Report Cards & Bookmarks | Quiet Nostalgia for a Restful Night

Report Cards & Bookmarks
In this quietly nostalgic episode of The Insomnia Project, Marco Timpano and Amanda Barker settle into a calm conversation about the unexpected things we find tucked inside books. When Marco discovers some unusual bookmarks hidden in his reference books, it sparks a gentle reflection on the small objects we use to mark time — from receipts and scraps of paper to old notes that quietly hold memories.
Inspired by a listener suggestion, the hosts also talk about what old receipts can remind us of, and how everyday items sometimes become tiny time capsules. The conversation takes an especially nostalgic turn when Marco uncovers his Junior Kindergarten report card, leading Amanda to playfully speculate whether his marks would still read “S for Satisfactory” or “N for Needs Improvement.”
From there, Amanda begins recalling the names of many of her former teachers, while Marco admits he can only remember a handful of his own. The result is a relaxed and familiar exchange about school days, early report cards, and the simple memories that linger long after the classroom.
As always, The Insomnia Project offers calm, mundane conversation designed to help quiet racing thoughts and gently guide listeners toward sleep. If you don’t make it to the end of the episode because you drift off, we consider that the highest compliment.
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Follow along for updates and more gentle conversation on Instagram @theinsomniaproject, Twitter/X @listenandsleep, and at theinsomniaproject.com.

​Report Cards & Bookmarks:
(Original airdate: March 15, 2023)

 Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a calm conversation that's meant to help you drift off and find your way to sleep. Thank you for listening. I'm your host, Marco Timpano and I'm

Amanda:  here trying to make him laugh. I'm Amanda Barker. I'm a bad influence.

Marco:  She is. She can be. Anyways, Amanda, we have some social media posts that I have to cover.

Amanda:  Oh no. Controversial.

Marco:  No, they're not actually drama filled so you might remember.

Amanda:  Comforting question mark.

Marco:  Just lovely, shall we say?

Amanda:  Oh, that's nice. I like that.

Marco:  So we have one from Lisa Cole who commented on Plaid versus Gingham our last episode. Yeah, and they write I had to listen to this Three times. I could not get anywhere near the end.

Amanda:  Oh, good. That's a really good sign.

Marco:  Which is of course, we hope you never get to the end of our episodes and don't feel you have to go back and listen if you don't. But if that comforts you, by all means, yeah. Superbly mundane podcast.

Amanda:  Thank you.

Marco:  And she writes. Thank you all. Although my nerdy textiles head wanted you to know that gingham and plaid are woven, not printed.

Amanda:  Oh, that is good to know.

Marco:  I think. I think one of us must have said it was a print, but it's woven.

Amanda:  That makes sense because I guess I always thought you could do a gingham pattern onto something, but it makes sense. I mean a plaid would definitely be woven, right? Different colors, different fabrics, etc.

Marco:  I would.

Amanda:  I. Yarn threads, I suppose.

Marco:  I don't know. But it makes sense.

Amanda:  Well, we don't know. That's why it's mundane. We're not experts really. On, um. On. Certainly not on. I am a great lover of textiles. I would call myself a textile enthusiast, certainly. Or at least a fan.

Marco:  And if you are a lover of textiles and you happen to be in our fair city, there's a textile museum that you can go to.

Amanda:  It's lovely. It's on Centre street, which is I think technically part of Chinatown here in Toronto. That's the area anyway. And um, sort of near the university. And it is a beautiful, beautiful, petite museum.

Marco:  Yeah, it is.

Amanda:  It is quaint but boutique type of museum. But there's always two or three exhibits going on. But what I mean by that is you can have a good hour or two there. Some museums are extremely vast, including in this city. That would not be one of them. It's a more specialized museum. And um, I certainly have had some wonderful experiences there. There's a library for textile enthusiasts. There's hands on exhibits as well.

Marco:  It's definitely something to check out. And it's. I don't want to say unusual, but it's atypical for museum that you would go to in a city. So I recommend it.

Amanda:  Yeah. Specialized. We have a few specialized museums. We have the Gardner Museum of Ceramic

Marco:  Art, the Bata Shoe Museum, a shoe

Amanda:  museum, which full, I have to admit, I've never been to.

