It was a quirk in our town. We produced a surplus of lawyers but not one mathematician. We felt so guilty about it that we named a street after her, Helton Drive, down at Ellis Park, which was named for Harve Ellis, but that's another story. Helton Drive starts at the swimming pool, runs by the Little League concession stand, the basketball courts, the drinking fountain, a picnic table, and ends just past the Chuck Brooks memorial tree. Four speed bumps and two stop signs.
Teenagers sit at the picnic table and carve dirty words into the wood.
It is a testimony to our town's academic excellence that all the words are spelled correctly. Rosemary Hehon is our resident Noah. The Lord told Noah to build a boat, and Noah hammered away for decades, never giving up, never losing faith. Got up every morning, strapped on his tool belt and built himself an ark over the taunts of neighbors who said he'd never use it. Noah would just eye up another nail and drive it home.