out fine and all, but
from that day moving forward, Iwas her girl and when she came
to this school she didn't wantto talk to nobody but Miss Hair.
But yeah, that was crazy.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, we didn't want your third fight elbow to be in
the hood.
Oh child, we didn't want yourthird fight able to be in the
hood.
Oh child, we didn't want thatto happen.
I'm not a fighter, I'm a lover,okay then, fighter lover All
right.
So let's see when should Istart.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Um you're talking about the one person in all the
stories yes, okay, go with your,okay.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
So I mean, but then I don't mind saying where I went,
where this happened, that forme we was in texas, and I don't
know the order of the events, soI'm gonna give you one, all
right.
The first one that related toyou was we used to have those

(29:47):
potlucks and you know peoplewould bring food and y'all know
how we are.
We need to know who's bringingwhat right, and so, but she
wasn't the one that brought thatone.
I thought it was someone elsethat brought it.
Oh she did.
I just know I saw she broughtit, you else that brought it?
Oh, she did.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
I just know, I saw she brought it.
You had gone before me.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yes, I went before you and I was in the break room
and I was grabbing stuff that Iknew who bought stuff, like Ms
Holcomb brought something.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
It was all in the library.
It was all lined up in thelibrary.
That's where it was.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
I thought it was right across the.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Mm-mm.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
It was all lined up in the library.
Remember that little break roomwe had right across from PE.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, but that wasn't what it was.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
I could have sworn.
That's what it was.
All the food was lined up inthe library.
It was during school, though.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
It was during school.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Because I remember, wherever it was.
I remember going in there and,like I said, I had a list of
stuff that people had.
They said I bought this, Ibought this.
I said, all right, cool, I'mgoing to go try it.
And then I saw that cherrycrunch and I was like, oh, that
looks good.
I wonder who bought that.
Cherry crumble Crumble yeah,like apple crumble, is one of my
favorites Any kind of crumbles,that's good.
And so I saw this one teacherin there, this saying she's a

(31:00):
piece of work, and so she was inthere and she reached in there
and there was spoons and servingstuff right in front of it and
she reached her hand with herfingers like this, and pinched
into the cherry crumble and said, mmm, it's good, this is fresh,
and that's why I thought it wasshe made it.
She made it, but I don't knowif she made it.

(31:21):
That's what I'm saying.
I don't think she made it, Ithink she tried it.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
All this time you told me that she made it Listen.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
All right.
Whoever I was at the time toldher that she made it.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
But the person that went into the room saw her reach
in there with her three fingerslike this, pinch it and say
this is fresh, I like this, thisis so good.
And I said, oh, and I took offrunning because I went before
everybody went and I and she wasespecially a teacher I ran in

(32:00):
there and I said don't nobodyeat the crumble, please don't
eat the crumble.
Because Miss such and such justreached her hand in there,
pinched it and put it in hermouth and ate it and they was
like oh no, oh hell, no, I'm notgonna eat.
That.
That was one incident.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Okay, another incident well, that, yeah, I
remember coming down the hallwayto go to the potluck and you
was like wait, wait, wait.
I was like what, what?
I know you like cherry crumble.
That's one of your favoritethings.
Don't eat the cherry crumble.
I was like why, why?
Oh, I was getting ready to sayher name Miss such and such.

(32:37):
Reached in there, reached inthere and ate it with her
fingers.
I was like oh no.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
She reached in there Disgusting, disgusting,
disgusting.
And then another moment she wasFor the underwear, because I
used to stay.
No, not the underwear, I got tosave that one for later, okay.
But this one was like, becauseit was elementary school, but I
always I love that school.
We would stay after school andopen the gym up to the people in
the community, you know, likethe dads and just some of the

(33:04):
family, just to come and hoop,because it was, it was a a hard
area.
Yeah, you know, south Dallas,it was a rough area in South
Dallas, but they love thatschool and so we will open the
gym up and let people hoop andstuff and we would just sit
there, I mean man, hours at atime, just, you know, chilling
with people.
So it was.
It was like we got out likethree something Right, and so it

(33:26):
was.
It was like we got out likethree something right, and so it
was like 5, 30 and she's stillthere and we like, why are you
not going?
So she was.
She said um, my husband, hekeeps driving past me and I was
like what do you mean?
See, I go out to the door andthen I see him and I wave my
hand.
He just drives and just driveslike he doesn't see me and so he

(33:50):
did it for like an hour, so hewould wait like 20 minutes and
come back around and she waslike and drives, and he just
kept doing that to her and theneventually, like cause she
called him on that's when peoplewas just getting the cell phone
.
Everybody didn't have a cellphone.
Those were the like because shehad.
She called him on that's whenpeople just getting the cell
phone, everybody didn't have acell phone.
Those are little flip ones.
And she called him and she saidI am right here.

