Almost everyone had that one older teacher

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I think everyone had that one teacher who was old when they had them, and thirty years later is still teaching or at least taught for several years after you left. That teacher who had all of the stories about back in the day when they used paddles to punish children. The teacher is a source of amusement and has all of the best stories. I had a few of those teachers. I had a teacher like this who told stories of riding dinosaurs and building houses with the lead pencils and he had a jar on his desk that said "Ashes of problem students" on his desk. I think it goes without saying he did none of those things but he loved to entertain us. I'm not even sure how much History I learned that year. I don't think a whole lot. This was the class where the girl who sat in front of me fell asleep and instead of waking her up by slamming a book down in front of her face (this was a tactic my jerk science teacher used) had us all sneak out without waking her, which was especially difficult for me considering I sat behind her and my seat was next to his desk and her stuff was in the aisle and it wasn't easy getting around the desk and her stuff without waking her but my klutzy self figured it out without killing myself (something I'm still quite proud of). I got to my next period English class in which she was also in and my English teacher asked us where she was and we informed her what our History teacher did and she was amused and let it go. About halfway into English, someone in the hall yells, "She's awake!" and she came stumbling into English class, blurry eyed and confused. I can only picture her face upon waking up in another class confused. This seemed to work much better than about anything else he could have done because not once did she ever fall asleep in his classroom again. I did okay in his class. I wasn't a History scholar and in fact my love of history came much later, but I always appreciated his sense of humor. I found out he died a few years ago and was sad to hear it. He wouldn't have remembered me, I know this as fact, most teachers have no recollection of me because I was the quiet kid who sat in the back of the classroom and only spoke when absolutely necessary. It didn't make for a lasting memory in most peoples brains but I took it all in and learned about all of those people who have no clue who I am. When you're quiet you learn things about people and you observe. I observed this particular teacher a lot. He was funny and was easy to get off subject. We once got him off subject by talking about a penny. He spent an entire class period talking about pennies and how it's illegal to throw them away because the government owns them. It's funny that I can't remember almost anything I actually learned in that class, but I remember the rants, I remember the random funny stories he told. He was a lot of people's favorite teacher, and while he wasn't mine, I respected him. I remember how he told the story of how he once ate a ton of cotton candy as a kid and got sick and after that, he only ate because it was required for survival, even though he wasn't a small man, so I have my doubts. The world will forever be a less funny place without him, and there are groups of kids missing out on a man who might have probably taught them a lot. I honestly don't even know if he taught that year, but I'm guessing he did, but of course, I remember none of that. I just remember a funny guy who was as old as dirt (his words, not mine) that hated cotton candy and liked to tell tales of dinosaur riding, pencil building, and pennies. I figure if nothing else, I did learn a lot about pennies. Say what you want about him but he was the kind of guy you just don't forget. I'm sure had I been more into history back then it's possible I may have learned more from him. I have some weird memory about him mentioning "ugly Ira" during a lecture about someone but of course that's all I remember but I do remember he was actually teaching at that point. He was definitely my favorite of my old teachers.