Journal: News & Comment

A voice from the past

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This morning, Mr. Dougal Fraser, the man who taught me to write a couple of decades ago, phoned me. I had sent him a note (in snail mail) a few months ago after hearing that he had (as he put it) "been retired" from the school where he taught me. Today he's moving to Victoria, and while he waited for the moving van he decided to telephone.

He sounds exactly the same, which should have been no surprise, but was anyway. After all, he was already an established teacher when I first met him, and though it had been at least 15 years since we'd spoken, that isn't an incredibly long time in a teaching career. He has the same wit, the same voice, and even uses some of the same catchphrases. It was good to talk to him, and I hope he enjoys his retirement—whatever he chooses to do with it.

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