New Year, more changes
I walk in the side of the stage to put my trumpet case down. A familiar voice calls my name. Allie is in shadows behind the stage. We briefly kiss, I taste her Wrigley’s spearmint.
“Our phone rang this morning for Doug. Mr. Schukler is dead.”
“What??”
“Doug knows a part time cop somewhere in the boondocks. Car wreck. Could be ice, could be drinking, beer cans in the car.”
Mr. Schukler taught English and Reading to the kids in lower academic sections. I didn’t have him for any classes. He was a doppelganger for the late actor Martin Landau. But he was known for the way he mocked boys who were too thin, too fat, too dumb, etc. He invented nicknames that rhymed with their first or last name. As you can imagine, he was generally hated; even those of us not in his classes considered him a pathetic jackass.
“Did Doug have him for a class?”
“Nah, he was only taught here a few years. He was a well-known asshole, even back then.”
“Hmmm,” is all I could say. This school was a better place without him.
Tension rumbled all morning. Adele, the reading teacher, was seen crying as she left the teachers’ lounge. Everyone knew, but you didn’t see one sad face in the entire student population. A few even smiled at the karma.
Before lunch, the Foon got on his trusty intercom to read a statement saying Schuckler died last night around 11 on so-and-so road in a ‘traffic mishap.’ A substitute would be starting tomorrow and anyone in his classes today should report to the auditorium.
A few days later, some teachers were absent for the funeral. Not one kid asked about sending a card or even if he had a partner. One of the English teachers asked a girl (of course a girl–boys observed Omerta) why no one seemed affected. Supposedly the teacher was horrified hearing Schukler’s harassment. I would have paid to see the Foon’s face when he got the news.
The news was buried in the paper with a small headline in the obit section. Any mention of beer cans was expunged.
Now, 50+ years on, it seems pretty sad that a teacher died without having a positive impact on a single student. My mother said he probably became a teacher for thee wrong reasons. Can you imagine the reaction to a dick like him in 2025?
But something far more sinister occurred that day, which overshadowed everything.