MEMORY MONDAY--Fluffy

Fourteen years old. Gilbert Jr. High.
Mr. Granio's 8th grade earth science class.

"Grah-knee-O," he demonstrated the first day of class, pointing to his own knee at the appropriate syllable.

He was AWESOME. And totally weird. But that is probably what made him so cool in the first place. Let me share what I remember about Mr. Granio.

1.) He was great at multi-tasking. He could give lectures about tectonic plates while shooting at flies with rubber bands (the classroom door faced a horse field). I've never seen a happier man than the day he shot and killed one flying midair.

2.) When he thought something was funny, it wasn't a knee slapper...it was an ELBOW slapper. He'd laugh hysterically while slapping his elbow. Like I said. Weird.

3.) Mr. Granio reminded me a Fred Flinstone. Without the orange dress.

4.) One day, Mr. Granio excitedly told the class that his wife was having a baby girl. We got on the subject of names, and he got frustrated, as he described the difficulties of agreeing on a name. Apparently his wife just wouldn't cooperate. When we asked what he wanted to name her, he replied dramatically, with outstretched arms, his attentive students in suspense:

"...Beached...Whale..."

he said, staring theatrically at an unknown distant vision.

5.) We were never allowed to say we got a HAIR cut. He said this didn't make sense. Why would we go to a hair salon and pay to have ONE hair trimmed? No...we got a HAIRS cut.

6.) Mr. Granio had a pet rock. He named it Fluffy, kept it in a cage, and had students regularly change its food and water. He would even remove it from the cage, put it in a hamster ball, and let it get some "exercise." The strangest part was the fact that the ball would actually rove all through the room as if a real animal was running its little heart out.

7.) And he taught us a bunch of stuff about rocks...and space...and volcanoes. That was cool too.


It's amazing what an impact a teacher can have.