Foxfire 4 [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONThere are several forces in the lives of teachers that seem to l)e universal. One of these forces, despite anything we can do to counteract it, sees to it that certain students will remain imi)edded in our memories.I've had my share, so far, of students like that. They are indelible. One of them, a kid named Ernest, is one of those extraordinary human beings who, while he was in our high school, set aside nearly every one of his weekends to help me i)uild my log house. He raised logs into place, cut out the window and door holes with my chain saw, set raftershe was everywhere on that structure, laughing and talking. Despite the fact that we were close then, I lost track of him temporarily after he left our .school, but I never forgot him.Several years later, during the September summer of 1976, I was in the parking lot of our school on one of those scorching afternoons that bring everything to a halt. I was leaning against the side of my green pickup truck talking to Lawton Brooks when I gradually became aware of another presence. I glanced backwards over the tailgate and saw there a skinny little four-and-a-half-foot-high kid looking up at me, grinning out through braces and from under a shock of blond hair, and wearing one of those yellow football jerseys with black stripes around the sleeves, jeans, and a pair of tennis shoes that must have been rescued from the trash at least twice.He hesitated for a .second, and then said, "Are you Wig? I'm Ernest's little brother. He told me to find you when I got here. I'm David Flanagan."And instantly a wave cra.shed through me, and I looked into that apprehensive little face and saw, one after the other, each face replaced by another, an endless parade in whic h each student I had succeeded with, or failed with, was replaced by another in a never-ending lineeach with new hopes and new needs and new expectations. And I felt things smashing around inside of me that I can never remember feeling before.It was important that that happen then, for during the .same summer, we