Tracy
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hmasing reply
When I was in 5th grade in 1975, my parents were divorcing and I was living with my abusive father. If I didn't get B+ or better on my report card, I got the belt. Not a little, mind you. A full-on beat down, and probably denial of meals for a while. The '70's with an abusive parent were a very different time. My father had quite a reputation in the small Pennsylvania town I lived in (McKean, PA). He was known as an incredibly strict person, and our neighbors all hated him. But this was a different time, and that sort of behavior was ignored in public. My 5th grade math teacher, Mr. Cunningham, scared me. He looked a bit like my father, and didn't suffer any nonsense in his classroom at all. I struggled with mathematics, and it just didn't make sense to me. We got our first report card in 5th grade. These were the days where you could carry a card with you for the day, and the teacher would write your grade on the report card. You would then have to take it home, and have a parent sign it to acknowledge that they had seen your grades. So far, through the day, the grades were good. A's, mostly, an A-, but all good. Math was my last class of the day before I had to catch the bus. When my report card came back to me, I froze in terror. I recall this moment like a photograph. The grade was a D, written in pen, right there on the report card. I knew what was coming. The blood drained out of my face. Mr. Cunningham dismissed the class, and I was frozen in my desk. Scared of what he would do, and even more scared of what my father would do. All the other kids had left the classroom, and my world around me was gone - just me, my books, and the D staring at me telling me that my 10-year old self was going to suffer. Badly. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I shook and started crying. Mr. Cunningham looked at me. He took my report card out of my hand, and walked up to his desk. He called me up there. I was still terrified, probably shaking, definitely trying to hide my crying and failing. He got out a black pen and changed the D into a B+. He didn't say anything, he just looked at me. He knew. He could see the signs, and he knew how terrified I was and why. I had no idea an adult could be so compassionate, and had no idea it was even possible to change something like that. He handed my report card back to me, and said two words that have stayed with me to this day. "Earn this." He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I know. It's not fair, and I'm sorry. You're a smart kid, and you can get this. Just ask me for help." He knew. It was a simple act of kindness, and it's stuck with me to this day. The math grade didn't matter - I'm successful enough in my 50's to not have that come up on my permanent record. But the permanent change of my impression of Mr. Cunningham is still very much with me. If you have power over other people, you have to wield that power with compassion. You have to tailor that power to meet the needs of the individual. That is the lesson I learned that day from Mr. Cunningham. The next terms I got a B+ or better. I assume it's because I worked really hard, and Mr. Cunningham helped me out at lunch - or, he was kind because he knew. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham. This was 45 years ago, and I still remember you.
JustADistanceRunner reply
My first grade teacher bought me clothes, got my doctor to recognize my epilepsy and diagnose it, and sent me to another school for highly capable students. I lived in a bad situation but she gave me my life back and now I have been accepted into college as a student athlete, with a nearly full ride scholarship. My epilepsy is still with me, I work two jobs now, but I have a future because of her. Thank you Mrs. Trudeau for believing in me.hmasing reply
When I was in 5th grade in 1975, my parents were divorcing and I was living with my abusive father. If I didn't get B+ or better on my report card, I got the belt. Not a little, mind you. A full-on beat down, and probably denial of meals for a while. The '70's with an abusive parent were a very different time. My father had quite a reputation in the small Pennsylvania town I lived in (McKean, PA). He was known as an incredibly strict person, and our neighbors all hated him. But this was a different time, and that sort of behavior was ignored in public. My 5th grade math teacher, Mr. Cunningham, scared me. He looked a bit like my father, and didn't suffer any nonsense in his classroom at all. I struggled with mathematics, and it just didn't make sense to me. We got our first report card in 5th grade. These were the days where you could carry a card with you for the day, and the teacher would write your grade on the report card. You would then have to take it home, and have a parent sign it to acknowledge that they had seen your grades. So far, through the day, the grades were good. A's, mostly, an A-, but all good. Math was my last class of the day before I had to catch the bus. When my report card came back to me, I froze in terror. I recall this moment like a photograph. The grade was a D, written in pen, right there on the report card. I knew what was coming. The blood drained out of my face. Mr. Cunningham dismissed the class, and I was frozen in my desk. Scared of what he would do, and even more scared of what my father would do. All the other kids had left the classroom, and my world around me was gone - just me, my books, and the D staring at me telling me that my 10-year old self was going to suffer. Badly. