The weather's still too cold for me to venture out to the shop, so I've been feeding logs to the fireplace and ridin' the recliner. Yesterday the day started with Noir Alley on TCM and then it was cowboy movies (photo above is the Duke and Charlene Holt from Eldorado) until I switched back to TCM when Cooley High came on.
Cooley High came out in 1975 and I started at ECW in 1976. Lots of similarity between Cooley High and Washington High. Cooley High takes place in Chicago, Washington High was in East Chicago. Both inner-city schools. Student population not much different.
I'd never taught before and my first day was after the students had three weeks of substitutes because the school hadn't been able to hire a full-time instructor. I didn't have a degree yet, nor had I had any student teaching. Back then you could get your teaching license based on your work experience, but you had to take some "clock hour" classes. I had one the evening of my first day - left the house at 6:00 and got home after 11:00. I was fortunate in that I'd had college classes with most of the other instructors in my department, so I had some help getting settled in. It was a great place to learn the ropes. Excellent faculty and in spite of the setting, there was a whole lot of learning that went on. Lots of good memories from that job.
It looks like there might be a couple of warm days in the not-too-distant future. I'll see about bundling up and get out to the shop when it does.
