Teaching a Teacher

Here are the facts, There was a swimming pool in the middle of the square shaped, two story apartment complex. The pool was convenient since it was six feet from every first floor apartment's door. The laundry room was located next to our living room. That provided the advantage of vibrating living room chairs every time someone put quarters in the washer or dryer. There were large windows in our apartment but, since the off street parking was located at the back of our apartment, our view of out of each window was a study in the variety of hood ornaments available in the 1940, 1950 and 1960 American made automobiles. We began to wonder if there was a Truth in Advertising Law.

In all fairness, the apartment did have two baths, two bedrooms, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. Another unique feature was the “Martha Washington” oven. We soon began to wonder if that was a brand name or if Martha had actually owned it. The pool was warm and clean and, since we arrived to late in the day to contact Nevada Power for electricity, die four of us lived in the pool until evening when we could cool down enough to move in. It was close to the strip. It was just blocks behind “Honest Johns” and would eventually be bull dozed to become a parking lot for a new Strip hotel. That move may or may not have been a civic improvement project.

The true education started when we began to meet the other tenants of the apartment complex. It did not take us long to realize how protected and innocent we were and how much we had to learn. I do not write about these individuals to criticize them or to judge them but to explain our amazement with the different life styles. Four of them became lifetime friends who's friendship we treasure to this day. I will save their stories to the end of the descriptions.

Scott, Crystal and Brian shared the apartment next to us. Crystal was about eight months pregnant when we moved in. They were grilling hamburgers in their six foot front yard while we were attempting to cool in the pool that first day. They were so neighborly that they included us in their picnic and we enjoyed the delicious burgers. We became friends but not good enough to ask about their living arrangements during the next month. When the baby was born, all was made clear. Crystal announced that they baby would be called Brandi since she had had plenty of that the night the baby was conceived. Scott moved out since the baby looked more like Brian. Wasn't that simple? You have to remember that this ail occurred before DNA testing.

We became instant hits in the neighborhood since we had a phone installed in our apartment. Alice, another neighbor, asked if she could receive some calls on our phone. We wanted to be neighborly so we told her that we would be happy to relay any messages. You may say we are slow but it did take us about five days and twice as many phone calls to realize that she was a prostitute and it was a pimp calling to give her directions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, as teachers new to the district, we were not excited about having our phone number in those circles, especially restroom walls. We were hesitant but we did explain and she must have understood. The phone calls stopped the same day that she apologized.

The second day there, the lady in the apartment above us, invited us to her daughter's wedding reception. We were happy to be included, bought our gift and headed out to the Copper Cart for the wedding reception. Once there, we met the bride, the groom, his father and his father's girl friend and, along with our neighbor enjoyed a few cocktails and a delicious dinner. The fact that the mother of the bride introduced us as her oldest and dearest friends should have sent up the warning flag but we were trusting. They opened our gift and then bride and groom left for their honeymoon and the groom's father and his friend left to see them off. Shortly after that our neighbor left for the lady's room. George and I sat there a long time before we realized that we were the only ones at the wedding reception that we there to pay the bill. Is there any name for this other than “sucker”????????? We were learning and we were, therefore, not too shocked to find that the bride's mother had moved out during the night and had left no forwarding address.

The word that we were teachers spread like wildfire around the apartment complex. Lorraine came to ask our advice. She had a five year old daughter that she wanted to enroll in the school district but she wanted to know how she could do that without a birth certificate. We carefully explained, thinking that she had lost the birth certificate, how to obtain a new one by contacting the registrar of deeds in the county where the girl had been born. Then she told us her story. She had been running a day care when a mother brought in her six week old baby for care. To put it simply, the mother had never returned and Lorraine and her husband had raised the little girl as their daughter and loved her as much as any natural parents could love. All we had to do in this case was loan them the money to hire the lawyer to make the family a legal one. They slowly but surely repaid every dime of that money.