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I shook and started crying. Mr. Cunningham looked at me. He took my report card out of my hand, and walked up to his desk. He called me up there. I was still terrified, probably shaking, definitely trying to hide my crying and failing. He got out a black pen and changed the D into a B+. He didn't say anything, he just looked at me. He knew. He could see the signs, and he knew how terrified I was and why. I had no idea an adult could be so compassionate, and had no idea it was even possible to change something like that. He handed my report card back to me, and said two words that have stayed with me to this day. "Earn this." He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I know. It's not fair, and I'm sorry. You're a smart kid, and you can get this. Just ask me for help." He knew. It was a simple act of kindness, and it's stuck with me to this day. The math grade didn't matter - I'm successful enough in my 50's to not have that come up on my permanent record. But the permanent change of my impression of Mr. Cunningham is still very much with me. If you have power over other people, you have to wield that power with compassion. You have to tailor that power to meet the needs of the individual. That is the lesson I learned that day from Mr. Cunningham. The next terms I got a B+ or better. I assume it's because I worked really hard, and Mr. Cunningham helped me out at lunch - or, he was kind because he knew. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham. This was 45 years ago, and I still remember you.JustADistanceRunner reply
My first grade teacher bought me clothes, got my doctor to recognize my epilepsy and diagnose it, and sent me to another school for highly capable students. I lived in a bad situation but she gave me my life back and now I have been accepted into college as a student athlete, with a nearly full ride scholarship. My epilepsy is still with me, I work two jobs now, but I have a future because of her. Thank you Mrs. Trudeau for believing in me.
hello_specific_ocean reply
Senior year I was placed in a Freshman typing class. Everyone Else was chatty and goofed off, but I wanted to learn to type, so I really put in a lot of effort. I only had two classes in the morning, and the rest of the day I was a waitress, as I was pretty much on my own in my senior year. I got called into work on the day of our class final, so I went to work and missed the final. When I showed up to class the next day, I apologized to the teacher for missing the final. He asked me “do you want to know the grade you got?” When I replied yes, he said “I gave you an A because if you had been here, that’s what you would’ve gotten.” I never forgot that. Thank you Mr. Wyatt.Show All 3 Upvotes
Tracy • upvoted 6 items 6 days ago
chrissyv54 reply
At my high school, we had an annual week long science trip, fully paid for by fundraising. Only 4 people were selected to go each year. My sophomore year, I was chosen. I knew there was no way I was going to be allowed to go. I had never been out of the state, never been on a single vacation, never been on a plane and never been away from home for more than 24 hours. My parents were incredibly conservative and immediately said no. I had a science teacher who just didn't accept the no. Instead of just giving up and selecting someone else, he called and tried to convince my parents. When that didn't work, he came to my house and had dinner with my family to convince my dad that I would be an asset and he would be doing me a disservice by not letting me go. He sat and ate my mom's terrible cooking and talked to my parents for over 2 hours until he got a "we'll think about it". Then he just kept following up. I had never had someone in my corner like that before, who was willing to go to bat for me like that. He wore them down and it was the best week of my teenage life. I'd never seen the ocean. 20 years later and I can still recall every detail of that trip. It was a major pivot point for me.
pseudonymous_lemon reply
Had a highschool art teacher who would let me stay in his classroom during lunches. Always gave me half his sandwich and other extra food because he knew I didn't eat much otherwise. Edit: He would also keep a drawer in the classroom stocked with snacks so that I could swing by and grab something between classes if I needed. No, he never did anything "questionable", and no, I never "fell asleep" after eating the sandwiches. He was just a kind person :)chrissyv54 reply
At my high school, we had an annual week long science trip, fully paid for by fundraising. Only 4 people were selected to go each year. My sophomore year, I was chosen. I knew there was no way I was going to be allowed to go. I had never been out of the state, never been on a single vacation, never been on a plane and never been away from home for more than 24 hours. My parents were incredibly conservative and immediately said no. I had a science teacher who just didn't accept the no. Instead of just giving up and selecting someone else, he called and tried to convince my parents. When that didn't work, he came to my house and had dinner with my family to convince my dad that I would be an asset and he would be doing me a disservice by not letting me go. He sat and ate my mom's terrible cooking and talked to my parents for over 2 hours until he got a "we'll think about it". Then he just kept following up. I had never had someone in my corner like that before, who was willing to go to bat for me like that. He wore them down and it was the best week of my teenage life. I'd never seen the ocean. 20 years later and I can still recall every detail of that trip. It was a major pivot point for me.pseudonymous_lemon reply
