Well, I don’t know quite how to say this delicately, so I guess I’ll fall back on the old standby of just blurting it out. My days as a school librarian are most likely over. The district I was working in closed two schools in three years and ended up with five schools and six librarians. That made me odd man out. (Literally, odd MAN. I was the only guy librarian in the district). Of course, the year doesn’t end until June 4 and my contract technically runs through June 30, but that’s all “on paper” stuff, really. State testing started yesterday and I’ve got more days of leave accumulated than there are school days left. Add to all that some simmering bad blood between me and a couple of colleagues and, well, let’s just say I’ll be using all those “sick days” regardless of if I want to or not. I meet with the personnel director tomorrow morning at 9:00 to discuss exactly how I’ll be spending the last three weeks of this school year, but I’d advise all you who are betting types out there to put your money on “paid administrative leave” and, believe you me, I’ll be more than thankful if that’s all it turns out to be. So I’m officially back in the job market and I’m pretty sure my next source of income won’t be a school district. This will be the yet another time I’ll have left my metaphorical bridges pretty much the same way General Sherman left Atlanta.

So, I’m going to take the blog in a little different direction. As you can see if you’ve been a reader before, I’ve already changed the name a bit. Basically, I’m dropping all pretext of being an expert in anything, especially an expert librarian. I’m going to focus more on what comes naturally to me and that’s storytelling and commentary. I spent a big chunk of my early formative years in the back room of Papa Wham’s auto parts store listening to crusty veterans of World War II swap war stories, fishing stories, and a few stories that Granny Wham would have blistered my hide just for standing around to listen to.

Each of those elderly gentlemen is gone now, and I fervently hope they achieved a well-deserved rest, but their stories and the stories my grandparents and other older relatives told me during family reunions, church suppers, and power outages left me with a tremendous appreciation for word and phrase. As I’ve grown older, I’ve acquired more than a few stories of my own and I hope to share those with you as well.

So there you have it. Grocery Store Feet walk on, just in a slightly different direction. I hope those of you who began this journey with me find it worthwhile to stay with me. Hopefully, I’ll make it worth your while. Until the next time, don’t forget to wash your feet, y’all! 🙂