Marco:  I've been to the, the gift shop and it's one of the things I love to do is go to a gift shop of a museum. Especially if I don't have time to tour the museum for some reason. Every time I'm at the Badass Shoe Museum I don't have time to go in to see it.

Amanda:  This is for those of you who don't know us. And even if you do, you might not know this. We live walking distance to this museum and have lived walking distance to this museum, some of us in this room for 20 years. So we really.

Marco:  I feel like that's a bit of an accusation to me.

Amanda:  Well, I've also lived walking distance from that.

Marco:  I don't think it's walking distance. That's a bit of a walk.

Amanda:  Explore in Bathurst. No, it's not.

Marco:  Bloor and Bathurst. Blorens Banana, Lauren St. George. Ish.

Amanda:  I mean, still, you're talking the difference of like three minutes each.

Marco:  Three minutes. You know, I, uh, could be having a coffee and a donut.

Amanda:  I'm gonna look. Let's play a little game. How long do you think a walk. It would be a normal pace. And I'll look at my phone and see what it tells us.

Marco:  38 minutes.

Amanda:  Oh, see, I was thinking it would be more like 18 minutes. So let's see. 30.

Marco:  Amanda will look on her phone. Hopefully her phone won't make beeps and rings and whatnot.

Amanda:  No, that's not my phone that normally does that.

Marco:  Well, listen, I'd love to know what interesting museums are in your city or town or village or metropolis. Let us know if there's an unusual, uh, museum. So I said 38 and you said 15 minutes.

Amanda:  I said 18 and the answer is actually 39.

Marco:  Thank you.

Amanda:  You're so close. Thank you. By one minute. You got it. Still, 40 minute walk is walkable. It's a hike.

Marco:  Is it?

Amanda:  Okay, It's a. It's, um, It's a robust walk.

Marco:  Sure, sure. Fair enough.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco:  Okay. So that brings me to. I posted on my own Instagram page. Um, so I. I had to access some books, some reference books that I need to do a little bit of research on.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco:  They were tucked in our library by the way. Amanda turns the books so that the spines aren't facing me. So I have to go through all the books to find the books I need.

Amanda:  Any disciple of any design show will do the same.

Marco:  Well, it makes.

Amanda:  It's brutal, I know, but it's so much easier on the eyes to just have beigey books. Pages versus a bunch of spines yelling their titles at you.

Marco:  So for some reason our library has the pages facing you instead of.

Amanda:  When he says library, it's two shelves. A library. Uh, I mean our library.

Marco:  It's true.

Amanda:  It's not even a full wall shelf.

Marco:  It's two. It's like a half shelf, there's a

Amanda:  window and it's just two shelves under the window. Okay.

Marco:  So we don't have an extensive library. Okay. Our bookshelf.

Amanda:  I mean the truth is we use the library. That's why we don't own a lot of books. And if we do, we don't keep them. We've talked about that a lot on

Marco:  this podcast we have. Well, I was searching for reference books.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco:  And so I found them in our library. In our library of two shelves, which most people have more books than us for sure. Most people, you listener, probably have more books in your home than we do.

Amanda:  I feel like we have a lot of friends and colleagues and peers that would say I love books. I have so many books. We do not. I mean we love books.

Marco:  You are an avid reader of books.

Amanda:  Um, but that's just it. I think if I was a mid sized reader. Well, avid. Ah. I mean there are a lot of people that read a lot more than I do.

Marco:  Fair.

Amanda:  I'm um, an average too robust reader.

Marco:  Okay, fair enough.

Amanda:  My work today.

Marco:  Fair enough. You're also a good giver of books. Like you, you finish your book, you enjoy it and then you pass it along.

Amanda:  Right. I don't keep them. Again, if, if I really need to go back to a book or reference a book that's with the library or I'll just buy it again.

Marco:  Yeah, no, I'm, you know, I'm much more inclined to either ask for a book for a special occasion or access the library.

Amanda:  I'm very sentimental about so many things in my life that I've worked really hard to try to find things that take up space that I'm not sentimental about. So I can be the uh, the fluid boundary, free flowing, get one, get rid of one kind of person. But there, you know, there are a few that I keep.

Marco:  Sure. Well, anyways, back to my post. So I put. I get these reference books that I'm looking at and I find a different bookmark in each. None of which are bookmarks.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco:  One is a transfer subway ticket.

Amanda:  Oh wow.

