“Tell us about a teacher who had a real impact on your life, either for the better or the worse. How is your life different today because of him or her?”

Mrs. Fitch. She taught high school chemistry at one of the high schools l attended. In fact I took New York Regents Chemistry class from her and I remember her fondly to this very day. She treated the kids with a no-nonsense style that I appreciated. She wasn’t alone, as she was the middle between biology and physics teachers who were also very memorable. The most entertaining thing I remember was when she used denatured alcohol to surprise a sleepy student. We all watched as she snuck up to him, prepared the surprise and then set it off. He never fell asleep again, at least during her class. As for what I learned? The material from the chemistry class is pretty much gone. If you don’t use a tool eventually it rusts, and for me, what I learned in high school, for the most part, has rusted away. I do remember some lessons, especially on significant figures when doing calculations and all the many botched experiments. Funny what stands out in your memory, but I distinctly remember hearing a story about how one student who I knew was tearing down an experiment and didn’t consider that a metal stand holding a bunsen burner rig may have had some residual heat stored in it’s stand-ring. I wasn’t there to witness it, but I heard that she grabbed the ring thoughtlessly and the metal wasn’t cool to the touch.

As it is, the town that high school served was wiped off the face of the map by a once-in-a-lifetime flood of the Susquehanna River. I don’t know if it still stands or if Mrs. Fitch is still alive. It’s been many years. If so, or if not, I’ll always have those memories and smile when I remember them.