I Had Lunch With Miss Feather in Shanghai!

You know...Miss Feather! My 7th grade English teacher! (the one I haven't seen since 7th grade)

See? Miss Feather!

That Miss Feather...who now insists I call her Gloria.

Can I call my 7th grade English teacher Gloria...the one who taught me the proper usage of lay/lie (though, hhhmmm, I still have to think about tense every time I use it and am never 100% sure that I've used it correctly)?

"Gloria," she told me. "You must call me Gloria."

Gloria, it is.

So anyway, about two months ago I got an email from Gloria. She found me via my writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and wrote to tell me that she (and a bunch of other teacherly folks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania) were coming to  Shanghai because (and this is even crazier) Bethel Park has sister schools in Shanghai...and has since 1995.

How crazy is that?

The school district I grew up in has sister schools in Shanghai?

Wee tiny world, I say.

So today was the big day. And although the BP team was being toted hither and thither by the host school folks, I managed to get to a Pizza Hut in People's Square where the entire group was having lunch. Miss Feather met me outside, and yep, she still looks like Miss Feather. (Gloria, I mean.)

It was fantastic. Although she and all my other English teachers throughout my 12 years in BP may not know it, each played a key role in my path to becoming a writer. And to meet up with her after all this time...just before my first novel is released...was really special.

To top it off, the assistant superintendent of Bethel Park Schools--Nancy Aloi Rose--was there. Very cool woman. And Mr. Georgiana...another teacher from BP high school (who, I discovered today, worked for the Clairton Works in 1974...the steel mill where my grandfather worked his whole life). And a bunch of great parents and other folks who made me feel right at home.

We only had about an hour or so to chat, tell stories, and catch up, but I'll be seeing her and the rest of my new friends when I head home to Bethel Park for the launch of THIRSTY in September.

I'm looking forward to it.

Miss Feather rocks! Technorati Tags: Kristin Bair O'Keeffe, Shanghai, Miss Feather, steel mills, English, Thirsty

Comments

[Carla]

This is my favorite post so far! A perfect of example of "what goes around, comes around" even around the globe! I love Miss Feather now, too, because of what you wrote. Boy, Miss Feather must have been super young when you were in 7th grade!