(34:11):
So she stood out instead ofstanding at the steps, she went
out to the street, yeah, and shewas like right there when he
came by and she kind ofsurprised, oh I gotta stop now.
And got in the car.
And another moment with her washe was getting disability, right
, and this joker had.
He was out of work for going ontwo years.

(34:33):
She found out that he was stillgetting disability, not sharing
anything with her, and she waspicking up extra jobs doing
different things after school,tutoring stuff, like that.
All right, um, what's the otherincident?
The other incident?
Okay, so she had special ed kidsand every now and then they

(34:57):
would call the front desk to youknow, say hey, because it was
two, it was three coaches in thegym.
And sometimes they would callin the gym, say, hey, coach, you
know, can you?
Uh, coach harry, can you go tosuch and such room?
And you know, uh, cover theirroom while they go.
Can you go to miss scott roomand cover her room because she
has diarrhea?
You know something like that.
And so, uh, just so happened,um, I'm at the front desk

(35:22):
because I always went to thefront desk with joke around with
the latest miss, um, miss walland miss McKee.
And so, uh, I'm sitting thereand miss, I won't say anything.
She goes.
She's like here, are you happy?
Boom Puts a bag, um, like alittle you know grocery bag,

(35:42):
like a little plastic, set onthe counter and we're like what
is this?
It's my clothes, my underwear.
We're like, oh, and Ms Ball'slike, get that off of here.
It's like what I called up hereand told you.
I had to go to the bathroom.
Nobody covered for me.
Now I'm going to mess my pants.

(36:02):
And I was like what?
And she was like so I rushed tothe bathroom and didn't make it
in time and I messed up mypants here.
Are you happy?
And I was like if you don't getthese clothes off my counter.
I know something and so thewhole time thing I said so now
she walking around here with nodrawers on In public Because

(36:27):
they on the countertop now.
So that was one incident.
And then the last incident thatI'll talk about, uh, was we had
to go to a training somewhereand we were sitting there and
she was like um, we, they hadoffered us something to drink
and she was drinking, she wasswishing it.
I was like Mrs Suss, you allright?
She was like, yeah, just thismorning I was brushing my teeth

(36:52):
and then noticed that my teethfelt funny and I was like yo,
what happened?
You got to go to Disney.
No, I looked down and noticedthat I was brushing my teeth
with my diaper rash ointment andI was like what she said,
because I'm real chafe up onthis.
She was rubbing like all this,I'm real chafe right here and my

(37:13):
ointment was where mytoothpaste was.
I bet her husband did that onpurpose, like put the diaper
rash right there.
And so she said she had brushedher mouth, her teeth, with her
diaper rash ointment.
And this is a grown ladyteaching kids Grown grown.
Yes, teaching kids.
So I was like you know.
That was my most excitingmoments.

(37:36):
Well, I guess fun moments onthe job.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
I remember with her one day when I was in the maybe
I was warming up my lunch or inthe little lunchroom and she was
eating and I noticed every dayshe was eating her lunch and she
was drinking a Slim Fast and Iwas like, no, is she trying to

(37:59):
lose weight?
Well, I knew she was trying tolose weight.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
You look at her.
You knew she was trying to loseweight.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
And I said hey, miss such and such.
I said you know the the swimfast is a meal replacement shake
.
I was like, so you're justsupposed to have that, not that,
and a meal like you're supposedto have that by itself.

(38:25):
She goes, I know, but I justget so hungry and I said okay.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
So her SlimFast was her sweet tea with her lunch.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yes, Child a mess.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
She was.
She was that school alone man.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Oh, it's a ton of stories.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
guys Like that lady who was in our department
meeting.
You remember the lady that toldher I need to smoke.
Smoke all day, like she justsmoked all day and so we're in
the meeting Next thing you know.
She eating grapes and I'm allthe way across the room.
Tons of people, I'm likesitting by the door.

(39:06):
She's way over there and allshe said and she's choking,
everybody looking at her, nobodypats on the back, nothing.
And I'm across the room andeverybody just looking at like
oh oh lord, oh oh, oh lord.
And it was like are you choking?
and she couldn't talk, so youknow, she was choking, choking,

(39:26):
and so I'm like I'm looking likeyou know I did.
I did just like I said and Igot up and I ran across the room
and I got behind her and thatgrape popped out, oh lord oh
lord, that's not funny baby.
You saved me.
Baby, I was dying.
I was dying.