Had a highschool art teacher who would let me stay in his classroom during lunches. Always gave me half his sandwich and other extra food because he knew I didn't eat much otherwise. Edit: He would also keep a drawer in the classroom stocked with snacks so that I could swing by and grab something between classes if I needed. No, he never did anything "questionable", and no, I never "fell asleep" after eating the sandwiches. He was just a kind person :)
kitjen reply
I worked for an online banking help desk and this 18yr old lad phoned up saying he had seen a transaction for £7 to allpay.net and because he didn't recognise it, he decided the bank were robbing him of £7 and that I was in on it and I was a "thieving little prick." Then he gets his dad on the phone who stuck up for his s**t of a son, saying I was a pathetic scumbag for stealing £7 off an 18yr old boy, even though it was a debit card transaction and I simply worked in the department which helped people use online banking. But anyway, I phoned our debit card services to see if they could give any more information, and boy could they. I then had the pleasure of relaying back to this little s**t's equally shitty father the following: "Hi sir, thanks for holding. I've checked with our debit card services team and I now understand why your son would not have recognised the payee 'allpay.net'. That's a deliberately vague term used for discretion when the customer has subscribed to online pornography. That's what it was for. Your son has been paying for online pornography. Would you like to pop him back on the phone so I can tell him it's a payment for his pornography, or will you pass on the information?" The father just muttered that the issue did not require any further investigation, thanked me for looking into it and hung up.Show All 6 Upvotes
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Tracy • upvoted 11 items 4 hours ago
suspicions-without-proof
That the NSA has stopped several terror attacks. They told Congress they never have, but I believe it's actually a cover-up. Can you imagine if they admitted they stopped, say, 5 major terror acts in the last 6 months? Woud that make you feel safer? Of course not. It would scare the shit out of us and destroy tourism to major cities. I think Men In Black put it best: "Man, we ain't got no time for this cover-up BULLSHIT! There's an alien battlecruiser about to---" "There's always an alien battlecruiser! Or a Korillian Deathray! Or an intergalactic plague that will wipe out life on this planet. The only way these people get on with their happy little lives is they do not know about it!"
khegiobridge reply
That I got my job as charity and therapy. I came back from a combat tour a total wreck. I stayed at my uncle's home for a month and I was already drinking too much and couldn't sleep without nightmares, the kind where you wake the house up from yelling and punching air. My uncle owned 4 restaurants and soon had me working in two of his kitchens 70 hours a week. I threw myself into the work because I had no social life; in six months, I was kitchen manager at his busy 24/7 restaurant. I did an excellent job but unc paid me 50% over the local scale. I think he hired me initially just to keep me out of trouble.
hedgehoglady reply
I worked at a restaurant that was very popular for brunch and Mother's Day was probably our busiest day of the year. I had a customer call the evening before and asked for a table for six and he was incredibly rude when I informed him that this would simply be an impossibility. He kept getting more and more worked up, asking me to speak to my manager. At first I didn't want to pass the phone over (my manager wasn't the nicest guy and we were in the middle of a busy dinner shift) but my manager came up behind me and demanded to know why I had been on the phone for so long. I was like "f**k it, this customer isn't going to listen to me anyways" and gave the phone to Mac. Mac asked how he could help, listened for about 15 seconds before telling this dude something like, "so you're tying up my hostess in the middle of dinner even though she's already told you nicely that we can't fit you and your goddamn family in the night before our busiest day of the year? F**k your buddy!" And hung up the phone.LadyVerene reply
Guy comes in and is being a complete a*****e. Not wanting to show ID to buy beer even though he looked 20 at the oldest, constantly yelling and swearing. He also had parked in the handicap spot despite not having handicap tags or plates on his car. One of my regular customers, who is a sheriff's deputy, was also in the store. Saw how the guy was acting. Saw where he was parked. Went out, got his ticket book, and wrote the guy a ticket. Guy realized he wasn't getting his beer, went outside...to find he was getting ticketed. I could not stop laughing.kitjen reply
