LY #51 Teaching in a small town

When I moved to Bend, it's population was around 20,000 people.  According to the Bend Area General Plan, written in 2005, the 1990 Census for Bend counted 20,469 people within the city limits.  In my Bendnotes 3 written in October, 1988, I wrote about what it meant to be a college teacher in this small town.

I was writing about a colleague who was having trouble doing research on campus because she couldn't hide the identities of the people about whom she was writing.

       "Why can't [she] disguise her subjects?  Cause this place is so f***ing small, that's why.  You figure it out.  I'm the speech department, for Burke's sake!  At least, the only full time faculty.
       "At least three students have mentioned that they have seen me 'running' around town.  I have to assure them that I 'jog' not run.  A woman faculty member told me a story about having an affair with a married man (and, I mean, is it my face which tells people they should tell me their life stories as soon as we sit down for a cup of coffee?  Or is it the cowl and rosary?).  She and he met only at her place until they finally decided to risk meeting each other during the day at a coffee shop out in the big-ugly mall (the Mountain View Mall -- home of GI Joe's and K-Mart).  Faculty doesn't go there.  So, he is there and she walks in.  As soon as she walks in the owner of the joint comes out from behind the cash register and says, 'Hello Professor ______'  *  and shakes her hand.  When she sits down, she is waited on by one of her students.
       "On Saturday, when Will was in town, he and I went down to Penney's (BIG SALE) where I saw one of my older students and her son, a young fellow who, she reported to me yesterday, was amazed that she had a teacher younger than her and that her teacher had a TAIL.**
       "Well, you can imagine!"


* Yes, the original letter has that blank space.
** My first four years at COCC I wore my hair short with a rat tail.

As everyone knows, Bend grew rapidly during the 1990s.  By 2000, the city was up 31,560 in population, which, according to the Bend General Plan was more than three times the statewide average.  According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2010 the population of Bend was 79,109.