In any case, he's always been a raconteur, like my grandfather, and some of my earliest memories are of listening to their stories. I took my best offer from Kemmerer, Wyoming, which turns out to be a kind of end of the road. Teachers move here because they were fired somewhere else or are hiding from something or someone. Some people teach here after teaching on the reservation, a small step up for them. While supervising Tuesday-night detention, I sat on a tack one of the delinquents put on my chair, requiring me to get a tetanus booster.
Most new teachers stay here one year.
I lasted two. Toward the end of my brief term in the ninth grade, I would write while my students took tests. Write during films. Write during teachers' meetings. I appeared to be taking diligent notes.