wisdom.When I was in junior high, my school employed a
janitor/groundskeeper named Bill.
I'd been raised to be nice to older people, unlike some of
my other classmates, so I would find myself
inexorably drawn into conversations with him when I was waiting for my
dad to pick me up after yearbook, or volleyball, or whatever I had
going on at the time.
He'd ask after my studies, and then offer me some
sort of juicy tidbit on the inner workings of the school. Not
politically, mind you, but operationally.
"The lower girl's bathroom ran out of TP so quickly again....do you
know what's up with that?" Or maybe something a little more
controversial. "My budget's gone way downhill. I think I'm only
fertilizing the lawn once this spring." Bill would tell me these things
as though they would be of utmost interest to me, and though I found
myself strangely unmoved, I would give every indication that I was
listening, and that I cared.
Early one morning, my mom brought me to school to get on the bus for
a Ski Club day trip that was heading up to one of the mountains not too
far from where we lived. She made sure the sponsor teacher was there to
receive me, then she headed back home to bed.
I was the first student
there, and I sat on the curb near where the bus was idling while the
teacher went off to get his coat and skis from his office. I closed my
eyes and drifted off in the exhaust-filled air, only to be roused by
Bill.
"Hey you!" He was as chipper as ever, a rake in his hand, and a smile on his face. I was a little startled, to say the least.
"Uh, hi... how are you?" I rubbed my eyes vigorously, and picked up the stuff that had slipped off my lap when I jolted awake.
"Oh, good, good... just raking. I like to do grass things while
there's no kids tromping on it....so I'm up early. You going skiing?"
"Yep, I sure am." My skis were propped up against my back.
"Well, looks like it would be a clear day up there. Hope there's
snow. It's awfully warm down here." It's true...it was. One of the
warmest winter-spring seasons we'd had in a while.
"Yeah, it is. But I think they've had some good powder lately.
Should be good. " Bill nodded, and we lapsed into silence. I felt I
should say something else, since we were both standing there, waiting.
"It's too early to be up, though, I think. All the other students won't
even be here for two and a half hours!" I widened my eyes to express
how unjust this was, then smiled at my own conversational effort.
"Ah, yeah, well. The grass is always greener on the other side,
isn't it?" Bill said this in a sage way, but it really didn't seem to
have anything to do with anything. He was old, though, and
old people often said things like this without much meaning, in my
experience. I nodded, and thought about it for a second.
"Yeah, I guess if I was coming here later for classes, I might wish
I'd been up early to go skiing." Bill just looked
at me, bewildered.
"No." He pointed to the field beyond the gym. "Haven't you ever
noticed that the grass is greener on the other side of the school
fence? I think it has something to do with the septic fields, but I'd
love to know what they use."
Bill walked away, and I fell asleep again.
7:53:39 PM 
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