Memory Lane Friday - It Happened in Class

This week's Memory Lane Friday topic is "It Happened in Class."

I've been trying to think of something embarrassing or funny that happened to me in class at some point in my academic career. But since I can't think of anything (maybe I blocked out all the embarrassing stuff), I'm going to write about a fun memory from my astronomy class when I was at Culver Girls Academy (part of Culver Academies).

My senior year, for my science classes, I was taking Astronomy first semester, and Geology second semester, both taught by Dean Carl Steeley.

The year before, a few of my friends from the class of 1988 had taken the same classes their senior year. Now it was my turn.

It was fall semester, so I was in Astronomy class, along with a couple of my classmates from the class of 1989. It was a fun, interesting class - a subject that has always seemed really cool.

Anyway, one day in class, Dean Steeley was telling us about the phases of the moon - you know, waxing crescent (it's partially lit up and looking like it's getting bigger), waning gibbous (it's big, and starting to get smaller), and so forth.

Well, Dean Steeley was bald, okay? And here's the part where he used himself as a prop to demonstrate a concept to the class. It's also my "It Happened in Class" bit, which went something like this . . .

Dean Steeley had an overhead projector in his class, the kind that projects an image from transparencies onto a screen on the wall, via mirrors, lenses, and light. Know the kind? 

He turned it on and had the shiny part of the "arm" facing us, saying something like "Okay, here's the sun." Then he said "My head is the moon . . . see, you can even see the Man in the Moon's face" as he pointed to his head. He then proceeded to walk around the overhead projector, telling us about each phase of the moon, so we could have a visual.

Hahahaha! The "My head is the moon" quote? Classic Dean Steeley. My friends (from both graduating classes of 1988 and 1989) who took his astronomy class still, to this day, remember that day in class (he did the same thing the year before, for my friends in the class of 1988 who took his Astronomy class).

He was such a fun, kind instructor, always keeping the class entertaining.

He passed away within the past few months, which was sad, but inevitable news. So to remember him fondly, I told Livie the story about "My head is the moon," the first full moon after I'd heard that he'd passed away.

Anyway, this particular moment in his class is always a fun one to remember among those of us who took his class.

And to Dean Steeley, "My head is the moon!"

Here's a Chapel view of the Culver campus.

Photo was taken by me in May, 2009.

Please come back next week when the topic is "An Injury."

Memory Lane Friday is hosted weekly by Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs. Please click on the button to read her entry for this week, as well as other entries who may have posted.