Page 35 (1/1)

I introduced ently and Suzi assured me that she welcomed my interruption She said she would love to chat about "those heady days when the Victoria Seven ruled the earth Besides," she added, "after grading the same essay question on sixty-two tests, any break in the routine is a blessing"

Suzi offered coffee in a way that made it ie near the second-floor stairway I had never been in a teacher’s lounge before and was disappointed to discover that it was little e round table, chairs, vending erator, a CD/AM/FM stereo cassette recorder on top of the refrigerator, microwave, a bulletin board loaded with flyers, calendars, and memos, and two battered, but cole to each other Next to the sofas was a bookcase containing yearbooks as well as textbooks and other volu coffee, Suzi took one of the yearbooks froh it Her spectacles were still perched on top of her head and I wondered if she wore them to see or strictly for show

Suzi sat next to me on the sofa Her eyes were soft blue and candid I didn’t think she’d be good at keeping secrets

"They toldcertificate that I would always reht," Suzi told me "I remember my students quite vividly The Seven, of course, the ones I actually taught at least Beth Rogers I had a kid nairl na nant--ah!"

Suzi turned the yearbook so I could see the page she found There was a black-and-white photo of a young woainst a classroo bell-botto peasant blouse adorned with flowers

"Now be honest, don’t I look like I’m sixteen?"

"This was you?" I blurted

"It’s hard to keep order in the classrooer than your students"

Suzi turned the book so she could look at herself soe it?" I asked

"Oh, I didn’t," Suzi replied "I was an awful teacher my first couple of years Just terrible I didn’t realize that at the tiht I was hipper than Sidney Poitier in To Sir, With Love"

I decided I liked Suzi Anyone who described herself in relation to ot raph of her and a second wo "That’s me and Monte, Grace Monteleone, but everyone called her Monte We were both first-year teachers and we kind of gravitated toward each other out of self-defense We becaood friends Now be honest, weren’t we just the cutest things?"

I had to agree She and Monte had looked like they were s, short skirts, and thin waists--although, while Suzi’s face was open and exuberant, Monte’s was guarded and had a sad kind of s in Mr Muehlenhaus’s lobby

"What became of her?" I asked

"Monte didn’t care too much for Victoria She did at first She seerowing up on the north side of Minneapolis That changed around the beginning of February at just about the ti excited about the Seven and startedheroes out of the kids Jack Barrett had been one of her pet projects He was ungodly smart He would have been an honor student in any school in the country and Monte was detere Except, suddenly, it was all basketball, basketball, basketball and forget about school Coach Testen lectured her for giving the boys hoht it to the principal, he sided with Coach I think that took a lot out of her

"Besides, look around It’s Victoria, Minnesota, for God’s sake Back in those days it wasn’t even half as big as it is now The school was this broken-down barn on the other side of town Enrollment--we had ninety-two students, total That’s why the basketball team was so small Seven kids played basketball and eleven played hockey There was talk of closing the school and sending the kids to Windom That ended after the Seven won the championship Nobody wanted to be the one to say let’s shut it down after that Plus, we started getting industry The lawn equipenerated 350 jobs Theplant came two years later That was another 475 jobs The toas saved, the school was saved We now have an enrollment of nearly six hundred The Seven had a lot to do with that They brought a lot of positive attention to Victoria at a time when the town badly needed it"