| Issue #50, March 23, 2007 |
The Sheltered Islander
Overdue!
By Sally Flynn
Man pays 30-year-old school fees (AP Sun Mar 18, 12:52 AM ET)
Jeff Rolson is just relieved he didn’t get sent to the principal’s office. The 40-something Rolson last week dropped by Superior Senior High School, where he graduated in 1977, to get a copy of his transcript for a plumbing apprenticeship. That’s when he found out he had two outstanding debts — $7.95 for a missing algebra book and $5 for an unpaid physical-education fee.
A secretary told him he had to pay up before he could get his transcript.
“I told her, ‘Do you realize this was 30 years ago?’” he said.
Rolson says he doesn’t understand why the school didn’t contact him earlier. He still lives in Superior.
“Nobody contacted me, so I ended up paying the $13 to get my transcript,” he said.
Rolson caught one break, though. “She did forget the $2 fee for the transcript,” he said.
I had to laugh at this because I recently had a similar experience at our library.
My son, who shall remain nameless, wanted to get a replacement library card. He couldn’t, because he was informed that his mother, who shall remain blameless, had not returned a dinosaur book she checked out for him in 1997.
I called the Library to inquire about this book that I had no memory of whatsoever. But they said I had to turn it in or pay for it. Being a renter on Shelter Island, I have moved six times since 1997. Try as I might to be organized, I lose things with every move. The chance of my finding a book from ten years ago was less than finding the other four place settings of my china, which I haven’t seen for the past two house moves.
My son listened as I pleaded my case over the phone, saying it was unreasonable to make me pay for a book checked out ten years ago. But noooooo... rules is rules! I owed for the book, plus a penalty, plus $5 replacement fee for the new card. I think it came to $35. I was irked.
Over the next few days, I looked through several boxes, just hoping. Hell, maybe I’d find something else I lost. I had my son look through the boxes with me. No luck.
I was very loud as I expressed my frustration over the whole situation. My son remained silent as usual. Without thinking, and not really expecting an answer, I yelled out to him in his room, “I don’t suppose YOU have any idea where that book is?”
I have to pause here and say that God has given me two gifts that have saved my life and the lives of my children countless times. First, I have the gift of humor. Things strike me funny that other people never even notice. And secondly, patience. I can out wait a rock. I never thought of either of these two features as gifts until God gave me an autistic child. Now, it is clear to me why I needed to have these two gifts.
Returning to my story, I yelled, “I don’t suppose YOU have any idea where that book is?”
“Yeah,” came the flat answer from behind the door.
“Whaddaya mean “yeah”?” I shrieked. “Didn’t you hear me telling the library lady that I didn’t know where the book was? You helped me look through boxes for it !!! Why didn’t you say something if you knew where the book was all this time?”
“You didn’t ask,” came the simple, toneless response. He was absolutely right, I didn’t directly ask HIM if he knew where the book was.
A normal woman, without the gift of mindless humor and patience, would have thrown a chair at this kid — and rightfully so. Or at least beat him senseless for watching her burn up hours looking for a book — a book he produced immediately upon demand.
“Thank you,” I said as he handed me the book and I started to laugh. “Listen, sweetie, in the future, when you see Mom going crazy looking for something, and you happen to know where it is, it’s really okay to tell me. I would love it, if you would do that in the future.”
“Okay,” he said and returned to his video game, clueless about my consternation.
We returned the dinosaur book to a very surprised librarian, and got a him a new library card.
In the future, I will always ASK FIRST.
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