Rock on ‘Billy’

In my first teaching post, I had the pleasure of teaching a boy whose enthusiasm for learning was low but he loved life! This was in the early ’70s and popular music was “hitting its straps” as far as reaching the teenage market. ‘Billy’ was always humming tunes and raved about UK and American rock. One day after class, he asked me if I liked ‘Lynyrd Skynrd’ and, despite my own interest in the genre, I had to admit to a scant knowledge of said band. A few days later, my car radio played “Sweet Home Alabama” by …. yes, the very band we’d discussed. From then on, we did have a few chats about current sounds and he had a great sense of humour, to boot. Maybe 30 years later, I was staying with a friend and former colleague who suggested we have a trip down Memory Lane and check out our old school. As we approached, it was easy to reminisce about staff and students from the old days and wonder what they were doing. During this banter, I brought up ‘Billy’ and his laissez-faire approach to everything and we both laughed. We parked in the schoolyard and automatically headed to the playing-fields on which we had spent many hours teaching. Who should be walking his dog across the grass but ‘Billy’ himself! I grabbed my right leg by the ankle, swung it up in the air and strummed it, guitar-style singing the chorus to “Sweet Home Alabama”…. to which his response was to shout: “Lynyrd Skynyrd!” as he dropped onto one knee, pointing both index fingers in my direction. Serendipity or what?!