Marco:  One is a part of a movie stub for the movie World War Three D. What's World War Three D?

Amanda:  We saw World War. World War Z in 3D.

Marco:  No, it was. We saw it at the Hudson Mall. I don't even know where that is.

Amanda:  The Hudson Mall. Are you sure this is us? That's somebody in Quebec.

Marco:  We saw it Sunday. What's the six months? We saw it on Sunday, June 23rd. 2013.

Amanda:  I'm going to offer something. Yeah. I'm going to offer that. That might have been Nidhi's book. Oh, and the Hudson Mall would mean it's in Quebec, which if I'm thinking Hudson, Quebec, which it may not be, but if it's Nitty's book, then it would have been her bookmark.

Marco:  I don't think so.

Amanda:  Those of you listening would know Nitty, I would hope, uh, pretty well. If you don't, um, go back to some back issues of this podcast, to use a book term, because, uh, you'll hear a lot of her. We love her deeply.

Marco:  We saw it in. Or whomever saw it, that I have this ticket stub that I'm using as a book.

Amanda:  What was it called?

Marco:  World War three D. World War three

Amanda:  D. I don't like that. Okay.

Marco:  No, it doesn't even. That doesn't make sense to me.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco:  And the other book had a train ticket.

Amanda:  Oh, wow.

Marco:  To Girona.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco:  When we were in Spain.

Amanda:  Oh, wow.

Marco:  So that's what I used instead of bookmarks.

Amanda:  A train ticket to Girona.

Marco:  That's in Spain, folks. In case.

Amanda:  Possibly Quebecois. Uh, or maybe New York. Ticket stub. Hudson Mall. I mean, it could be New York.

Marco:  Could be how?

Amanda:  If it's your book, that would be really old.

Marco:  When you lived in New York, it was 2013.

Amanda:  Oh, no. So we were here.

Marco:  Yeah. So I don't know. Huh.

Amanda:  Huh. Okay. I was on tour, so if I used it, I was on tour somewhere.

Marco:  Um, anyways.

Amanda:  And what was the subway transfer?

Marco:  It was a transfer and it was in 2015, May 13th at Bayview Station.

Amanda:  Oh, uh, you know where you were going?

Marco:  To the dentist.

Amanda:  To the dentist, probably.

Marco:  So those were my bookmarks.

Amanda:  A life in bookmarks.

Marco:  A, uh, life in bookmarks. Indeed. And so, Allison. Allison. I'm going to say her name wrong. Hardshog. Live.

Amanda:  Uh, I said I liked what you said. I don't know.

Marco:  And Alison corrected us to. On how to say her name. Anyway, so.

Amanda:  Allison. Great work with that.

Marco:  I'm sorry, Allison. I'm hoping Allison will be asleep at this point.

Amanda:  It'll be our thing. We butcher your name. I'm so sorry, Allison.

Marco:  That's not a thing Allison says. A future topic for the Insomnia project. What's the first memory you get when you are looking at a receipt or a ticket stub?

Amanda:  So we go through the receipts and talk about the memories associated with them. Do you want me to go? I can go grab our tax file. No, no, I don't mean that in jest. I mean, I would do that.

Marco:  Is there, when you look at an old ticket stub or train ticket or a plane ticket, what comes to mind?

Amanda:  It's always who I was with. Okay, so, Girona, I was with you, Hudson. Uh, we'll have to figure out what that was. But if that was mine, it was when I was on tour with a show that was a comedic riff on the 50 shades of grey called Spank. Um, and then Bayview Station. I immediately think of the dentist going to the dentist, our dentist, who's an amazing man beyond his dentistry. His name is Dr. Uchi Odiatou. Uh, and he's a health and wellness expert. And, uh, when I worked in radio, I used to book him as our health and wellness expert. And then one day, it just happened. I happened to find out he's also a dentist. And now we go to him, and we love him.

Marco:  He's actually considering doing a podcast because he's been asking. Podcast. So when he does, or should he. Should he do that? I will let our listeners know.

Amanda:  Anyone who's still with us and wants to look it up. Odiatu O D A O uh, D uh O D I A T U okay.

Marco:  So Allison goes on to say that they've still kept stubs from the Metro on Milan. In Milan. So, yeah. And, um, what are your.

Amanda:  So that's my answer, who I was with. What are yours?

