1991

1991
Stroudsburg, PA

My age: 33-34

School: I wasn’t in school but I was paying my monthly school loans.  I borrowed $6,000 for my Master’s degree and $3,000 for my doctoral degree. I think I paid $71/month for ten years.

Work: I was the Assistant Principal at Stroudsburg High School, Stroudsburg, PA.  There were 1250 students in the school.  The community was struggling with the influx of families moving to the area from New York City.  There was a real clash of cultures.

Music- I listened to Casey Kasum every Sunday morning.  He would play the top 40 hits and I would try to record the songs I liked on my boom box.  This was a good year for music.

• Pearl Jam - wasn't a fan
• Whitney Houston  - wasn't a fan
• Michael Jackson - I thought he was very creative.  He wasn't as kooky then.
• Queen - wasn't a fan
• Bryan Adams  - he was OK.
• Phil Collins - I liked him
• Guns N' Roses - wasn't a fan
• Mariah Carey - she's ok 
• Metallica - wasn't a fan
• Amy Grant -  I liked her.
• Beverly Craven - never heard of her
• Cher - I liked her
• Gloria Estefan - she was OK
• R.E.M. - I liked this group
• Janet Jackson- wasn't a fan
• Extreme -never heard of this group
• Boyz II Men - wasn't a fan
• U2 - I like this group
• Van Halen - wasn't a fan
• The Clash - wasn't a fan
• Paula Abdul  - she was OK
• Billy Bragg - I liked him
• Garth Brooks - I liked him.
• Nirvana - wasn't a fan

Movies

• The Silence of the Lambs - creepy, creepy, creepy
• Hook - I love this movie.  I think I've watched it 6 or 7 times.
• The Addams Family- bizarre.  the TV show was bizarre and so was this movie.  But I still find this family to be entertaining.
• Father of the Bride- this was a stupid, predictable, light movie.
• Beauty and the Beast - I took my nieces to see this movie.
• Backdraft - this movie was intense.
• Thelma & Louise - I know everyone loves this movie but I thought it was just alright.

Books

• The Kitchen God's Wife- Amy Tan- this book started my obsession with Amy Tan.  I have read everything she has written.
• Wild Swan- Jung Chang- I amy not have read this book this year but I did read this very well written book.
• The Firm- Grisham- This is the only Grisham book that I've read but I have seen several of his movies.
• How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent- Julie Alvarez- She is a talented writer.

Travels 

• I went to the Touchstone Art Institute in the woods, near Pittsburgh, PA where I spent a week painting on fabric.  My sister and mother joined me but they were in a different class,
• I spent my summer weekends on Long Beach Island, NJ at my parents' house on the bay.

News events

• Boris Yeltsin wins the first free elections for Russia's first popularly-elected president.

• Winnie Mandela, the wife of Nelson Mandela, is given a six-year prison sentence or her part in the kidnap of four youths. And the rest of the world just couldn't believe this news.

• The Following Countries all gain independence when the Soviet Union breaks Up
  Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Axerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Estonia, 
• 
  
• The Dow Jones average topped 3,000 for the first time.  I don't remember this as I didn't have any money to invest at this point in my life.

• Mike Tyson is arrested and charged with rape.  And no one was surprised as he is such a pig.

• Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested  after the remains of 11 men  are found in his  apartment. The world was repulsed by this brutality.

• Lech Walesa  is elected President of Poland and it seemed as if communism was collapsing all over the world.

• Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen, issues a public statement confirming that he is stricken with AIDS, and the next day he dies of complications

• Journalist Terry Anderson is released after seven years' captivity as a hostage in Beirut 

• Terry Waite, the special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, was released after more than four years of captivity

• Police brutality is caught on tape during the arrest and beating of Rodney King  and LA broke out in anger and riots.

• Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union officially ceases to exist.  I thought he was a courageous leader.

• 911 Emergency Number tested in US northwestern cities 

• Operation Desert Storm  led by the United States bombs Iraq Forces in Kuwait and after 1 month of bombing Land invasion forces Iraq Forces out of Kuwait and back to Iraq. 

Family and friends

• December 29, 1951 was the day my parents were married.  This year was their 40th wedding anniversary.  To celebrate, we sent them on a trip: two days in London, a trip through the English Channel for Paris where they stayed for another two days, a night on the Orient Express and then three days in Vienna.  They loved this trip.

Cutting Off Her Fingers

Cutting Off Her Fingers
Stroudsburg High School
Stroudsburg, PA
1991


OMG, this was an awful day.  For days, I was nauseated by the thought that one of our 9th graders cut off three of her fingers in shop class. This was a nightmare.

I was an assistant principal at the time.  When the accident happened, I was out of the building.  When I got back to school, I went to my office and found the shop teacher sitting in the dark.  He was ashen and trembling. He saw me and started to speak to me but he was barely audible.  He mumbled and I couldn't understand a word he said.  But I understood that something terrible had just happened.

"Tell me again.  What happened?" I asked him.

"I don't know how it happened.  I was right there.  I just urned away for a second, just a second and then she screamed. I couldn't believe it.  I've never had an accident in my class. And now she lost her fingers. I picked up three of them."

I wanted to throw up.

"When did this happen?"

"The ambulance just left about 5 minutes ago.  They rushed her out of here.  She's at the hospital. Oh my God.  I can't believe this.  I've never had an accident in my class.  And now, this little girl.  Oh my God. Oh my God."  He rocked a little bit to comfort himself as he spoke.

"Let's go", I told  him.  "Come on". I pick up my car keys.

"Where?" he wants to know.

"The hospital.  Let's go.  I'll take you there."

"Oh, thank you. thank you so much.  Yea, let's go to the hospital."

And so we do.  We go right to the Emergency Room and find that a doctor has already seen her and her grandmother told us they were preparing for immediate surgery.  We ask if we can see her. And we are given permission to slip in to the room for a few seconds.

The teacher went first and I stood behind him.  Ruth was resting on a stretcher.  She had been crying and he started to cry.  He caressed her cheek and told her how very sorry he was. "Please forgive me", he asked. She cried and apologized to him.

"I'm sorry Mr. Weitzman.  I took the safety latch off.  You told us we always had to keep the latch on and I just took it off for a second. My piece of wood got stuck.  I'm sorry," she told him. Her voice was so sad and so sincere.

An orderly came and got her and swished her off to surgery. The doctor was able to sew her fingers back on.  But they never worked with any dexterity.  Mostly they were just there.

It was an awful moment but their moment of asking forgiveness of each other was one of the most beautiful moments in my life.

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