High School.
AP European History class.
Third floor. Southwest corner facing windows. 1:15 PM. The sign in the transom window above the door read, “ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE”. Mr. Ridhell was angry. Every day. Our main school building, having been built in 1910 and perhaps never receiving any sort of upgrades of any kind since then, was a beautiful historic building with no air conditioners nor ventilation devices of any kind. We would be overheated by mid-lunch since our lunchroom air quality and environment was similar to a M*A*S*H mess tent complete with doors propped open with folding chairs and mosquitoes. After lunch it would be History. Hot, muggy, no air conditioner history. Oh, there were heaters. There were oil heated radiators that Ridhell threatened to turn on if every single one of us didn’t ace the quiz we were about to take in ten minutes. It was awful. My only saving grace was that at 1:55PM every day I would be on my way like an angel with new wings to Miss Huber’s class in the new building with A/C on the other side of the gym. It was a long walk especially on those hot summer afternoons and it was AP Calculus. But it was worth it. The cool, refreshing, life affirming coolness of the room always made us happy. Miss Huber was happy too. Cool, comfortable, able to do her work of teaching the most complex of subject material and best of all, happy to be there. I heard Mr. Ridhell had chosen the hottest room in the school in order to torment his students. I don’t think anyone ever mustered the bravery to ask him.
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