by Shelley Bennett
I don’t know who dreads finals week more: the teachers or the students. As I struggle to finish Christmas shopping, plan holiday meals, enter grades, organize my week, and oversee “Cookies and Cram” (a last-minute work and study session for students after school), I think it’s teachers.
If fact, I almost called in for the second week in a row, but I had to come through this week for one faithful reader. My dad.
You probably know him. Vern Templeton. He’s kind of retired now, but he still goes to work at NST Engineering every morning. He has worked there since I was a baby. He was also one of the former owners with his partners N (Fred Nagel) and S (Steve Schmidt).
My dad wakes really early every morning. And on Tuesdays he gets up and reads my column. (Good morning dad!) When there isn’t one, he worries. And then I think he questions my work ethic.
It might come as a surprise, but I am a proud procrastinator. (shhh…don’t tell my students.) Yes, sometimes I start writing my article on Sunday but usually it’s during my lunch or after school on Monday. A lot of weeks I don’t even know what topic will be until I sit down at the keyboard.
Luckily, I work at a place where there is always something going on.
Currently we’re 15 minutes into Cookies and Cram and the 40 or so students here have gone through six dozen cookies.
Back to my dad…he is the hardest working person I know. As a kid I remember my dad being gone all day. He is a land surveyor and works outside, coming home with dirty boots and a suntan. My brother and I would go straight for his lunch pail to see if he had any treats for us. A Hostess cupcake or fruit pie, maybe.
One day we opened the lid and found a horned toad inside!
On the weekends, my dad would work around the yard, get firewood, go to the dump, and watch football on Sunday. He might get called out on a fire or to assist with an accident since he was a volunteer firefighter.
There were many years that he coached basketball for various youth teams and played in the mens’ league. His buddies in the firehall competed in a show of firefighters’ skills called a “muster.”
Later, he served on the Susanville City Council and was even the mayor. All that and he still had time to be a great dad and then the best papa ever.
As I write this, I realize that maybe this is where I get my “I can do it all” gene. Which makes it even more important that I make my deadline today! He would have never “called in” because he felt overwhelmed and uninspired.
He also wouldn’t have been worried about Christmas shopping and holiday meals, but that’s because my mom was. And that’s another column.
Merry Christmas everyone! We’ll see you in 2024.
Remember when news was ‘newsy’? When you read about weddings, family events and engagement announcements in the newspaper? If you have something that might be newsworthy, please submit it to [email protected] and I’ll do my best to include it here in “The Good Stuff.”
