JPG Magazine: Stories: Personal Post: I have a Dream

I have a Dream

By John Linton

17 July 2008

I suck at portraits...seriously...the DMV and local Police can take better ones. So it was no surprise that we had trouble finding a decent photo of Brenda for Tom. We'd been helping Tom with his book on Westerly, specifically the section on historic graveyards, and he wanted a picture of each of us to put next to our bios that we were to write for his acknowledgements. I sat down and sent off the picture our friend Sue took of me getting up from the restaurant in Granada that's my profile pic for JPG and typed the following bio info:

"John Linton spent his childhood developing his skills as a military brat while the family moved from one location to another, finally settling in Berwick, Maine where he met his future wife, Brenda Johnson. He attended Gorham State College to avoid the draft and somehow graduated with a teaching degree in the Social Studies. He was hired by the Westerly School Department in 1970 and has lived in Westerly ever since. He retired from teaching in 2002, much to the relief of his colleagues and especially the administration. When people now ask him what he does he loves to tell them "Nothing." He does dabble in photography (and the odd historical society assignment) every now and then."

He quickly called me back to ask if I seriously wanted that "draft dodger stuff" in my bio. I told him he could take it out if it made him feel better. He seemed very relieved to hear that; he was very worried that someone would take offense and come lookin' for me. Gosh, I hope they don't come across my "Spell It Out" photo entry.

But I digress. Where was I...Oh yeah...I suck at portraits so after looking through iPhoto at all her photos Brenda asked me to take another one to send along to Tom with her bio info. You are lookin' at it now.

PS Here's the beginning of the speech I gave at Brenda's retirement. I told them I got the idea for the title, I Have a Dream, from Joe Biden, who once had a little problem with campaign speeches and plagiarism:

"It all began during my sophomore year at Gorham State College. It was a day more boring than most days so I walked down to the gym looking for something to do. I found a girl's basketball game in progress. As usual there were few fans in the stands. I climbed up and sat next to Mike. To break the silence I said, 'The center comes from my home town.' More silence. Finally Mike spoke up. 'I wouldn't want to run into her boy friend, she's got to be at least 6 feet tall.' Mike and I both had to wear our sneakers to register 5 feet 9.

Not long after that fateful encounter I began to hitch weekend rides home in her boy friends immaculate VW van. I use the word immaculate because I soon found out that he was the poster child for anal retentives. All I remember of those trips home was that he either was talking on his CB radio or yelling at me to keep my feet off his pristine upholstery. I was not surprised when she dumped him.

My surprise came later when she turned her sites on me. It would seem that I represented a new definition for the term rebound. I must admit there was an advantage in those days to being dated by a member of the Honor Dorm. Back then any self-respecting college locked its girls up at night; all that is except those in the Honor Dorm. When she graduated, her mother took one look at me and imposed a 10 O'clock curfew on her senior, Honor Dorm, Magna Cum Too Much daughter in a vain attempt to bring her to her senses. It backfired and before long she proposed marriage. Somewhere between that proposal and my being locked in the church closet, the dream first appeared to me.

In the dream she is a ten year old traipsing home from elementary school. The sky is overcast. Suddenly a small opening in the clouds appears and a bright white shaft of light streams down and engulfs her. A voice emanates from the clouds. I could never understand why the voice was female. It was the voice of my 4th grade teacher, Miss Hart, who used to constantly rap her wooden pointer across my knuckles. I had the fattest knuckles in the 4th grade. Miss Hart's voice bellowed 'Brenda June Johnson! You shall become a teacher, a molder of hearts and minds!'"

And so on and so forth.

Report a Problem