I Bet She Just Smiled
Did you ever have a teacher in a school that disliked you as much as
you disliked them and their class? I did. It began on the first day of my freshman
year in high school. Being blessed with my surname, I thought that it would be
cool to become a doctor. That decision, made on a whim, meant that I would have
to take Latin as a foreign language, instead of either French or Spanish.
This was in 1962, and I lived in one of the suburbs of Rochester,
New York. I never remember being exposed to people who spoke French or Spanish
at that time. Now my barber, he often spoke to people in the barbershop in Italian.
I’d picked up a few words, mostly the ones that I shouldn’t know, so I figured
Latin is from Italy, so it must be like Italian.
Your first day of your freshman year is hard enough, but mine was
made much harder as I entered the door of Miss Dispenza’s classroom, for my
first day of Latin I. I was immediately informed that my name would be
Richardus, instead of Richard or Dick as everybody called me then. I glanced
around the room, and a bad feeling washed over me. Most of the faces I saw
belonged to one of the movers and shaker of our class. Me, I was a member of the let’s
get through school without doing too much work.
I had things to do after school, besides homework.
I started towards the back of the room, but was quickly directed to
a seat in the front of the class, with a comment of “No games in my classroom.” Or something
like that. I headed for my chair with a
feeling that two eyes were boring though my back. Now, my mother was a teacher, in fact, she had
started in One-Room Schools. I had even had one of her classmates and best friends as my 6th grade teacher. Mrs. Mantel was a great teacher,
and I had had a great time in her class. I had also learned just how far one
could go before you crossed the line and headed for the principal’s office. It
was in 6th grade that I learned that there were other things that
one could learn about in school, besides “reading, writing and arithmetic” and
girls were at the top of my list.
To make a long story short, Miss Dispenza’s introduction to Latin I that morning, was the beginning of the end of my career as a doctor. Her proclamation that Latin was not a romance language, but was instead was the root language that all romance languages stemmed from, elicited a thought, that just might have escaped my sub-consciousness. Not a romance language, must be why she is still a Miss. Followed by; What good is a language that nobody speaks.
That was the start of a very long year in Latin I, and I mean a
full year. I didn’t pass the regents, so I had to take summer school. I managed
to obtain the exact same grade on my test at the end of summer school, so at
the start of my sophomore year, I found myself once again entering Miss
Dispenza’s classroom for Latin I. Where I was greeted with; “One word out of
you Richardus, and you’re out of here.” I still remember that moment, for I had
smiled and said “Bye”. Before she could respond, I had turned and walked through
her door for the last time, and headed for the main- office. Where after meeting
with my guidance counselor, I had dropped Latin, and replaced it with 2 half
year classes. Business Math, and typing. Probably the best move I ever made in
my life to that point.
I know you are all wondering what this has to do with genealogy. I
have discovered in my research that I have very strong direct ancestor
connections to a number of the royal houses of Europe and England. I also have
what I consider a long tree with limbs that reach back sixty-nine generations
of direct connected ancestors. While
working on branches that extended off the Whaley line, which is the top line of
the maternal branch of my tree, I began to see names that rang a bell from years
well in the past. Names that I had heard so often in my career as a Latin I
student with Miss Dispenza.
She may well have rolled over in her grave, but I hope she smiled
as she did, for I smiled as I recalled hearing about people who were now my
direct ancestors in my seemingly never-ending Latin I class. People like: GAIUS OCTAVIUS I, my 63rd GGF[i].
And at 200 BCE, my oldest direct ancestor, or CEASER AUGUSTUS MAJOR my 59th
GGF 63 BCE, and his equally famous wife OCTAVIA MAJOR my 59th GGM. Of
course, there are a few early rulers like EMPEROR MARCUS ANNIUS VERUS my 54th
GGF, MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONIUS my 52nd GGF, MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS
AUGUSTUS 51st GGF. I am also proud to be directly related to EMPEROR
CONSTATINE FLAVIUS VALERIUS AURELIUS my 47th GGF, and his mother
Helena, whom between them brought Christianity out of the shadows and made it
the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Miss Dispenza, you will be happy to know, that you did teach me Latin. Yeah, you still can’t speak it, but I used it without knowing it. I can still count to ten, and converting roman numerals to standard numbers is automatic for me. I have walked on the very roads that they built in western Europe, and always with thoughts of you in my mind. Rest easy, and smile for you succeeded.
©September 22, 2021
Richard D. Nurse
All Rights Reserved
Any opinion
expressed in this blog are the sole opinions of the author, and do not
represent the opinions, beliefs or feelings of any organization or corporation
which may be associated, now or in the future with this blog.
[i] 19941. GAIUS OCTAVIUS IV (Richard's sixty-times-great-grandfather, see Maternal Ancestry(1012)) was born in 100 B.C. toGaius Octavius III and Ancaria Rome (Geb. Of Rome) (NNK), as shown in family tree 2540. Gaius was a Governor Of Makedonia. He died in 59 B.C., aged about 41.
Note: Gaius Octavius[1]
(about 100 – 59 BC) was a Roman politician.
He was an ancestor to the Roman Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He was the father of the Emperor Augustus, step-grandfather of the Emperor Tiberius, great-grandfather of the Emperor Claudius, and great-great-grandfather of the Emperors Caligula[2] and Nero.[3] Hailing from Velitrae, he was a descendant of an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the gens Octavia. At Rome, his family was part of the wealthy plebeian caste, and not being of senatorial rank, he was a novus homo ("new man"). His grandfather, Gaius Octavius, fought as a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War. His father, Gaius Octavius, was a municipal magistrate who lived to an
advanced age.
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