MEMORIES OF MR.
BURROWS
Mr. Burrows as a shy man
When I was fourteen I played in a show
called "The Happy Time" at Theater 61 out on the highway. I was "Bibi Bonard," a
youngster who had not learned the facts of life. I lived on the theater grounds
for a few weeks, and got a good start at learning those facts. Mr. Burrows
played my father, and Stephanie L'Heureux's dad played my grandfather. One day I
was trying to memorize my lines in the back of the darkened theater, and Mr.
Burrows was on stage arguing with the woman who played my mother.
"No, no," she said, "it is a passionate,
loving, intimate kiss."
"No, no," said
Mr. Burrows, "it is a brief, husbandly peck on the cheek."
"Here, let me show you," she said, coming at him well
puckered.
He backed away, still arguing.
"Hm," I thought. I really was naïve. In
the play, I could never figure out why everyone laughed when my "mother" said
to my "grandfather" who was coming downstairs from his sickbed, all dressed to
go out, "Grandpere, you should be in bed!"
"Eet ees only a mattair of time," he replied.
I wondered what was so funny about that.
Do any of you remember Mr. Burrows appearing at one of
our all-school functions in full theater regalia replete with make-up and big
black cape having just come from playing in the theater? What play was that,
anyway?
Mr. Burrows the Teacher, 1958 to 1961
One of our students once snuck
into Mr. Burrows' house on Greysolon Road and found that he DID in fact wear a
girdle to keep his stomach pulled in so he'd look slim and trim.
He always had a pithy saying written on the
upper left hand corner of the chalkboard. I remember one which said "all that
is necessary for evil to prevail is for enough men to do nothing."
He would bustle into class muttering "there is
not enough time, not enough time" because he was so excited and full of
information to pass onto us. Especially after having visited, over the summer, a
civil war battlefield.
Remember the homework where you had to come up
with a map of the original 13 colonies? One girl (who sat right in front in the
middle) (Hi, Jill!) and many others blew me away when I saw their almost
life-size white poster-board beautifully prepared maps which would net them an
A+ while I got a D on the map I traced from the textbook onto lined paper. At
least he said nice things about my essays. And I did get better grades in his
classes than in any others because I was excited by his enthusiasm for his
subjects.
Bob
Gooch
Duluth East Class of 1961