(39:46):
You saved me and I was likeit's all right, it's all no,
baby.
I saw, oh, I saw I was lookingat all y'all for the last time.
You saved me.
You said, and she promised I'mgonna take care of you.
Oh, trust me, oh, I gotsomething for you.
What's?

Speaker 1 (40:05):
she brought you Nothing ever.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
No other thank you.
After that it was back to asbusiness as usual and I wasn't
doing it for no things, but it'slike dang, you know, could have
brought a brother a gift card.
I was a gift card king back inthe days and that was it, but
nothing.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Nothing.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
You remember, was it?
But nothing, nothing.
You remember when bud we evergot in a fight?
Yes, I do well, you remember.
You remember when uh green ranfrom them bees during field
field day and you remember I ranfrom that bird so crazy it was
a bird it was.
It looked like somebody's housebird, like a canary or
something like that.
It was outside where we wouldnormally line up for pe.

(40:49):
I'm lining up from lunch,coming back from the lunchroom,
on the little what's that littlecauseway like thing like an
awning.
Yeah, the awning uh-huh and soum the uh.
I saw the bird over there bylike that power box.
You know, everybody has thoselittle green power boxes or
whatever you might have them inyour front yard, but the school
has a big one.
It was the bird just sittingthere, something looking, and

(41:10):
all of a sudden it flew by mewho's had a nest nearby I don't,
I don't know, but I would.
I've been there all the time andnothing.
And then, all of a sudden,something flew behind me that
way.
I said what in the world?
And I'm looking, I said this,and he's just sitting there as I
move and he's just watching me,I move, he watched me again.
I said this bird trying to comeget me.

(41:32):
And then he flew right, he's a,and I ducked and all of a
sudden he came back.
I took off, running, I'm.
So I ran.
I was outside already, so I ranon the side of the school and
he was right there behind me.
I I'm ducking, ducking, ducking, and I'm running by kids.
I hope, you know, hopefullyhe'll run by the kids and get on
them instead of me.
And so then all of a sudden, Irun to the side of the door and

(41:55):
the door was like just gettingready to open.
I dipped through the door,through the school.
I'm running through the hallwaythe bird's right behind me the
whole time.
Through the hallway.
I'm screaming get him, get him,get him, get him.
And I don't know where.
I think I dipped back throughthe gym and I ran back outside
and he took off.
I mean, everybody and theirgrandmama that was outside was

(42:18):
laughing at me.
Coach, yeah, you was runningfrom that bird, you was running
from that.
You were right, I was runningfrom that.
But you're right, I was runningfrom that bird.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
that bird was trying to attack me.
It had a nest or somethingnearby.
He had something, but whateverit was I I don't know, or maybe
it was my shiny head I rememberwhen I did my student teaching
and it was so social is not myjam, but you know, you're an
elementary teacher, you have toteach everything, and so I was
still trying to work at the mallin the evening during my
student teaching, so I didn'treally prep well for my lesson

(42:55):
and I forget what the lesson wasabout, but I went from one time
period to a whole other timeperiod.
That was not what it was and Icould see the kids kind of
looking at me like what is shetalking about?
So then I looked am I sayingsomething wrong?
I look at my student teacher.
She's like my supervisor teacherand she was like so she came up

(43:22):
and she's like well, I'm goingto help finish up this lesson.
And so I was like so after thatI I was like I cannot work.
I got to be prepared, but likesocial studies was never my jam,
like I have to teach all ofthat history.
But from there I was like neveragain will that happen to me.
And so to prepare myself duringthat.

(43:43):
But that was like I was soembarrassed.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Well, it was kind of didn't say nothing.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
No, the kids, they were just kind of looking like I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
And my kids told me Coach, you don't know what
you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
No, they didn't do that when I did student teaching
.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
I said I really don't .
And I said this is my first daystudent teaching and my
supervisor teacher ain't evenhere.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
I was thrown in the fire.
Oh, I had the best supervisorteacher.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
Because he was a coach.
And when he finally had astudent teacher.
He literally left the lessonplan and dipped.
Oh, yeah, and for the firstweek he was in bus driver
training and then when he cameback they was like Coach, he
don't know what he talking about.
I said I do.
I said I do.
I said I'm just teaching y'allsomething different.
Nah, you ain't teaching likecoach, because I had him doing

(44:29):
work and stuff too, and you knowfootball coaches a lot of times
don't have him do nothing.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
I will say I wasn't.
I must have been pretty good,because the next year they tried
to get me a job.
But I had already gotten a joband they tried to talk me out of
the job I took to come there.
So in the end, there you go.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
You had the last laugh I did.
I didn't even apply.
You didn't I didn't apply whenI graduated.
I was trying to move.
I moved to stay with Aunt Belle.
I left.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
I didn't apply there.
I was at my new school becauseI graduated college in December.
So then it was a long-term subposition.
So I was working the long-termsub position at another school
and that principal from mystudent teaching called me in my
classroom.
She called me.
She found me, however, and shecalled and she said we're

(45:22):
interested.
You know, take some time tothink about it.
And then I remember myprincipal at the school that I
was doing my long-term sub.
What does she want?
And I go.
What do you mean?
She offered you a job, I said.
She did.
What are you going to do?
I go.
I'm not sure what I'm going todo yet, and so Did the principal

(45:43):
there?

