Nov from Leslie - penmanship on the radio

Leslie sent a gingerbread house - which included that thing a lot of us do - a list of things that we might have done differently. I need to mark this one steal worthy for next year.

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My holiday tradition is to tell a heartwarming story on Christmas Eve. This one isn't really heartwarming - but it's all I could think of for this year - in terms of a story that I rather like and intended to put on the blog. I thought I had posted it previously, but did a search and didn't find it.

The story is about that time I taught penmanship on the radio. Yes, the radio. I have no idea what year this was - maybe around the turn of the century/millennium. I'm guessing it was prior to 2010.

At the time, there was a morning radio program on a local station - a powerful radio station that broadcasts far beyond Des Moines. Van and Bonnie in the Morning was a very popular show and even if you never listened to the radio, you had probably heard of them. They were like the Don Imus of Iowa. (Does anyone even remember Don Imus) Van and Bonnie were on billboards - promoting all kinds of things. The show was broadcast live from 5:00 to 9:00 am.

One December morning, I had a call from a friend who was a regular listener asking me if I was awake and if I was interested in talking to Van and Bonnie on the live program because they were wondering if there was anyone who still taught penmanship because Van had such bad penmanship. I was happy to call in - because I'd never called in to a radio program and I am always enthusiastic about penmanship. 

We talked a bit on the air about my classes and then Van asked me if I would be interested in teaching a class for them. I said - yes - and in my mind, I was picturing that I would visit them at their office. They put me on hold while they cut to commercial and then asked for my name and number. Bonnie said she would call back after the first of the year. 

When she called back in January or February, I was dumbfounded that they wanted to set up a class somewhere and invite listeners to attend the class - and do a remote broadcast. That sounded a little crazy to me. I said I doubted that anyone would show up for penmanship class - and definitely NOT at 5 am. They assured me that they had a HUGE following. Some of their remote shows drew crowds in the hundreds. They said they would get back to me with the location and date. OK - I still doubted that anyone would show up.

I was dumbfounded -again- when they told me that they had booked the art museum where I taught for the remote location for the class. I already knew that the museum has a complicated security system and they rarely changed the hours that doors were open. I was also concerned about the museum director thinking that I had suggested the auditorium at the museum as a place to hold a class. The auditorium is in a wing that was designed by I.M. Pei and I knew that when they had lectures - they did not allow anything other than pencils for taking notes - to make sure there were no stray ink marks on the upholstery which is fabric - not leather or synthetic. The director assured me that they were happy to be featured on this well known radio program - that the publicity was good. OK.

Did anyone think about how the people were going to write without a table or desk? It was a typical auditorium with theatre style seats. The museum has a huge stack of clipboards and pencils that are handed out when appropriate - so - people would need to write on their laps - which is not ideal - but doable. I made a simple one page handout.

One good thing, the museum is in my back yard - so I only had to get up at 4 am (an hour earlier than normal) to be ready for the program. I apologized to the guard who was there to let us in - about the early morning and he was a big fan of the show, so he was very happy about the event.

Luckily, there were not hundreds of people lined up for penmanship. There were just enough people that came and went over the course of the 3 hours that I was kept busy but still had time to give everyone individual attention. Never more than 20 people at a time. It was a relief to see people because I had been concerned that nobody would show up and that would have been awkward.

I also spent some time with Van. He and Bonnie were set up on the stage with tables. They did an interview with the director and the museum got their publicity. I have forgotten what I said when I was on the air. All I remember was at some point - I was up by Van's table and he whispered to me, "This has been the longest morning of my life." Oh, dear. Poor Van. I expressed sympathy - but underneath - I was chuckling -- because the whole thing had been THEIR idea.... or rather Bonnie's. He needed to direct his complaints in a different direction.

Of the people who came, there were all kinds. A few groups of women-co-workers who came early before going to work. A mom who brought a son who was 10-11. And a few of my scribe-friends showed up thinking they would pretend to have terrible penmanship and then show off how improved they were. The best one of all was a farmer who had driven a couple hours to attend. He said that the winters on the farm were really long and he was always on the lookout for something to fill the time - so he might as well work on his penmanship. 

So, that's my story about teaching penmanship on the radio. I'm not sure it is the craziest thing I have ever done, but, I think it makes the top 10 list.