I worked for an online banking help desk and this 18yr old lad phoned up saying he had seen a transaction for £7 to allpay.net and because he didn't recognise it, he decided the bank were robbing him of £7 and that I was in on it and I was a "thieving little prick." Then he gets his dad on the phone who stuck up for his s**t of a son, saying I was a pathetic scumbag for stealing £7 off an 18yr old boy, even though it was a debit card transaction and I simply worked in the department which helped people use online banking. But anyway, I phoned our debit card services to see if they could give any more information, and boy could they. I then had the pleasure of relaying back to this little s**t's equally shitty father the following: "Hi sir, thanks for holding. I've checked with our debit card services team and I now understand why your son would not have recognised the payee 'allpay.net'. That's a deliberately vague term used for discretion when the customer has subscribed to online pornography. That's what it was for. Your son has been paying for online pornography. Would you like to pop him back on the phone so I can tell him it's a payment for his pornography, or will you pass on the information?" The father just muttered that the issue did not require any further investigation, thanked me for looking into it and hung up.LadySmuag reply
Let me preface my story by saying I work near Baltimore. Yeah. So, I manage a plus size womens clothing store. We actually get a surprising amount of...lets call them 'non-traditional' customers. Guys who need a dress for a charity show, cross dressers, genderfluid people, transgender women, and drag queens aren't unheard of. So a drag queen comes into the store to pick up some shoes they ordered online. They must have been either coming from or going to a show because they were still in full makeup. I get their name and during our conversation another customer walks in. I call out a greeting and say something like, "I'll be right with you." I go to the back room, and it takes a minute to go through all the web orders. I find the one I need and am on my way back to the counter, when the new customer throws her arm out to stop me from passing. She then says, "I am a new customer and I've been here for 20 minutes and no one has spoken to me." A.) I greeted her when she came in and B.) She had only been in the store for 5 minutes at that point I resigned myself to groveling, but before I could say anything the drag queen stomps over, glares at the customer, and says, "B***h, she said *hello* to you." Complete with sassy finger snaps. The Queen then made a big show of thanking me for getting her package, and gave me a big sparkly kiss on the cheek before she left. The other customer sheepishly paid for her Spanx and didn't make eye contact when I told her to have a good day.
RedditWhileWorking23 reply
Working the window at Mcdonalds late night. Guy orders whatever and pulls up to the window. I'm cooking and handling the window, so I wasn't there when the customer pulled up. When I walked up to the window, I didn't see the f****r with trash in his lap. I open the window to take his card/cash and he throws a bag of trash at me. I take a step back, bothered that I just got trash thrown at me, and I watch his car speed off. I'm pissed, but there's nothing I can do. A couple seconds later I hear a small bang of metal on metal. I walk to the lobby and look out the windows. The douchebag slammed into a police cruiser who was about to loop around and use the drive thru himself. Of course I also went to tell the officer what just happened inside.
mayonays reply
Worked at Best Buy 10 or so years ago, this happened on Black Friday. Most of the customers were in bad moods since they'd been waiting hours to come in and stand in more lines. But this one lady was a raging b***h. After yelling at everyone in my department about how she NEEDED the laptop that was on sale despite it being sold out, she proceeds to tell us she'll have the store closed down because she "works with the city and knows the fire marshall and we have too many people in the store." So she calls him, we tell her to leave, and nothing happens to the store. However we called them as well to report what she'd said, and she got fired from her job for abuse of power.Abee34 reply
Currently at a consignment shop. We have two stories of furniture, and it's only things people bring in for us to sell for some of the profit. A lady came in her with her son (he was 5 or 6) and she looked around. We had two bar-stools and she came up to the desk and said "I'd like to order two more of these bar-stools" I smiled and said "We can't do that, those belong to someone and that's all they had to consign with us." She looks back and says "Well why the f**k can't you order ones like this?! I'm sure you can find them online!!" I clench my teeth and smile again, saying "Ma'am we really can't do that. If you'd like to go online you are more than welcome to look for yourself, but I can't help you and I'm sorry." She huffed and started walking to the door, talking about getting me fired.. Making a horrible review of this place.. She then got a nice big face-full of door. It's a push door and it was locked. She looks at me and screams "*WHY THE F**K IS THIS LOCKED?!*" I have no idea. Then her son looks at her and says "Mommy you were mean to that lady and I don't wanna go till you say sorry". Best. Kid. Ever.