Marco:  I try. Well, clearly I don't remember this World War 3 that I may or may not have seen, but I just try to remember where it was, what I might be doing. I don't give it too much thought, to be honest with you. Um, I file a lot of those things for tax purposes, and then they. What I'll do what I will do. Actually, if there's some sort of paper that I find value in, I'll put it in my taxes. In the miscellaneous slot, I have an accordion file. And then I'll take it out and I'll review it and I'll bring it forward to my next tax season. So I always see it.

Amanda:  I do that, too.

Marco:  So, for example, I have a report card from when I was a kid that I found, I guess, I found at my mom's place. And so I took it, and I don't know what it. I think it's right there. Amanda, you read recently what my report card said.

Amanda:  You and I have similar report cards. We're very chatty, which, you know. Now here we are at this podcast. But we were very chatty, um, individuals when we were five. Did you want to. You have it in this office? Do you want to.

Marco:  Yeah, for some reason.

Amanda:  Give us a sample of your report card.

Marco:  So this was from junior Kid.

Amanda:  We have here in this province, junior and senior kindergarten. So this, this would have you at four years old. Okay.

Marco:  Junior kindergarten.

Amanda:  Oh, my goodness.

Marco:  Um, so I got an S for satisfactory progress or an N for needs improvement.

Amanda:  Oh, no.

Marco:  And I got all S's.

Amanda:  Okay, good.

Marco:  And this is what. This is what I got.

Amanda:  It's going to work out for you.

Marco:  And you can. You can confirm if I still. If I still have a satisfactory progress on this or if I need improvement in this area.

Amanda:  Okay, sounds good. I'll give you the same grading for now in your podcast.

Marco:  Accepts and follows classroom routines.

Amanda:  Yeah, you do. You're pretty routine based.

Marco:  Okay. Participates in group activities, stories, games, discussions.

Amanda:  Oh, I'd give you an S. Okay.

Marco:  Participates in musical and rhythmic activities.

Amanda:  Yes, but to your own. The beat of your own drummer. And you will make up your own lyrics every time. It's what I love.

Marco:  I tend to sing a lot of Whitney Houston, even though I was never a huge Whitney Houston fan. In fact, there's only two songs of Whitney Houston that I really enjoy.

Amanda:  It's real testament to her music that you for some reason connect to those when you have life, day to day things and then you burst out into an old Whitney Houston track.

Marco:  Is it cause she's in my range?

Amanda:  Yes. Okay.

Marco:  Is willing to try new experiences.

Amanda:  I would say. Yes.

Marco:  Uh, plays with others. Shares well.

Amanda:  S and S. For the most part.

Marco:  Accepts responsibility.

Amanda:  I would say mostly S. Yes.

Marco:  Okay. Does not interrupt while others are talking.

Amanda:  Yeah, no, you're not an interrupter. That's more me.

Marco:  S. You would get an N on that, I think.

Amanda:  Yeah, I think I did.

Marco:  Respects personal and other property.

Amanda:  Uh, S. You very much respect your own property.

Marco:  Language development is the new section that I'm going to be covering that was social and emotional development.

Amanda:  Oh, I see.

Marco:  So in language development is able to express self orally.

Amanda:  Okay, we'll just leave that where that is and I'll give you an S.

Marco:  Recognize his own name?

Amanda:  Uh, yes.

Marco:  Is able to print name, I hope.

Amanda:  Yes. Uh, S. Uh, sorry.

Marco:  I have nice penmanship.

Amanda:  Beautiful. Yes.

Marco:  Someone else wouldn't get in.

Amanda:  No, I don't. We've explored that topic.

Marco:  Recognizes colors.

Amanda:  I believe you do S. Uh, but some. Sometimes you switch them up.

Marco:  I do.

Amanda:  Yeah, but that isn't a color thing. That's just more. You say one thing when you mean the other.

Marco:  Like what Indigo.

Amanda:  Like when you say take a left and what you mean is take a right.

Marco:  Okay, well, we haven't gone to that section.

Amanda:  Or when you say it's the blue dress and I'm like. Do you mean the green? Yeah, yeah, the green.

Marco:  Green and blue are similar.

Amanda:  Yeah, they are.

Marco:  Speaks clearly.

Amanda:  Yes.