Speaker 2 (45:43):
offer you a job too.
Yeah, they both offered she waslike oh, I better jump on it
before she go.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
The only reason that I chose the school I was subbing
at was because it was Edison.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
School and they paid more money.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Yeah, paid more, and you know, back then in the year
2000,.
You know, teachers was makingcrumbs, I mean really now we
still make crumbs.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Was it less when you were there than it was at Dallas
?

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yes, so in Wichita I made 31.
I think my first was 31,000.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Because Dallas was 41 , wasn't it?
Yeah, that's why I moved toDallas.
That was $10,000 difference.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
Yeah, $10,000 difference, but my first
teaching job was $31,500, and Ithought I was doing it.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Because Dallas gave me, because they started me at
41, but they gave me becausethey gave me my military.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Okay, because I didn't have no teaching
experience.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
so they gave me my military experience Same with
when I went to Cobb inCalifornia.
They they honored three yearsof military on the on the steps
for the teaching standards.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
So yep, Though I remember that oh any other job?
Uh yeah, in one of my schools Ihad um, I had a.
I had a large class fourthgraders.
I had a large class Fourthgraders.
I believe I had somewherebetween 32 to 35 students.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
That's a big class for little ones.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
That's a lot of kids.
Not only that, there were nospecials connections.
I was the specials connections.
I had to teach all the things,do all the things, yeah, do
music.
Yes, had to teach music, had toteach PE.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
What was the name of your school?
Little House on Prairie.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Had to teach PE, had to teach music.
There were no specials.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
That's two classes.
They failed.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
So yeah, we just talked about the history Jazz.
I'd be like what, what am Igoing to do Jazz?

Speaker 2 (47:57):
do you know what jazz really was?

Speaker 1 (47:59):
Jazz was something like this they would count the
Christmas program as like.
Oh, okay, like stuff like thatwe would do, and so 32, 35 kids
in this classroom and I had somechallenging behaviors.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Where was this at?

Speaker 1 (48:18):
California.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Well, no, it had to be the one school, Because after
that you was at the privateschool.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Yeah, yeah, had some challenging behaviors.
So one of my little ladies Icalled I think there was, yeah,
her aunt.
It wasn't her mom, I think washer aunt you want to say she
wouldn't answer the phone?
No, that's a different littlechild that same class yeah um, I
called because she wasmisbehaving and just kind of
letting her know that you knowshe was having a challenging day

(48:46):
.
You know, just kind of giveinforming her of that.
So I'm going on with the daywe're teaching and doing all
things.
All of a sudden my classroomdoor swings open and she's like
um, got that belt like a sword.
She went to that baby's deskand whipped her right up out of

(49:10):
that desk, up out of that door,all the kids were like oh, and I
was like oh, I've been therebefore.
And I mean I promise it was likeso fast, it was so fast, it was

(49:33):
so fast.
She got up and said I bet nothave to come back and was gone.
And so I called the frontoffice and I was like um, did
y'all know that such and suchmama?

Speaker 2 (49:40):
or aunt or somebody came.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
They said, yeah, we saw her.
I said, do y'all know?
She came here and whooped herbutt.
And they're like, uh, no, I'mlike why would y'all I'm in the
middle of instruction why wouldyou let her come in and then not
even call and say, hey, misshair, such and such mama's here,
did you know she was coming?
I don't know, did she sneakpast?
Right did she not pull the beltoff till she got past him?

(50:05):
But, honey, she tore her buttup.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Did the girl behave after that?

Speaker 1 (50:12):
oh, let me tell you.
Oh no, she was so embarrassedbecause then when we went to
recess she had a sister andeverybody was telling her sister
about what happened and she waslike I can't go, please don't
make me go to recess, pleasedon't make me go to recess.
They gonna be talking about.