Tracy • upvoted 9 items 1 day ago
JustADistanceRunner reply
My first grade teacher bought me clothes, got my doctor to recognize my epilepsy and diagnose it, and sent me to another school for highly capable students. I lived in a bad situation but she gave me my life back and now I have been accepted into college as a student athlete, with a nearly full ride scholarship. My epilepsy is still with me, I work two jobs now, but I have a future because of her. Thank you Mrs. Trudeau for believing in me.pseudonymous_lemon reply
Had a highschool art teacher who would let me stay in his classroom during lunches. Always gave me half his sandwich and other extra food because he knew I didn't eat much otherwise. Edit: He would also keep a drawer in the classroom stocked with snacks so that I could swing by and grab something between classes if I needed. No, he never did anything "questionable", and no, I never "fell asleep" after eating the sandwiches. He was just a kind person :)hello_specific_ocean reply
Senior year I was placed in a Freshman typing class. Everyone Else was chatty and goofed off, but I wanted to learn to type, so I really put in a lot of effort. I only had two classes in the morning, and the rest of the day I was a waitress, as I was pretty much on my own in my senior year. I got called into work on the day of our class final, so I went to work and missed the final. When I showed up to class the next day, I apologized to the teacher for missing the final. He asked me “do you want to know the grade you got?” When I replied yes, he said “I gave you an A because if you had been here, that’s what you would’ve gotten.” I never forgot that. Thank you Mr. Wyatt.hmasing reply
When I was in 5th grade in 1975, my parents were divorcing and I was living with my abusive father. If I didn't get B+ or better on my report card, I got the belt. Not a little, mind you. A full-on beat down, and probably denial of meals for a while. The '70's with an abusive parent were a very different time. My father had quite a reputation in the small Pennsylvania town I lived in (McKean, PA). He was known as an incredibly strict person, and our neighbors all hated him. But this was a different time, and that sort of behavior was ignored in public. My 5th grade math teacher, Mr. Cunningham, scared me. He looked a bit like my father, and didn't suffer any nonsense in his classroom at all. I struggled with mathematics, and it just didn't make sense to me. We got our first report card in 5th grade. These were the days where you could carry a card with you for the day, and the teacher would write your grade on the report card. You would then have to take it home, and have a parent sign it to acknowledge that they had seen your grades. So far, through the day, the grades were good. A's, mostly, an A-, but all good. Math was my last class of the day before I had to catch the bus. When my report card came back to me, I froze in terror. I recall this moment like a photograph. The grade was a D, written in pen, right there on the report card. I knew what was coming. The blood drained out of my face. Mr. Cunningham dismissed the class, and I was frozen in my desk. Scared of what he would do, and even more scared of what my father would do. All the other kids had left the classroom, and my world around me was gone - just me, my books, and the D staring at me telling me that my 10-year old self was going to suffer. Badly. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I shook and started crying. Mr. Cunningham looked at me. He took my report card out of my hand, and walked up to his desk. He called me up there. I was still terrified, probably shaking, definitely trying to hide my crying and failing. He got out a black pen and changed the D into a B+. He didn't say anything, he just looked at me. He knew. He could see the signs, and he knew how terrified I was and why. I had no idea an adult could be so compassionate, and had no idea it was even possible to change something like that. He handed my report card back to me, and said two words that have stayed with me to this day. "Earn this." He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I know. It's not fair, and I'm sorry. You're a smart kid, and you can get this. Just ask me for help." He knew. It was a simple act of kindness, and it's stuck with me to this day. The math grade didn't matter - I'm successful enough in my 50's to not have that come up on my permanent record. But the permanent change of my impression of Mr. Cunningham is still very much with me. If you have power over other people, you have to wield that power with compassion. You have to tailor that power to meet the needs of the individual. That is the lesson I learned that day from Mr. Cunningham. The next terms I got a B+ or better. I assume it's because I worked really hard, and Mr. Cunningham helped me out at lunch - or, he was kind because he knew. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham. This was 45 years ago, and I still remember you.chrissyv54 reply
At my high school, we had an annual week long science trip, fully paid for by fundraising. Only 4 people were selected to go each year. My sophomore year, I was chosen. I knew there was no way I was going to be allowed to go. I had never been out of the state, never been on a single vacation, never been on a plane and never been away from home for more than 24 hours. My parents were incredibly conservative and immediately said no. I had a science teacher who just didn't accept the no. Instead of just giving up and selecting someone else, he called and tried to convince my parents. When that didn't work, he came to my house and had dinner with my family to convince my dad that I would be an asset and he would be doing me a disservice by not letting me go. He sat and ate my mom's terrible cooking and talked to my parents for over 2 hours until he got a "we'll think about it". Then he just kept following up. I had never had someone in my corner like that before, who was willing to go to bat for me like that. He wore them down and it was the best week of my teenage life. I'd never seen the ocean. 20 years later and I can still recall every detail of that trip. It was a major pivot point for me.
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TIL A killing committed on an iceberg outside of any country's territorial waters led to such a massive kerfuffle over the questions of jurisdiction and who had the right to try the defendant that it is being examined as a possible case study in the event murder occurs in outer spaceThis Panda hasn't followed anyone yet
Tracy • 25 followers
