The Good Stuff...Thank You, Mrs. Miller

I can’t stop thinking about Mrs. Patti Miller. Mrs. Miller was my teacher in the 10th grade. During the 1983-1984 school year at North Harrison, she must have done something to honk the administration at the high school. Mr. Pitman, I doubt he would say it. Mr. Davis, I doubt he would remember. Doubt he was in on it. But something had to happen for a school teaching assignment roster to include a new class at North Harrison High School. The class was Sports Literature. The teacher assigned to said class was Mrs. Patti Miller. Mrs. Miller didn’t know if a football was filled with air or stuffed with feathers. Still, Mrs. Miller made a difference in my life. She was the first teacher I had to mark on my writing assignments with positive remarks. I mean really positive remarks.

She wrote this in my yearbook. I was honored.

What I respected the most about Mrs. Miller was her honesty. She made no bones about her lack of sports acumen. She was a great English teacher and a WONDERFUL drama person. She put on plays at Jeff High that were legendary. While at North that year (not surprisingly it was her last), she leaned on her students. There were maybe eleven of us. My old friend Paul Haub was in there. So was Rob “Cube Root” Ray. In earnest, I kind of took the lead in that class. Never one to shy away from a chance to guide for the good, Mrs. Miller gave me a great deal of rope that sounded like this, “What is going on in sports right now, Danny?”

It was a second semester class. The biggest professional sports story was happening early that semester. The Colts were moving from Baltimore to Indianapolis. We watched sports movies. “Bang the Drum Slowly’ and “Brian’s Song” were a couple I remember. Nothing like the movie projector days before the VCR!

I wish Mrs. Miller could have been in the crowd this weekend as her old sports pupil was in the role of Drama Club Sponsor. Oh no, I did not direct the play. An excellent student was in charge of that. I was the guy who turned the key and was the sounding board when I needed to be. I also was in the tech booth high above the play taking care of the sound effects and music that added to the performance.