A Teacher's Influence

Senator Chuck Weedley is back in Periwinkle County from the nation’s capital, having joined forces with those who think it would be disrespectful to merchants.. uh… to Christians, to work during the week before Christmas, or during the week after, or most other times, this being a Christian nation, after all, so for elected officials to work at any time might be disrespectful to Christians.

He held a town meeting at “Eloise’s Crock Pot and Persimmon Pudding Emporium.” Shirley Knott, his fifth-grade teacher was in attendance.

“You still making people sneeze, Weedley?” asked his one-time teacher.

She was referring, of course, to the infamous time Chuck had thrown sneezing powder all through the fifth-grade class as it stood on the risers in the gym, trying to sing “Silent Night” as part of the Christmas concert, but the sneezing made it sound more like “The Anvil Chorus.”

“Ah, folks, my old teacher is here, God bless her. You must never underestimate the influence of a teacher. She once said to me, ‘Chuck, you’re so full of it, you might as well be a politician.’ It was the first time I realized that I was full of charm and ability, and thus she set me onto my destiny.”

“You’d think a teacher would know to be more specific in her language,” grumbled Randall Nathan.

“Some people will always hear what they want to,” replied his wife, Claire, a former teacher herself.

Everyone in the place glared at poor Shirley Knott.