Letters to the Editor

We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here

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Resolve to Fix the Bay

Dear Bay Weekly:

This is my season’s greeting to you and all your readers.

Rejoice: the mere fact that you are reading this means you are alive.

Forgetting all the resolutions you may have made (only to be willfully broken), please think about this one, a simple one-liner you will find hard to break: I resolve to take an interest in doing the things I can do to help fix Chesapeake Bay.

—Cap’n. Bob Jensen, Downtown Topping, Va.

Who’s Playing What?

Dear Bay Weekly:

Thank you for your publication: informative and entertaining.

I am particularly interested in Music Notes. However, I have no idea what style of music most of the groups play. Most are not on the web. Would it be possible to include type of music — current, jazz, country, blues?

Then I can make my choices wisely.

—V. Wilson, North Beach

Editor’s note: That’s a resolution we’ll make.

Farewell to a Teacher

Dear Bay Weekly:

I was very saddened by the passing of Mrs. June King, who was my English teacher at Calvert County High School in 1958 and 1959. I have lived most of my adult life in New England, but I have seen Mrs. King twice since I graduated, most recently a year ago at my 45th high school reunion, where she was a special guest.

Back in the 1950s, you learned by the eighth grade that the legendary Mrs. King was a teacher to watch out for when you reached your junior year. On that first day in my 11th grade English class, she did not disappoint. We sat up straight, trembled a little and listened with both ears. I soon figured out that she was going to be the best teacher I would ever have.

Forty-five years later, at the reunion, she had health problems and sat in a wheelchair. But she was as sharp as a tack, and still the same Mrs. King. I introduced myself and said timidly, “You may not remember me, but I am Howard Manning.” She said sternly, “Howard, never underestimate me.” When I told her I was a published author, she snapped back, “See, my teaching did not hurt you very much, did it?”

In a very emotional five-minute speech to the class, she was full of advice, mostly a plea for us to be good to one another and to tell our friends we love them while we have the opportunity. For a fleeting moment, her eyes focused on mine, and I felt that stare she was famous for.

Mrs. King never stopped teaching or caring. I loved her for who she was and for the great gift of education that she gave me. I know that from her special place in heaven, she has already corrected God on a few dangling participles.

—Joe (Howard) Manning, Florence, MA