"It has your name on it."

Last winter when I was visiting one of the schools I support, a friend who was the assistant administrator there told me that she had a table for me.

I'm sure I looked a bit confused.

She went on to say, "It has your name on it."  I'm sure I looked even more confused.  Then, we went on our merry way because we were in the hallway during a class change and students were buzzing by us.

On my next visit, she told me the same thing.  So, I paused and asked her what she meant by that.

She explained that they were cleaning out an old computer lab and were shipping some of the old typing tables to the surplus warehouse to be sold or putting broken ones out at the dumpster.  In the shift, the pull-out writing ledge slid out onto the floor and she saw that it had lots of graffiti on it.  Part of the graffiti was my name.  So, she quickly said she needed an extra table in her office and to just take that one there instead of out to the dumpster.

It had been in her office for several years and she thought no more about it.  Then, one day, she was cleaning things out because she was preparing to retire.  That writing ledge slid out when she was moving the table around and she decided that I probably needed it.

I just chuckled and told her that she probably was mistaken because I wouldn't write on a desk.  If my mother found out, she would have killed me!

Just the other day, this friend called.  She just dialed me up out of the blue.  Well, not really.  She was letting me know about a surprise party for another friend who was retiring from the classroom.  She also asked me when I was going to come and get my table.

I asked her what she was talking about and she said, "When are you going to come get this little old table...the one that has your name on it?"

So, a week or so later, I pulled into her driveway.  We went out to her garage and she pulled out the little writing ledge.  There in my own hand-writing, the largest piece of graffiti on the whole piece was my maiden name.

No denying it, there it was - in my school-girl handwriting.  The table did have my name on it!