Columns

Did you know today is National Teacher Day? It’s always Tuesday of the first full week in May.

Being married to a teacher, I am reminded of this observance via the annual arrival of graduation announcements from Curt’s former students.  Some of the kids were in his classroom; some of them ran on his cross country team.  And they may not know it, but their invitations give my husband great joy as he celebrates their accomplishments and the time they shared.

Ambivalent.

There’s no other way to more accurately describe my reaction to the news that Jason Collins, an otherwise nameless, back-up veteran center in the National Basketball Association, is gay.

I just don’t care.

I like sports, especially pro baseball and football. I’ve had a passing interest in the NBA, but without a favorite team, not nearly as closely.

I was told it was going to be harder than I thought.

I was told I couldn’t do it.

I was told I wouldn’t survive.

Despite numerous opportunities to decline the challenge, I accepted it. No, I embraced it. Regardless of the critics, the naysayers, I would overcome.

I would survive a full day of being the only adult in a house filled with children, one of which wouldn’t be my own.

My wife and her sister wanted to go to Hastings, Neb. to attend their youngest sister’s senior college recital.

Do we all remember the “Frito Bandito,” who set out to do for Fritos what our own Mrs. Olson did for Folgers?  

She made her first “mountain grown” commercial in 1965. Two years later, the Bandito was launched.She seemed to magically appear in the kitchen, smile warmly, make coffee and provide free marriage counseling.  He barged in illegally, pulled his revolver and stole our corn chips.