In Class with Edgar C. Clapp: Remembering in Rhyme

 

Eddie had friends at both Mumford and Cooley High. (I had one of my closest friends at Cass.) We shared a Bagley background--Eddie and I.  You (kind of) get to know the kid you sit next to in class, and Eddie Clapp happened to be that guy--in Manuel Simon's English literature, in the summer of "62.  Mr. Manuel taught us much of what he knew. The class atmosphere was informal. It felt natural; it felt normal. I can't remember the name of the guy (or guys) with whom Eddie would fraternize in English Lit (nor exactly where the classmate happened to sit). I don't care a fig (or a few) in reference to that; i.e., where a classmate may have sat.  Eddie sat in row two, behind Andrea W. (double U).  I sat on Eddie's right. I was short and shy and polite. The class size may have been small, but "the order was tall" to absorb (almost) all--about English Lit--in one eight week session. Either we were already academically fit, or we learned our lesson: our need to focus our minds and take care not to fall behind. Mr. Simon's summer class went fast. Now a full fifty years have passed.  Summer school can be a struggle; summer school is sometimes a snap. I do not have to struggle to remember Eddie Clapp.