wayne gretzky
Our elementary school teacher had followed us from our very first day of school. She was, in my eyes, an old lady. Short gray hair, and a round face that looked kinder than what she was. She was quite stern and serious, and though I think she liked me she was never impressed with my lack of academic interest. I was bored, and she told me to try harder. But she was a good teacher.
When we started our fifth year, we were told that our teacher had undergone knee surgery that summer. And so, an array of substitute teachers were introduced. One of them went on to host Jeopardy in Norway. I remember him as a really fun guy. Another would spend all our classes drawing stories from his childhood on the blackboard. He was definitely one of my favourites.
But then one day, a young woman showed up to class. She had long dark hair, wavy and wild. Her voice was husky, and she didn’t dress like a teacher. It was the first “young” teacher I had met. She didn’t behave like other women I knew. She was loud and funny, she made jokes and chased us around when we refused to sit at our desks. She spent lunch in the middle of the classroom with us, talking about sports and video games. She was the coolest person I had ever met.
I was one of the only kids in school who had moved across the river to the city, and that meant a long bus ride to and from school. If I missed that bus, I’d have to wait an hour for the next one to show up. So one day, when I had missed my bus and started walking up the hill to the official bus stop, my new teacher drove by in her tiny rusty car. She rolled down the window and asked me if I wanted a ride home. I was stoked.
Instead of listening to the radio like my mom always did, she listened to rock music on cassettes. Her car was really messy. She sang along to the music and asked me what music I liked and if I collected anything cool. I told her about my Boney M cassettes (uncool) and my pog collection (supercool). And then at some point, I must have told her that my sister would take me to hockey games. She asked me if I knew who Wayne Gretzky was, and I told her I had collectors cards with him on them. She told me she used to date him. I thought she couldn’t possibly be any cooler, but she proved me wrong.
After that, I tried missing my bus home more often than not. And she would drive me home whenever I did. She was probably only there for a few months, but I still remember those drives as some of my favourite moments from elementary school. It took a few years for me to realise why.
