Some Fun Facts You Didn't Know About Me

1. The only time I ever cheated on a test was when my eighth-grade history teacher made us list from memory all the American presidents in order of the dates of their terms of office. I decided it was perfectly reasonable to cheat on an unreasonable assignment, but I still feel guilty about it.

2. I’ve had at least one cat ever since I was three years old. It was my husband, however, who started the practice of having more than one at a time.

3. On my first day as a high school English teacher, the principal presented me with my very own paddle—made of lemonwood, holes drilled through it to make it whistle, and the paddle portion into two horizontal layers in order to deliver two swats for the price of one. Imagine that happening today! I only used it once, by the way. On the advice of a colleague, I took the offending miscreant out into the hall, had him lean his hands against the metal lockers, and then gave him a single swat. Those lockers rattled and echoed up and down the hall. I never had another disciplinary problem.

4. My first job, at age sixteen, was fitting girdles in the ladies’ underwear department of our town’s store. I lasted two days. (No pictures, please!) 

5. The best dessert I ever ate was a bacon sundae—vanilla ice cream topped with maple syrup and crumbled bacon—at an Italian restaurant on Hilton Head Island.

6. In my spare time, I am a member of Lions Clubs International, working with others to provide assistance to those who are visually impaired and to help eradicate preventable blindness around the world.