Dropping Tyler off at school today, a woman accosted me with an air of importance as we piled out of the van. “Please, you need to slow down in the parking lot,” she said. “There could be kids around.”
I was dumbstruck. In my mind, I drive so slowly in parking lots that it feels like the parked cars are passing me out. I stared at her in disbelief.
“Really, now?” I scoffed. “Kids, potentially in a school parking lot? Much like the three strapped in car seats in my minivan? Thanks for the tip. Next time I’ll slow it down to 80!” (In reality, what I probably said was more along the lines of “Nuh ugh!” Same concept.)
I rolled my eyes at the crossing guard, who’d heard the whole thing. “Who was that?” I asked. “A teacher? An administrator? The superintendent of schools?”
“Oh, that’s Florence,” she said. “She’s the copy gal. She makes copies, collates their papers, and runs errands. Sort of like a girl Friday for all the teachers. Nice lady.”
The copy gal?
Here’s the question that begs to be asked. What did the Simsbury teachers do to get one of those? How many weekends did I spend at the copy machine at Staples because every single machine was either broken or out of paper at my school of employment in Hartford?
That’s it. I’m applying for a teaching job in Simsbury. And I’m using Florence as a reference.