At the beginning of June, 1987, I was a soon-to-be twenty-two-year-old. I still had challenges with acne and weighed 120 pounds “soaking wet”. I was degreed, certified, and looking for a job.
Actually, I started that process during Christmas break of 1986. I called David F. Coppock, then Superintendent of the Union County Public School System. Mr. Coppock listened to me “pitch” myself for a job, then responded, “I guess you want to come in and fill out an application.” I replied that I wasn’t yet graduated, and he said that was fine, just to put my anticipated date of graduation and certifications.
On the designated day I dressed myself in a pair of light blue polyester dress pants, put on a matching blue pullover sweater, and a tie I’d had since I was probably seven years old. All that could be seen in the V-neck of the sweater was the top of the tie, so it didn’t matter that it only came to a midpoint between the base of my breast bone and my navel. I also sported my best pair of shoes; I doubt they were in much better condition than the worst pair I have now.
I presented myself at the old Central Office, now the technology building for the school system. I encountered for the first time in memory Ms. Ruth Sharp. I didn’t know it at the time, but I graduated from high school with Ms. Ruth’s daughter Sheila. I told the most professional Ms. Ruth that Mr. Coppock had told me to come in and complete an application, and she gave me one. I sat down, filled it out as neatly as possible, and returned it to Ms. Ruth. She thanked me, and I stood there for a minute wondering what would happen next.
What happened next? Have you, Dear Reader, ever heard of being dressed up with no place to go? I went home. I don’t remember anything about the rest of that day.
I have that very selfsame application today. It was returned to me almost thirty years later. Ms. Sandra Price made sure I got it when a bunch of old files at the present Central Office were being cleaned out.
Just to made myself more employable, I also applied in Grainger County.
In January 1987 I returned to Lincoln Memorial University to complete my last regular quarter on campus, what I thought would be my last quarter of dormitory life. Remember how my original application came back years later? When Jason Bailey, Lauren Effler and I returned to LMU to work on our doctorates, we had to spend two weeks in “boot camp”, and once again we had to live in a dorm. It wasn’t nearly as much fun the second time around (in my opinion). At least I didn’t have to share my small room with its economy (translated to mean small) shower with a roommate.
Spring quarter of 1987 I completed my student teaching. It was becoming more apparent to my watchful eye that the only teaching opportunities in Union County were going to be in the elementary grades, and I would graduate certified only in secondary English and history. I started working toward an elementary endorsement. In addition to student teaching, I took a science curriculum course at the Master’s level—that class, held weekly on the same night as my afternoon student teaching seminar, allowed me to get a quick weekly glimpse of my friends and sweetheart. It was bittersweet—it was always good to see them, but it made my heart long to be around them more. Even so, the very brevity of the visits made them all the more precious.
Summer 1987 came around. I took a couple of summer classes towards obtaining both a Master’s degree and elementary certification, eagerly waiting to hear from either Union or Grainger County about a teaching job. Just in case I did not get employed, I applied for and received a graduate assistantship at LMU to help defray the costs of continued education.
At the time I was seeking initial employment with the Union County Schools the Superintendent was elected. The process for hiring teachers then was for the Superintendent to recommend teachers to the Board for employment. Then the Board had to approve the candidate for employment. The process is different now. In 2000 a change in state law decreed that the Director of Schools be appointed by the elected Board. The Director is now the Board’s only contracted employee, and the Director now directly employs all other school personnel, both certified and non-certified.
The closer time came for school to open in the fall of 1987, the more anxious I became. Poor Ms. Patricia McKelvey. I started calling her every day to see if there was any news. She very patiently explained to me every time I called that it was normal for employment of new teachers to occur very late in the summer, very close to the opening day of school.
But one glorious day the gray clouds cleared and the silver lining appeared. Item fifteen of the official recorded minutes of the recessed meeting of the Union County Board of Education on August 3, 1987 read: “Motion [Esco] Vaughn, seconded [Bill] Whited to concur recommendation of Superintendent Coppock that Ronnie Mincey and Tommy Shoffner be employed for the 1987-88 school year as teachers at Luttrell Elementary School. Motion Carried.
After many verbal expressions of gratitude to those who employed me, my focus changed to setting my mind on beginning my first year of teaching. That’s where I will pick up next week, Dear Reader. Until then, I leave you with a few thoughts from the world of email.

If kids knew what they wanted to be at age eight,
the world would be filled with cowboys and princesses.
I wanted to be a pirate.
Thank goodness nobody took me seriously
and scheduled me for eye removal and peg leg surgery.
—Bill Maher

To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world,
except exercise, get up early, or be respectable."
--Oscar Wilde

"I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a lot more as they get older,
and then it dawned on me—they’re cramming for their final exam."
--George Carlin

I had my patience tested. I'm negative.