Taylor Allderdice High School was a nerve center for our family, as was the University of Pittsburgh. Everybody in my family went to Allderdice. I have an aunt who is only 14 years older than me and I had some teachers that she had too.

In 1965 our English teacher Lloyd Welling, and one of the art teachers, Mrs. Wuchnick united forces and put together something that the school had never seen: a course called Creative Expressions (I'm not positive about that name. But it's close.) Everyone would receive automatic "A's" in order to eliminate stress and competition. There would be poetry readings, art projects using Color Aid paper (gorgeous), state-of-the-art cameras, discussions, teamwork, music. I wanted to be in this class so badly; but somebody decided to only accept students with an IQ of 125 and above. When I went to the guidance counselor to find out more, she told me that my IQ was 124.

I was so sad about this. I went to my mother and told her about Creative Expressions and how much I wanted to be a part of it. My mother called the guidance counselor, made an appointment for herself, put on a nice suit, and went to lobby for me to have my wish fulfilled. Since the whole idea of Creative Expressions was to bring out the best in young people, it seemed petty to exclude me for one IQ point if I wanted it that much.

So I attended this class. It was first period but nobody complained about having to be creative that early in the morning. Everybody loved everybody else. No exams, no papers to write, everybody would get A's. Mr. Welling beautifully read aloud Dylan Thomas' poem about his 30th birthday; Mrs. Wuchnick talked about race relations. She said that the day was coming where white people would look at black people and admire the differing brown and mahogany tones of their skins.

Thanks, Mom.