I remember one day at the Union County Board of Education’s Central Office Ms. Pat Baker came in. She announced she was there to fill out her retirement papers. I was most surprised. Ms. Pat said that she knew that one day she would wake up and know it was time for her to retire, and she said that was the very day.
I have thought much about that over the years. There was once a time in my career that I decided perhaps I might need a change. I went as far as to go to a neighboring county to inquire into job openings. When it came right down to it, however, I couldn’t do it. I got this big lump in my throat and almost cried every time I actually thought about no longer being part of ucps.org, a place I’d called home before it was called ucps.org.
In spring 2022 then Director of the Union County Public Schools Dr. Jimmy Carter gave each employee of the system with thirty or more years’ experience a “golden apple”. How validated I felt when I received that momento! It is one of my greatest treasures, a testimony to my life’s work on this earth. Sometimes it’s the little things that make such a difference.
Now here I am, in my fifty-seventh year of life and my thirty-sixth year of employment with the system. There’s a part of me that would like to reach out and touch the “brass” ring of retirement. For the first time ever, I seriously considered it in the fall of 2022. Now 2023 has dawned, and perhaps I’m about to be given incentive to trod on another mile. Don’t count me out yet, Dear Reader! There might be a few feathers left in this ol’ boy’s cap!
As part of my search to find the new “me” of my latter years, I will spend the next few months sharing with you, Dear Readers, some of the highlights of my educational career. Don’t get overly excited, I don’t guarantee that you will necessarily be mystified. But perhaps in using you to help me in my journey to look back over my past to find my future, I might be able to somehow enlighten you in your life as well.
Let me go back to the summer of 1984. I was a student at Lincoln Memorial University, working on obtaining my bachelor’s degree in English and Tennessee teaching certifications in secondary English and history.
I was also working that summer in the Summer Youth Employment Training Program (SYETP). That particular summer, or at least for a portion of it, I was located at Horace Maynard High School. I worked with Esco Vaughn, a Union County School Board member and the head of SYETP in Union County.
Also working in the office was a gorgeous blonde with whom I had gone to high school. One of the highlights of that summer was getting to see her every day during the six work weeks of that summer. One of the highlights of that summer, and indeed of my entire life, was when that sweet, beautiful girl sang Tammy Wynette’s “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.” to me—me alone! I’ve never been quite the same since.
One of my male co-workers used slightly colorful language to let me know that I could have had a relationship with said beautiful girl if I wanted, but alas! I had a college true love in her “Old Kentucky Home” for the summer. I had to be Mr. True and Blue.
Sometimes doing the right thing in real life doesn’t always work like a Hallmark movie. I never pursued a relationship with “Tammy”, nor did I ultimately wind up keeping “Ms. Kentucky”, either. Youth’s adventures transform into old age’s “what if’s” in so many cases.
Also that summer, my former high school principal Joseph F. (Joe) Day was running for Superintendent of Union County Schools. I knew him well, and my backside knew him very extremely well.
That was the summer I met for the first time Mr. Day’s competitor for superintendent, Mr. David F. Coppock. I ran into Mr. Coppock the first time ever at Bobby Beeler’s store during a lunch break from summer youth. Mr. Coppock handed me a card and mumbled, as only Mr. Coppock can do, “My name’s David Coppock and I’m running for Superintendent of Schools and I’d appreciate your vote.”
How exciting! One of the very first people in my life to ever ask for my vote! The election of 1984 was the first in which I was old enough to vote. Never being one to miss an opportunity, and having more mouth than sense, I replied, “I might vote for you on one condition. I’m at LMU to make a teacher, and if you’ll promise me a job, I’ll vote for you.”
Mr. Coppock replied, “I guarantee it.” While good to hear, I wondered how Mr. Coppock could be so sure he could guarantee anything, as he was not even elected at that point. I returned to the high school and told Mr. Day, with whom I’d also “politicked” (I just noticed how much that word looks like “pot licked”), “I just ran into your competition and he guaranteed me a job if I’d vote for him. Can you do the same?”
Mr. Day replied, “No, and he can’t either! I don’t even know if there’ll be a job for which you’re certified when you get ready to teach.”
Who did I vote for? I leave that to you to figure out, Dear Reader. Many of you who are my friends know who I voted for as I have told you. If you don’t already know, you’ll probably figure it out in future articles. Just keep reading, and I’ll keep writing, and we’ll see if one of us comes out ahead.
Next week I’ll share with you a little bit about my student teaching experience. Until then, I’m going to leave you with some friendly thoughts from my world of email.

The Years between 50 & 70 are the hardest.
You are always being asked to do things,
yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down."
--T. S. Elliot

"At age 20, we worry about what others think of us.
At age 40, we don’t care what they think of us.
At age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all."
--Ann Landers

"Inside every older person
is a younger person
wondering what happened."
--Jennifer Yane

Old is good in some things: Old Songs, Old movies, and best of all, OLD FRIENDS!!