Marco:  S. Uh, expresses ideas in sentences when speaking. S. M mostly.

Amanda:  Oh, yeah. Your sentence structure is a little.

Marco:  It can be a little bit off or I can use.

Amanda:  You make fragments into sentences.

Marco:  That's right. I do. Is developing the skills of listening. S takes part in dramatization. S. Okay, now we're. I'm sure this is very boring for our listeners. I hope it.

Amanda:  I hope it is. Yeah.

Marco:  Reading and number readiness. Um, that's just the section we're in, so I'll give you the. Is interested in books. S. Is able to solve simple readiness puzzles, I think. S. I'm good at puzzles.

Amanda:  What's a readiness puzzle?

Marco:  I don't know. I guess. I don't know.

Amanda:  All the rage in 1979 or whatever this was.

Marco:  Recognizes numerals. S Understands number concepts. S. I don't know if it was S back then. I don't know if it's still S. Can rote count to 50, can you? In a couple of languages, actually.

Amanda:  Then three S's.

Marco:  Yeah. Physical development, large muscle coordination, balancing, skipping, etc.

Amanda:  I might give you an N. Needs improvement.

Marco:  Really?

Amanda:  Okay, well, you've been a little hobbly as of last. You've thrown out a back and had some ankle issues. That's tr.

Marco:  It's true. I'm not as good as when I was in kindergarten. I was much more agile, it seems. Small muscle coordination, crafts arts, printing of that.

Amanda:  That is where you excel.

Marco:  And then there's a general comment from the teacher, but I'll read it. I'll let you read that because I think it's a little bit.

Amanda:  Marco is a very good student. That's all it says.

Marco:  That's all it says.

Amanda:  That's all she wants to offer to the world. Yeah.

Marco:  No, I thought there was more.

Amanda:  Then she wrote September placement, where you're going to go in September. And she wrote senior kindergarten. Am. Um, you're going to do the morning.

Marco:  Oh, my goodness.

Amanda:  I guess so. Your mother could cut hair.

Marco:  My mother was a hairdresser, so I'm

Amanda:  sure she wanted to have her ladies over in the mornings.

Marco:  No, I think the AM Was the smarter of the two.

Amanda:  Oh, was it?

Marco:  I'm gonna say it was.

Amanda:  Was I am or p.m. i was. Am kindergarten. M. I'm trying to remember. Or no, was I pm? I think I was p.m. oh, no. Well, we went to two different kindergartens

Marco:  in two different countries. Um, I would often get satisfactory on my report cards. Satisfactory at best. I think I would get. Sometimes the teacher would write something. Something. Marco. Satisfactory at best.

Amanda:  I think every human who's ever gotten a report card has gotten. Doesn't apply themselves. Right. Isn't that a thing that everybody gets?

Marco:  He talks too much.

Amanda:  Yeah, I got that too. Yeah, well, uh, look where it got us. Look who's talking back of a mic. Where are you now, Ms. Fields?

Marco:  I know. I'd like to. I'd like to go back to every teacher that says Kelsh talks too much and force her to listen to my back catalog of podcasts who told me

Amanda:  I talked too much.

Marco:  Probably.

Amanda:  Uh, Mrs. Sawyer, second grade. I'm, um, trying to think of who else Mrs. Mrs. Doucet, fourth grade. I seem to have a lot of, like, dual teachers, like fourth and fifth and sixth grade. Like, I didn't have just one. I seem to have a lot of different ones.

Marco:  Were you in a split class, I

Amanda:  guess, where we kind of went back and forth between teachers? Yeah, I think so, because I remember having two when I was in grade five and in grade six and seven. What they did was they had half of us go into one team made up of three teachers, and then the other half go into one team made up of three different teachers. So I was Ms. Cummings. Let me see if I can remember their names. Ms. Cummings. Mr. Belmore. And then there was somebody in the middle. Oh, Mr. Norton. Wow. It's amazing that I remember that.

Marco:  That is great.

Amanda:  Mr. Norton was math and science and physics or something. Algebra, I don't remember, but mathy things. Mr. Bellmer was English. I don't know how he was English because he did grammar. But then, uh, Ms. Cummings made us recite full poems. The punctuation. Like we had to recite Twas the night before Christmas, but with each comma, semicolon, or period, we had to know where each of them were.

Marco:  You actually said them.

