Living to One's-Self

Amazon Review:

A Man of Prime Importance

I just ordered this book, but already know the quality to expect because, you see, Mr. Trout was my 4th and 5th grade teacher in Christiana PA in 1948 and 1949. He was the very first to teach me how to frame and rhyme a poem. So often teachers live and die not knowing their contribution to the young lives they touch, influence, mold. Very tall, very dark, very solemn, very serious, I still see him in my mind’s eye today, over sixty years later. Currently he is quite alive for me as I write my memoir of a decade in that sleepy, wonderful town. If the class was very obedient and attentive, he would close the day with a half hour ‘s reading of A Secret Garden, during which only his deep voice could be heard painting the world of Mary and Colin and Dickin. Decades later, on the moors of Yorkshire, in the North York Moors National Park, I could hear this man’s voice in my head describing the scenes and characters so dear to my heart. He was a very kind, attentive, interested teacher, as he encouraged my little poems. There would be other great teachers in my schooling life, but none so memorable as this gifted one. How I wish I could have known him when I became an adult.