(50:33):
And she was so upset.
I said, sweetheart, you've gotto go to lunch, you've got to go
to recess because we had dutyfree.
I was like I got to go eat mylunch.
I said you're going to have togo and she said no, I'm okay,
but I'm telling you, moving thatday forward, no problem.
Not a one, that's what it takes,sometimes Not all, but I had to

(50:56):
write up a whole report.
That's what happened to me.
I got.
Back in the day they wasn'tgoing to.
That was fine.
I had to write up a wholereport about this ant coming in
and doing that and all thethings and it was.
It was just yeah 10 they had.
Yeah, I was so shocked.
I think that's the one, onlytime that's ever, because
typically the front office willbe like hold on yeah, or they'll

(51:19):
call up here for they'll calland say answer the door yeah, um
, that was.
That was the only time I've everhad anything like that happen.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
What's her name?
Mama whooped her at Blair, whoI want to say it was.
Was it her name?
Dad?
I want to say it was Mama, yeahwhooped her at Blair.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
Now Blair was a special place.
It was.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Yeah, she whooped in the gym.
Wow, whooped in the gym.
Well, whooped in the gym,mm-hmm During school.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
I've seen a lot of parents that well, what they'll
say is, in all my many years ofeducation, they'll just check
their child out.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
And go do their discipline.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
No, they got them, but Texas was different yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Texas was different.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
You could paddle and stuff too.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
Yeah, there was corporal punishment.
Yeah, it was different.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
But she came and whooped her in the gym.
That lady was something else,remember she?

Speaker 1 (52:13):
Well, anyway, we're not going to share that little
story because that is a littlebit vulgar.
We'll talk about.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
But let's see, don't even say that, because we're
going to tell the story one day,but it ain't you know.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
Let me tell you we could write.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Just on that one.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
We could write for Abbott Elementary.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Yes, of course, we definitely could.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
We could definitely With what happened at Blair.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Oh yeah, we would be there.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
Yes, it was something .

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
But it was fun.
So we were uh, eddie and janine, yeah, we were.
We were eddie and janine, yeah,but it was, it was, it was it
was and we did have mr johnson.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
We had a few of them, mr johnson's crazy sales, those
custodians we had.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Lord have mercy who would be barbara.
Miss holcomb, that's what I wasgonna say miss holcomb was
barbara.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Miss holcomb was barbara and green would be
tyreek that would be tyreek yeahand uh what?
What was uh my frat brother?
He would be uh who my fratbrother?
That was uh in the trailer uh,yeah, what was his name?

(53:34):
He taught sixth grade.
I forget, real skinny, I forgethe would be.
Uh, eddie's friend, how he uh.
Oh man, what's Eddie's friend?
The white guy, what's his name?
Oh god, but that's what hewould be yeah.
Yeah, that was really yeah ohman, yeah, we could, we
definitely have, uh, our ownabbott elementary, yeah, and uh,

(53:56):
let's see anything else but ourprincipal was not like ava, no,
no our principal was amazing.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
she worked, she worked hard.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
Yeah, like the back to school when you had the
ponies and stuff, the ponies thejumping thing the bungee thing,
a little merry-go-round thing,I mean, she did so many things
to get those.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
Like for it to be a title one school.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
In the hood I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
I mean we have room parents yeah like I like for my,
my mama, my room parent, missmoore, that was the best room
parent ever and um, she wouldcall certain days and say, miss
scott, um, the kids said theywanted food today, ask them what
they would like for me to bring, and I said, ms Morris, on the

(54:47):
phone, y'all.
She says what do y'all want fory'all's treat today?
Church chicken.
And tell her, don't forget thepampas, don't forget the pampas,
and she would go and get mybabies whatever they wanted, and
her son For my students.
I always wanted to feel like myclassroom, no matter what, to

(55:09):
always feel like family.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Like.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
I made sure they felt like brothers and sisters and
they, like you know, I justtried to make it feel that way
and so I talk about my personallife and all the things with
them and I remember mentioning,I think I said what'd you do
over the weekend?
He said, oh, after church wewent to Golden Corral.
I said, oh, I love those rowsat Golden Corral.

(55:33):
Oh, they my favorite.
So next thing, I know he istrying to steal the next Sunday
a whole bunch of rows fromGolden Corral to bring them to
me.
She said bunch of rolls fromgolden corral to bring them to
me.
She said miss moore said mybaby was trying to steal uh,
those rolls from golden corralfor you.

(55:54):
I said, oh, I did tell him thatI like him and so, um, she was
like.
I told him no, you can't bringyou, you can't take rolls from
golden corral, but anywho, itwas.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
That was just a very special, sweet place it was it
was yeah, I, I mean, if I think,if people could experience that
, whether it was attendingschool uh, especially under the
principle we had the leadershipwe had attending the school or
teaching at that school, um,your life would be forever
changed in some capacity.

