no collar worker

It happened.

I was at the park with the family and the cell phone rang. I answered it and heard this young girl's voice say, "Mr. Harmless?" ... only it was spoken with a southern accent.

Now there is more than one thing wrong with this. The first this is that I have moved, so anybody that knows me as, "Mr. Harmless." is miles away. The second thing is that this is summer time, and everybody that knows me well, knows that in the summer I am not a teacher! The third this is that it was a southern accent.

After about 10 seconds of trying to remember whether or not I was actually "Mr. Harmless" I very weakly replied, "Yes?"

You see, I knew that it had happened. This was my first contact with a new student... and I was jolted back into the onrushing reality of the end of the summer.

I was hoping she would then say, "... just checking, we won't bother you again until the end of August!" But that didn't happen. In fact, having come out of my summer mental hibernation, this southern accent speaking girl had the nerve to ask me a question...

"... what supplies would you like to have ordered?"

Darn! This was going to require some actual thought. I stumbled around for a couple of minutes and then I finally came up with the most intellectually sound response that I could muster. I said, "... Ummm, I don't know."

I think she finally decided that I wasn't about to give her any suitable information to deal with, so she ordered me the typical supplies that the other teachers tend to order.

You've heard of the white collar worker, and the bluecollar worker... But I would like to say that I am a proud representative of the no collar worker.

No skills, just a willingness to work. That's me!