Friday night when we saw “beauty and the beast” in Waukesha, we first went with Doug Instenes to grab some supper at Fuddrucker’s. ( That happens to be one of my favorite restaurants – but boy, you really have to type the name carefully ! ) Anyway, on my way back to our table after grabbing our food, I heard someone behind me say ‘excuse me’- and when I turned around I was face to face with a lovely young African-American woman who did not look at all familiar to me. But when she said, “Mr Berg?” I knew that she recognized me from someplace/ sometime, as is occasionally the case with someone sort of in the public eye as I am. But before I could even stutter out a reply, she said “I’m sorry, but is your wife a music teacher?” And all was clear. . . I wasn’t the famous one except that I’m the husband of Kathy Berg, the music teacher at Schulte Elementary School. And this was one of Kathy’s former students. Sharee is her name (I am probably spelling that wrong) and she was from one of Kathy’s all=time favorite Schulte families – and Kathy told her that she still very vividly remembered when the family moved to the north side of Racine in order to move into a better neighborhood, a move which was exciting for them but also sad because it meant that they would be leaving a school they loved and the school would be losing one of their blue ribbon families. (They were one of those families that were worth their weight in gold, with parents that truly cared about their kids and their education – who did all they could to help – and who deeply appreciated the good work of their kids’ teachers.) But even after so many years, Kathy still remembered her by name and the two of them had a lovely little reunion of sorts right there in the middle of Fuddruckers. I don’t think this sort of thing happens to Kathy all that often, but it’s so sweet when it does. And it reminds me that my students at Carthage are already adults when I begin teaching them- and when they circle back for the occasional reunion, they feel like they’re pretty much the same people – just a little bit older. But when Kathy crosses paths with her former students, it might mean seeing someone in their twenties or thirties who was eleven years old when they left Schulte. What a kick it must be to see someone after that amount of time- and especially when someone you last saw with a jump rope in one hand and a box of crayons in the other is now a beautiful, poised young woman. . . and especially when you know that you played at least a small part in their life’s journey and in who they have come to be.
Teachers are not wealthy people, that’s for sure- but they certainly are rich.
pictured: My wife with her former student in the Waukesha Fuddrucker’s