(56:20):
In some capacity like it was arough area, because I remember
somebody broke into one of themodulars, one of the trailers,
and all they did was take thefood out of the refrigerator.
They didn't take the computers,they didn't take nothing, they
just took the food out of therefrigerator.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
I remember when I made paper mache globes and we
hung them on the blinds and whenI came back to school on Monday
the rats had crawled up theblinds and ate through our paper
mache.
I said y'all these paper machesgot to go.
I said we will not have rats upin here and so I threw all
those paper maches out.

(56:55):
When I came back Monday thoserats had eaten through our paper
mache.
Um, I mean we had painted themand everything they ate right on
through them.
I said, oh no, y'all these havegot to go.
I'm so sorry.
I told y'all, y'all can have me, I don't want them.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
Anyways, rats been all over them at same school we
had field day and the communityused to come out.
Oh, it was a big deal.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
I'm talking about field day, the community it was
a first, second, even peoplethat didn't have kids.
First, second, third place yes,it was.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
It was a big deal, yep, and I remember.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
I remember for fair too.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
This was about the bees.
So we're out there and they getready to do the 100-yard sprint
.
So I'm at the finish line andGreen was at the start line and
we saw like a little cloud, likea little black cloud, and we
saw it and I'm not payingattention to it.
But then all of a sudden youcan kind of it got quiet and you

(57:52):
hear, and people was like whatis that?
Parents looking?
And then Coach Green you knowhow extra he was.
He said and he just took off,coach Green was about five four
and he just took out, coachgreen about five four, one and
yo and he just took out and he'sat the start line.
So he's taking off and I hearthe bees but I'm not paying.

(58:15):
I said, hey, you know he's justrunning.
I said why?
Maybe he racing somebody?
Yeah, but then you see theswarm.
And when you see the swarm, ohmy black folks, just because
they were standing on each sideof the 100-yard line and you
just saw black folks do this.
Everybody just dipped and themswarm was chasing green all the
way towards me and I just dipped.

(58:36):
I went to the gym.
I went to the gym because it'sthat side door by where the
playground was.
I dipped up in there and greenkept running to the parking lot
and I saw that swarm and it justdipped up in there and Green
kept running to the parking lotand I saw that swarm and it just
shot up in the air andeverybody was like quiet and
then also you just hear nothingbut laughter.
Everybody was just laughing andeverybody running and

(58:57):
everything.
And we went back and finishedthe 100-yard relay.
I mean it was a big deal.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
I remember, strategically, my class planning
for field day and we weretrying to figure out for the
relay who was going to be ourstarter.
And me trying to tell them no,no, we got to do it this way
Because it was about winning, soit was just you know, yeah,
them kids were fun.
They were some fun kids theywere fun and still now all on my

(59:23):
on Facebook my baby's there, soyeah yep, roderick, roderick
and.
Brunelle and.
Elsa Jennifer and Jennifer andyep, yeah, so many of them had a
good time there, really had agood time there.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Yep, alright, so you know we'll wrap it up.
So let's talk about oh side eyeof the week.
What is your side eye of theweek?
All right, I'll start.
My side eye of the week is Ihad to teach a homeroom class.

(01:00:06):
Oh, last minute, they had toteach respect, you know.
So they took me out of thething.
Yeah, I had to teach that and Iwas like what in the what was
the teacher Absent?
They pulled her to do somethingwith some other stuff.
Okay, so I think it's a setup.
I think what is it?

(01:00:28):
I think it's a what.
I think it's a setup.
What is it?
I?

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
think it's a what.
I think it's a what.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
What'd they say?
A scheme to what?

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
I think it's a scheme that Ty set up to come to you
with the bull.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Bull-ish.
I think it is Because I'mlooking.
I'm saying so instead of mebeing at this spot.
They put me in this class andput her in this spot.
So I think they're probablygoing to start giving me a
homeroom during when we havecharacter ed days.
So I kind of side-eyed that.
You know how they try to dothings inconspicuous.

(01:01:01):
Or then they'll say we heardyou did such a great job.
How about?
Oh, you should have doneterrible.
You know, but you know I can'tdo it yeah and so that's one of
my side, because I I feel some,uh, shenanigans, because they
want to say if you shenan once,you shenanigans.
Oh no, lord, y'all heard hersay that I never heard of

(01:01:23):
shenanigans.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Oh shenanigans, I never heard of that, but it
makes perfect sense Shenanigans,shenanigans twice.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
I never heard of that before.
Shenanigans twice.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
I never heard of that .

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Alright, we'll leave it alone.
I never heard of that.
All right, we'll leave it alone.
I never heard of that.
Okay, all right.
So that's my side eye of theweek, and what is your side?

