School’s Out, Summer Fun is In

photo by Victoria Knight

Traditionally here in the piece of the world we call paradise, we have an end of the school year party at the beach! I have many memories of those end of year blasts and the one I’m going to share today happened when I left the 8th grade.

My dad is a very handsome man. He always has been and even at 72, he still is. My eighth grade math teacher- whom we will call Ms. Smith for purposes of this post- was a super flirt. She even flirted with a couple of the boys in my class who were tall and already in the stage of puberty where they were shaving (It was ick-factor all the way for us girls and in retrospect, I’m not sure she was totally on the up and up where those boys were concerned). None of us had any idea what her first name was.

Anyway, my dad chaperoned the eighth grade beach party that year. We had a great time. I was 13 and so he was 33. We swam and played and had a great time. My dad and I shared a blanket on the sand. We came in to eat some chips and have soda. My math teacher came up and sat herself on our beach blanket- she was practically on top of my dad, and she said, in a breathy voice, “Hi, I’m Gay.”

My friends and I cracked up. Come to find out Gay was her first name but it sounded so crazy. Here she was overtly flirting with my dad and saying she was gay. Yeah, we were definitely 8th graders and easily amused.

My dad introduced himself to her and got up immediately. We laughed all the way home about it- my dad and a carful of girls. I can still hear her voice and I giggle every time I think about it.