She was young. She was beautiful.

And I, a nine-year-old kid from Flushing, Queens, had a giant crush on her.

Mrs. Swenson, my fourth grade teacher, was the person that taught me so many things that are essential for an enjoyable life. Sure, she covered the basics. English. Math. The kind of fundamentals that are not successfully covered for many of our kids today.
But more important for me, she taught me to live.

She taught me to dance. She instilled confidence in me that I could stand in front of people and speak, sing, act, and be a presence that others could understand and enjoy.

She was in charge of entertainment for the PTA meetings, and somewhere along the way, I became her go-to-guy. Her “pet,” if you wanna call it that. I’ll take it.
I was Casey, who waltzed with the Strawberry blonde. Shirley Royes was that blonde. Wonder where she is now, some 76 years later? Wow.
I sang “Sweet Adeline” in a kid’s Barber shop quartet and got a laugh from a room full of grown-ups, not cuz I was good, but because I “gently” elbowed a fellow singer who hit a wrong note.

In a skit about the importance of vocabulary, I was her “Dictionary”–a lead role that had lots of words for me to recite in a costume my mom fashioned from a large cardboard box. As a 10 year old, I impressed the PTA by just not screwing up my lines. LOL

For a while, I thought I was hot stuff.

Short while.

My buck teeth were coming on their own and pretty much destroyed my self confidence for a while. Ahh pre-teen adolescence!!

Mrs Swenson also had so much courage. She took a group of us 25 nine or ten year olds on several field trips to learn about the greatest city in the world, right under our nose. We visited museums, zoos, the fire department, the Statue of Liberty, Hamilton’s grave site, Skyscrapers!
Her biggest outing was, unfortunately, one I missed. She took the class to see High Button Shoes a Broadway musical hit of 1948. That was almost 80 years ago….Sheeit!
That missed opportunity was finally assuaged in 1957 when I saw my first Broadway show, “West Side Story”. Wow, worth the wait!!
To this day, The Big Apple has played a major role in my life. I’ve introduced my family to its magic, sometimes one grandkid at a time. I still plan future visits, as possible. Thank you, Mrs Swenson.
Enuf.