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
eye of the week.
I'm so sorry to this man thatis my child.
Here is my side eye of the week.
So I get a text message thatsays hypothetically speaking, do
you think you could send me$165 for my medical bill?

(01:02:20):
I'm like, first of all, why arewe saying hypothetically Right?
And so when he does stuff likethat I don't respond because I
like to leave him kind ofguessing, as you should so I
didn't even respond, and so Iwas like what is he talking
about?
what this just sounds likefoolishness.
And so a day went by, and thenI got another text message that

(01:02:47):
said so what, you think aboutgiving me the hundred sixty five
dollars for my medical bill?
And I said well, son, when youget home we can go online and
pay it.
He said I already paid it, socan you just cash at me Now?

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
first, of all, since when have you ever paid?

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
your medical bill, because right now you still in
my pocketbook our wallet.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Like Shamar said, he is in debt.
He is in debt, he owes me andhe owes his mama cause he is in
debt.
He owes me and he owes his mamacause he is in debt and he is
not cable of paying his ownmedical bills so I was like son,

(01:03:44):
where have you ever paid yourown medical bills?

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
so I was like he was like son, where have you ever
paid your own medical bills.
So I was like he was like well,yeah, you're right, I don't
know, I was just trying.
I said first of all, don't bepaying stuff and thinking I just
got it to give to you.
But you know, they think thatwe got all the money in the
world.
Of course we all, yeah, that wegot all the money in the world.

(01:04:08):
Of course we all yeah we got allthe money in the world, I was
like, but listen, what in theworld?
And so he got a little extramoney and so I guess he run
around here, him and and hislittle girl his boo thing.
They just run around, I guessacting grown, we paying medical

(01:04:28):
bills.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
And out eating expensive ramen.
You know that's what we do.
We got a little money.
We got a little check.
See, he ain't been home sincehe got a little check.
No, since he got a little checkwe ain't saying no, no at all.
So, anyways, that was my side.
I like listen, child.
You got money to pay medicalbills law, right, right, oh my

(01:04:51):
god so that that just tickled mylittle soul.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
All right, and so what are you looking forward to?
Oh no, what is the why do you?
What is the thing that you aremost grateful for or looking
forward to?

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Let's see, I am really grateful for this fall
break that is coming Desperatelyneeded.
In a few days we have the weekoff.
Yeah, and I can say this now,because this won't come out
until they already are here, Ibelieve.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
No, don't do it, Don't do it.
Why?
Oh yeah, I believe.
No, don't do it, Don't do it.
Why?
Oh yeah, go ahead, oh yeah, goahead.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
So this Saturday our niece Deja she's the one we
talked about before who came tovisit for Labor Day weekend,
they're doing a whole.
I thought it was a surprisesurprise, but it seems like a
partial surprise.
Anyways, surprise, surprise,surprise, surprise.

(01:05:53):
Anywho, I don't know what thesurprise is, or even if it is a
surprise, but there's a bigthing set up for her celebration
.
It's going to be here inAtlanta that her boyfriend is
putting all together with somepeople that she maybe will be
surprised or that are there.
Um, so we're going to stay.

(01:06:16):
We were planning to go outSaturday.
Saturday, we were planning togo.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
Yeah, so we can spend the first part.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Yeah To visit um, my in-laws, because I haven't been
there in a while, so we wantedto spend some time with them,
and so we were going to goSaturday.
But we're going to stay hereSaturday To enjoy her
festivities, and then on Sundaywe're going to head to Alabama.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Foe Town.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Now, out of the break , what I'm really looking
forward to in the experience,because we decided that when we
come back we're going to go tothe Korean spa, day spa.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
Yeah, those day spas, day spa.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
So I'm excited about that.
To get all scrubbed up andrubbed up and just to enjoy the
spa.
So yeah, I'm excited about that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Yeah, that's going to be good.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
Because I've been wanting to do that for a long
time.
Only thing that made me nervousis that they said you got to
walk around naked.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
You don't have to walk around naked Like you.
Can you get robes and stufflike that?

Speaker 1 (01:07:19):
Oh, because that made .
I thought that I remembersomebody saying but maybe the
rules, I think the rules maybehave changed a bit.
But I remember somebody sayingbut maybe the rules, I think the
rules maybe have changed a bit.
But I remember at one pointpeople said you just people you
have to run around naked.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
You talking about what?
Nene was talking about, thatone that was up in.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
Oh, yes, listen.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
I know where it is, though.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
I'm not, I can't do that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
So anyways, I'm excited.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
Hey, we can go.
We can go to Hedo.
Hey, we can go we can go toHedo.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
I'm not going to Hedo With all them old folks.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
I wouldn't feel bad dude.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
No, I can't do it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
I don't care for the other old people.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
I'm not ready to expose all of this, all of this.
So, anywho, I'm excited forthat too.
So, yeah, just break overall,excited for it.
Yeah, so, um, yeah, so whatabout you?

