When I think back to my teachers in high school, I come up with moments. Rare moments of triumph. It's not that I was a bad student or anything. It was a simply a case that teachers were major authority figures in my life at that point, and I was often too shy to develop much of a relationship with many of them. Still, the little anecdotes that stuck in my head for 30 years often were the ones that showed them to be delightfully human.

For example ...

* My homeroom teacher was also my Spanish teacher in 10th grade, Mrs. Rappold, so she handed out report cards. I had just moved to Clarence that summer, and my mother went in for parent-teacher conference night in November or so.  Mrs. Rappold told my mother, "I looked at Budd's report card in the first marking period. Math: 91. Chemistry: 91. Social Studies: 96. Spanish: 72. I said to myself, 'What am I doing wrong with this kid?' "

* Mr. Gerlock was in the midst of a long-winded speech one day about how our educational system was much too generalized. He went one step too far. "Is there anyone here," he asked, '"who thinks he knows more about one particularly subject than anyone else in the school?"

Oops. Wrong class for that question. I raised my hand.

"I think I know more about sports than anyone else," I said with some degree of confidence.

"Sports, hmmm. Could you be more specific?"

"How about baseball?"

Mr. Gerlock fired off 15 baseball questions. I fired back 15 correct answers. The part of the class that was awake was in something close to awe. Life should be so satisfying much more often.

"Well, it's great, Budd, that you know so much about sports, but for the most part our educational system ..." a slightly demoralized Mr. Gerlock continued.
Of course, his premise was correct. It wasn't as if I learned about baseball within the walls of Clarence Central High School.

* At a high school graduation party, of all places, Mr. Pappas came up to me and congratulated me on finishing school. I had had him for home room and an English class or two, but I can't say we were that close.  Then he said, "You know, I wish you had tried out for drama. I think you could have been really good at it."

No one had ever mentioned that before, and I was so pleasantly flabbergasted that I could only mumble an answer. But I still remember the compliment, and him, 30 years later.

The influence of our teachers are still with us, all these years later. In my case, I learned some journalism lessons from the faculty advisor of the school newspaper, Mr. Carl, and I use those lessons at work today. I got to read football books in Mrs. Coleman's English class; now I review them.

Ask our classmates for some memories or thoughts about their teachers -- which is exactly what I did to a few people at a recent reunion picnic -- and the memories come pouring out:

Don Smith: "I think about Mrs. Gatti, in business class. She was always one that graded my papers quite high, so I had a great appreciation for her. She was one of the few that did that."

Bob Schoenthal: "The teacher I remember the most, probably because I had him for 10th, 11th and 12th grade, was Mr. Wingard. It sounds kind of stupid now, but I sat there learning all this stuff about coordinate geometry, and now I use it every day of my life. I can hardly believe that I used to think, 'I'll never use this stuff again.'

"I remember he used overlays (with overhead projectors) all the time. Every day, he put another one on the projector, and down went the shades. "Mr. Overlay," I called him.� "

Bill Irr: "I remember Mr. Shipengrover. He was a great guy. He wrote a nice note in my yearbook. I always enjoyed talking to him, and enjoyed his classes. He was one that left a favorable impression."

Scott Roth: "I was not very good in science -- I begged my way out of Mr. Schnobrich's chemistry class -- but I have to say that some of my favorite memories of high school teachers involved Miss Ludeke. At that point, I discovered 'femaleness� around that time. She seemed to have the embodiment of that in a very subtle way. For some reason I just focused on her.
"I was very close to Mr. Pappas. We were involved in theater together for many years. He was a mentor, my second father if you will. He was a man I admired, respected and loved very much."

Julie (Kreher) Porter: "Mr. Sorrento would have to be one of my favorite teachers. He brought things to life. We'd talk about bowling -- he was a bowler -- and he'd tell us little tricks about bowling and how to be a better bowler, even though we were discussing math. He'd throw those little things about. Or, he'd talk about his musical talents -- not bragging, but what he was doing. It ended up that we booked his band for our wedding." (Husband Tim had virtually the same answer.)

Greg Wolmering: "Miss Torba was a hard teacher, but a fair teacher ... I thought, until the day that she was up on the board writing something. She made a mistake, but wasn't aware of it. As a high school kid, my mouth sometimes worked before the brain. She said, 'Oh, I must have made a mistake here,� and I believe I said something like, "Yeah, like trying to do that problem,' although it wasn't that polite. The class had a nice laugh, but I was banned from class for the rest of the year. This was three weeks before the final.
"I didn't get to do any of the classroom work before the final. I spent the time sitting on the front steps of the high school. Teachers would come down and say, 'What are you doing here?' I'd say, 'I have nowhere to go. I was kicked out of my class.' 'Did you try to get back in?' 'Yes! I groveled in front of her. She looked at me and smiled � it was to no avail.'
"I don't agree with her stand to this day, but I appreciated the lesson I learned from her, and it made me a better person today."

Joe Kody: "The great thing about business law, with Mr. Shipengrover, is that it was designed for those on the 'nonacademic track.' For the rest of us, it was an A. Mr. Shipengrover took a shine to mocking out Kevin Canty. Do you remember the nickname, "Mr. Wonderful?' That was a Mr. Shipengrover original. He knew that Kevin had a crush on Joanne Bosard. The day after a basketball game, Mr. Shipengrover would say to her in front of the whole class, 'Joanne, what do you think of Mr. Wonderful's performance last night?' Later, we'd have a test that would read, 'Joanne and Kevin Wonderful have two children, John and Matilda ...� "

Kim Merrihew: "Mr. Sentman was my favorite teacher. He challenged me. He told me at the beginning of the year that he was going to teach my how to persevere, and he did."

(Got a story of your own? E-mail it to me. If I get enough, I'll do a part two ... and not bug you for an interview at the next reunion activity.)