Back when the streets were filled with potholes, the laundromat was boarded up, and the neighbors' homes were just feet away from ours, I went to school at a place called North Hill Elementary. It was your typical unremarkable school in the midst of an unremarkable place. There wasn't much there worth noting, other than maybe a fantastic teacher named Mrs. Brown, the woods behind the school that were filled with ghost stories, and an odd octagon-shaped addition that housed several classrooms.
It's the school where I learned to read, the school I attended when I first realized I was ... different, and the school where I spent recesses playing Star Wars with the boys, despite the fact that I had never seen any of the movies. I won contests for fundraising, got in trouble for stealing a classmate's winter hat during a game of tag, and avoided eye contact with a boy named Clinton.
But, really, it was unremarkable.
Except for one man.
There was a man, a janitor, who wasn't your ordinary janitor. He wasn't invisible, nor was he the subject of mockery. Instead, he was the janitor that everyone liked because he was a genuinely nice guy.
I don't remember his name. I don't remember what he looked like. And, yet, I remember him. He's the man who stood by the trash cans in the cafeteria. He guided new students in the proper process for cleaning their trays, always making sure to be kind as he reminded everyone to not throw away the silverware. He made it a point to greet each and every kid, always with a smile on his face.
He's the man who constantly rattled off the phrase, "Girls are squirrels, but boys make noise." To this day I have no idea what he meant by that, but I think he was saying that girls are the smarter gender. Go with me on that one, ok?
He was just a nice guy who had an odd saying, but yet 30 years later, he sticks with me.
I often wonder who will stick with Alexis. Who are the characters that will become permanent fixtures in her memory? And will they be good memories?