I tip my hat tonight to the best teacher I ever had, Mr. David Vail. Dave passed away Saturday evening after a long struggle with cancer. I can’t begin to tell you how much this man meant to me, but I will try.
When I entered high school in 1976, I was a small, shy child. As a mediocre tuba player, Mr. Vail, my band director, took the time to get to know me and encourage me. As a drifted through those last three years of high school, I began to slowly come out of my shell and grow, both physically and emotionally. So that by the time I was a senior, I had taken several leadership positions within the school. Dave, as I came to know him later by, and I became friends that year, as I used to hang out a lot in the band room or up on the stage working on the lights for the drama department.
I was amazed that Mr. Vail gave me a fair shake. The year before I entered the high school band, my brother was involved in a scandal involving band camp. Vail was forced to take some drastic measures and my brother was suspended from the band. My mother was most terribly upset at the disciplinary action against her son, but I think she was more upset with the principal rather than Mr. Vail. To his great credit, Mr. Vail never let the past history with my mother or brother keep him from treating me most fairly.
The greatest thing I ever remember Mr. Vail doing was adopting one of our trumpet players. Robert was one of the few black children in my school, and he came from a rather poor and fractured home. He lived with his elderly grandmother with no connection with either of his parents. Robert and I were good friends, but he made a point to never speak of his family situation. Robert was an incredible trumpet player, a gifted athlete who routinely kicked 60 yard field goals in his converse tennis shoes, and a wonderfully funny friend. The problem was that Robert’s grandmother kept him on a tight leash and made his life a nightmare. She wouldn’t let him go on fieldtrips. She wouldn’t let him play football for the school no matter how much Coach Hickam tried to persuade her. Then during our senior year, Robert turned 18. On that day, she kicked Robert out. He had nowhere to go and eventually ended up dropping out of school for a time to bus tables to earn enough to live in a flea-bitten motel (actually the place was recently sited as having a massive infestation of bedbugs). Anyway, when Dave found out about Robert, he simply took him in to live in his modest home in
After high school, Robert drifted away from Mr. Vail and drugs (heroin) became a part of his life. Somehow, though, he was saved again…I suspect Dave had something to do with it this time, too, Robert joined the Marines and the last I heard of him, he was serving as a trumpet player in the Marine honor band for the President.
Later, when I returned to
I was only a mediocre musician, but Dave saw something different in me and over our three years together, this amazing teacher taught me about leadership and compassion. To my way of thinking, these were the greatest lessons I ever learned. David Vail was a great teacher and an amazing person.
“A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained, will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40 (From-“The Great Sermon”)
I hope, one day, to become like my best teacher.
Last night…
9:30pm...phone rings.
Crazy Widow Neighbor Lady across the street on the line
(screeching/desperate/pathetic/SWVA drawl)
"I caught me this baby raccoon...it's a cute little thang...and it's a
holiday and I don't know what I should do with it..."
[silence from me]
" ...his mama's probably around but SugaBaby (her cat) knows
something's up and she won't come in the house when I call her...what
shud I do?"
"Let the coon go."
"I can't let this little baby go. He comes to me when I call him and
I cuddles me when I hold him."
"I don't think you should be holding this wild animal, Crazy Widow
Neighbor Lady; he could have some kind of disease or he might scratch
or bite you."
"I done give him some milk and he loved that."
"Well, ... I think you should let him go."
"I just don't know what I'm gonna do. SugaBaby just won't leave him
alone but his mama is probably waiting to take him back..."
"I think you should let him go."
"...and I just don't know what to do with it being a holiday and all
and Wildlife Rescue won't be open today or tomorrow most likely..."
"I think you should just let him go."
"I reckon I'll just have to let him go as soon as I get SugaBaby in
the house..."
"That sounds like a good plan. Good Luck."
"Thanks. Good night."
Romance can't survive visions of rabid raccoons and Crazy Widow
Neighbor Lady.
I was planting ornamental hot peppers next to my driveway in front of
my house this morning. I was using my favorite pick to blast through
the mulch and power plant about twenty pepper plants in 30 minutes.
Anyway, I had worked my way all the way around this small bed and
planted the pick into the thick mulch covering. Immediately, I knew
something was amiss. I felt the ground under the pick begin to
vibrate, then I heard the tell-tale drone of pissed off bees.
Without a hesitation I fled the scene, up the thirty feet of my drive,
away from the volcanic explosion of beez. After I caught my breath,
I grabbed a water hose with a powerful stream nozzle and toyed with
these luckless critters from a distance. Then a few minutes ago I went
to Food Lion and bought a can of bee death. I was merciless, giving
no option of life or death. I chose a dark undercover death for these
trespassers.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for
having offended you, and I detest
all my sins, because of Your just
punishments, but most of all because
they offend You, my God, who are
all-good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of
Your grace, to sin no more and to
avoid the near occasion of sin.
**********************************************************
For the last few years, the A/C Heat Pump unit (RUUD) that
heats/cools the top floor of my Cape Cod-styled house has suffered
from leaks which require us to refill the unit with Freon about every
year and a half. Now, like a car with an increasingly bad oil leak,
we have to fill about once a year. The last time we did this, the
technician showed me with his magic wand exactly where my unit is
leaking. He suggested a complete heat pump unit replacement as well
as a blower unit replacement since the new unit would not match up
with my blower...all for $4200. When I balked at this, the
technician pulled me aside and told me "just between you and me...I
can do the job on the side with a solid Goodman unit for $1200..." I
told him that I'd think about it...and I did. Then I got a bit
steamed. When it comes right down to it, I believe in ethics, and I
was getting screwed by the price of the original job and the company
was in turn getting screwed by its loyal employee. Then I thought
further that since I have a child entering VT this fall and money is
about to become incredibly tight, so tight I can't afford the monthly
charge for caller Identification, that perhaps I should just keep
refilling the existing unit until it completely croaks. I usually
escape refilling for about $125-150 when all is said and done. By
that amount, I can continue another 8 years before I've spent what
that guy wanted for a new Goodman unit and another 30 years before I
break even with the $4200 cost from the company.
So I plan to keep prodding my old, tired heat pump. What do you the
think about that?
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