Perspective

As you sit in your desk at the start of another Friday, what is on your mind? Are you nervous about anything – maybe a big test today in Medical Science or Geometry or World History? Perhaps you’re a football player and you’re already thinking about or nervous for tonight’s game. You could be a…

The Important Thing

We are a small enough high school that we have very few subjects that are taught by more than one teacher. There are a few exceptions: seniors take English from either Mr. Hackbarth, Mrs. Vanden Berg or Mrs. Maher; some students have Strength and Condition with Mr. Piepgrass and some with Mr. Hughes. Other than…

It Has Become Clear

My parents are Clarence and Alice Baker. They’ve lived in the same house in New Jersey for all but the first year or two of their married lives – about 65 years. I moved out when I went to college, so I have not lived there since 1973. In those years since I left, I…

… and This is My Prayer …

Near the end of the summer, just before school was to begin, I took a walk up to the second floor of the classroom building. I watched for a few minutes as Mark Dunn, owner of Dunn’s Sand and Gravel, operated the paving machine and expertly laid a swath of deep black asphalt that was…

Completion

Do you finish things you start? Do you ever make a New Year’s resolution and then lose interest by, say, January 12 or so? At the gym where I work out early in the morning, we always smile at the new people who show up on January 1. We put up with the increased activity…