RIP Ms Brice and Ms Briscoe
As random as my life is, I started out reading a gossip blog, clicked on a link for Lilly Allen's myspace (I like her and didn't realize she had one) and from there decided to log in to my account and see if I had any messages. So I notice that my old school had some notice that new people signed up. I am normally never curious since I went to 3 different high schools, but for some reason I clicked on La Cueva's link. From there I read a notice that 2 of my favorite high school teachers died in a car crash like a week ago. This is awful.
Two La Cueva High School teachers die in car crash
I didn't know Ms Briscoe as well, though I had her for Honors AP World History. She was the nice teacher that everyone loved. People used to breathe a sigh of relief when they would see her name on their newly assigned class schedules. She made class interesting and made sure people knew that it was better to think for yourself and question what was going on around you, rather than just accept whatever people tried to push on you.
Ms Brice was my Honors AP English teacher. She was a total hardass (but always fair) and bitched me out pretty regularly. I thought she didn't like me. One day she pulled my off to the side at the Career Day being held in the cafeteria. "What are you doing here? Do you honestly think that there is any point in you being here? With the choices you are making, you won't have a career. I hear you are dating Michael [a guy in English class]. He is a loser and a piece of shit. He is going nowhere with his life. You are smart, pretty and you have a bright future ahead of you if you straighten yourself out. You need to stay away from him or he will drag you down with him."
Needless to say, I was stunned and speechless. That was the moment I realized that she didn't dislike me, and there was a reason she was always so hard on me. And she actually called Michael Hartman a piece of shit during school! To a student!
A couple of things about Alice. (We never called her that to her face, but it was always an endearing kind of thing because we all liked her.) You never saw her without her asthma inhaler, and she hated chalk dust. When her asthma was particularly bad, she would wear latex gloves to avoid getting the chalk dust on her hands.
She used to be a ballerina - she would admit to that, but would never tell us who she danced for. We all assumed Some company in New York, since we knew she lived there at one time.
She was also on the cover of Vogue. But she would never tell us which issue.
Her favorite store at the mall was Banana Republic.
At some point in her education, she attended Harvard.
On my 17th birthday, I was invited to the ball at the Santa Fe Film Festival. That year it was all about John Houston. You can imagine my embrassment when they announced my birthday and the entire room began singing me Happy Birthday. Afterward, Anjelica Houston touched my arm and said "happy birthday". I was so embarassed I wanted to sink through the floor. Just when I thought the night couldn't get more surreal, Ms Brice came up to me (wearing a mask), smiled and said "I didn't know it was your birthday - happy birthday. And I also didn't ever expect to see you here." Then she walked away and I didn't see her the rest of the evening.
She was full of surprises. She was full of secrets (like the one about her stock in AT&T). She had a man-friend, but would never tell us about him. This just makes me so sad.
Comments
what a great memorial to a wonderful teacher. thank you for sharing it!
Posted by: marti | September 28, 2006 01:52 PM