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
Well, I can't say the break, because somebody will
say you know?

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
he said that cause.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
I said that you can say it, but uh, I'm okay, I'm
looking forward to not going towork, but I love my job, but I
am.
I am tired, Um, and the kidsare tired at work.
Ooh, when I tell you like todaywas a rough day, Um, teachers

(01:08:37):
are at their wits wits end.
You can see it in them.
Um, it's just a lot of tensionin the buildings, you know with
with the climate of the worldright now.
You can see it in some ofthem's face.
Oh yeah, but I'm looking forwardto a moment to just relax.
I want to cut my grass and myhedges.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
When are you going to do?

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
Before we go.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
I'm thinking I might do it Saturday morning Okay.
Yeah, I'll do it Saturdaymorning.
Okay, yeah, I'll do it Saturday, because I didn't go to the gym
today, because I worked outhard Monday and Tuesday.
So I probably work out hardThursday, do it Friday and then
work out Saturday morning andthen enjoy myself with what's

(01:09:26):
laying out.
Okay, I said I'll probably do itlike that, we'll see, but I'm
just looking forward to relaxing.
I'm looking forward to I alwayslike going home just for the
you know, see mom and dad andstuff, but I want to ride the
new side-by-side.
He got the little mule, thefour-wheeler, but I want to ride

(01:09:46):
the new side-by-side he got thelittle mule, the four-wheeler.
I like being a country boy whenI go home and I want to try to
fish, because I didn't fish lasttime.
That's really what I want to do.
I want to fish and what else?
That's really it.
Yeah, I would.

(01:10:07):
You know football, but I'm noteven, because I don't even know
who I want to watch.
No more football.
It's not as exciting like itused to be.
I watch it a little bit, butthat's it.
It's like background noise whenI watch it.
But other than that, man, thatis it.
I'm looking forward to anythingelse.
Yeah, that I'm getting closerto cool weather, yeah, oh, I am
looking closer to cool weather.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
Yeah, oh, I am looking forward to cool weather.

Speaker 2 (01:10:28):
I can't wait for the cool weather.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
I can't wait for the cool weather.
Sweater weather, yeah, sweaterweather, hoodie weather.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
Like to wear my hoodies, yeah, and other than
that.
That's it.
So just gonna wrap this thingup, guys, and who knows, we may
even do an episode at home withMama and Daddy.
Oh Lord, I think we couldprobably do a 30-minute episode

(01:10:55):
with them.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
Yeah, that would be fun.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
We can say the funniest things that happened
with the kids growing up,because you know we got some
stories that happened to us.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
That could go on, for oh mylord, and that's why I want to
get my brother so we can talkabout what went on, because
everybody has a differentversion they do and it's

(01:11:19):
everybody's life like theirpersonal life and everybody has
a different story of whathappened to themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
Yeah, and it's like I know better than somebody lying
.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Yeah, and it's probably the person that it
happened to, but it's, that'sthe good thing about it, yeah,
so we'll, we'll get that done,but I think we'll, we'll bring
the stuff and, um, I don't knowif we'll do the video, we'll
probably just do a voice, momand dad, and just have them
talking and laughing about thestuff that went down growing up.
Other than that, ladies andgentlemen, thank you for joining

(01:11:55):
us.
It is a pleasure, as always, Iam your host.
I'm your host, hostess.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
Well, in today's times we just say host, because
we keep it neutral.

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
Neutral Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
So host.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
So have they changed the whole host?
It's a paper mill company orsomething like that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
Yeah, paper mill.
Yeah, like you don't seehostess, you don't see actress,
they just say actor.
I'm an actor as well.
Yeah, Stewardess, they don'tsay that Flight attendant.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
They still say say that Flight attendant?
Yeah, mm-hmm they still saymiss and mister, though yeah, I
think that goes all kind of ways.
It'll probably go away too.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
It'll just be mm.
Mm, mm, hey, mm.
No, they not gonna listen tothat.
It'll be gender neutral, allright.
So off on a tangent, as always,but thank y'all for joining us.
I am Keefla, I am Anu, and thishas been the Refreshingly
Normal Podcast.
We'll see you when we see you.

(01:12:59):
Peace, peace.
The Refreshingly Normal Podcast, the refreshingly normal
podcast.