Amanda:  Yeah. So you'd say, twas the night before Christmas, comma, and all through the house, semicolon.

Marco:  Wow.

Amanda:  Not a creature was stirring, comma, not even a mouse, period. We had to recite them like that. And that's quite a long poem to recite.

Marco:  You are good with punctuation, I have to say. I'm not. I have an N in punctuation for sure today.

Amanda:  And actually, that was my introduction. Very new England to Robert Frost. We had to do Robert Frost's poems in grade six. And again, all the punctuation. But when I think Twas the night before Christmas. We did one a month that we worked on and Twas the Night Before Christmas was the December one. And that is a long poem.

Marco:  When we talk about it.

Amanda:  It is. But we had to each stand in front of the class and recite it.

Marco:  All of you?

Amanda:  Yeah, each one at a time.

Marco:  Wow.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco:  And that's why you're a big fan of Robert Frost.

Amanda:  Probably. I guess. Mr. Belmore was, uh. But she wasn't grammar. We had a separate grammar class.

Marco:  Wow.

Amanda:  And Mr. Balmore was tough.

Marco:  I thought you said it was Mrs. Belmore.

Amanda:  No, that was Mrs. Cummings, I think. Okay. Uh, this was Massachusetts. It was my last.

Marco:  I had Mr. M. Bell.

Amanda:  I had a Mr. Bell for art.

Marco:  Oh.

Amanda:  Uh, he was fun. And he sold his potpourri burners that he. He was all clay, which I love working with clay. And uh, he had a kiln and we had potter's wheels, so we did all clay work with him. And he had, um, he had a, ah, business on the side where he would make potpourri burners and he would sell them to the students and we'd buy them. So I commissioned him, I guess at 11 to make one for my mom for Mother's Day. And she loved it.

Marco:  Does your mom. Your mom probably still has it.

Amanda:  I don't think she does, but.

Marco:  How much did you pay for this potpourri burner?

Amanda:  I think 15 or $20.

Marco:  That's a lot back then when you

Amanda:  were 11, I guess. But it's kind of a steal for.

Marco:  Where'd you get the cash from?

Amanda:  Um, back then I was teaching dance and babysitting.

Marco:  Wow.

Amanda:  I had quite a business going, I guess at 11.

Marco:  Well, I'm glad you remember all your teachers. I don't remember. I remember some of them. I can tell you that that's. That report card was written either by Mrs. Antown. Mhm. Probably her name was Uptown. And I just. As a kid. I remember it's antown and. Or Ms. Pereira.

Amanda:  Okay. But Anton, would it be like Anton, That's a name.

Marco:  What was four or five?

Amanda:  Who was your teacher? Or teachers in grade six or sixth grade? Grade six or grade seven?

Marco:  Seven was Mr. Bell. Prior to that was Mr. Decennzo. Okay, I'm gonna say. And then prior to that was. I don't remember.

Amanda:  Who was your favorite? Did you have a favorite teacher in any grade? Um.

Marco:  I'll tell you this. I Have some favorite teachers from high school.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco:  But I did like Mrs. Anton and Mrs. M. Pereira. Or Ms. Pereira.

Amanda:  All right.

Marco:  That was senior in junior kindergarten.

Amanda:  Well, she gave you a good reco.

Marco:  Probably. Why, then there's to graduate from this. Then there's a big lag from there to high school.

Amanda:  That's fair.

Marco:  Yeah, probably. My drama teachers, I really liked and I liked, uh, Ms. Masterson.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco:  Who I think Linda is friends with. I need to ask Linda if she's friends with Ms. Masterson. Now.

Amanda:  That's Linda from getting lit with Linda.

Marco:  Um, as well. Uh, Sonja Voltan. Ms. Voltan.

Amanda:  Okay. She was your drama teacher?

Marco:  She was my drama teacher.

Amanda:  She's the one that I think you've mentioned.

Marco:  She came to see some of my shows when I performed professionally.

Amanda:  That's beautiful.

Marco:  Yeah, it was really lovely. And, uh, yeah, those two certainly stand out for me.

Amanda:  For me, I had a teacher in the seventh grade, Mr. John Davis. I would love to find him, but I don't know where he is. He was. And it's a pretty common name. Right?

Marco:  Right. John Davis. Right.

Amanda:  He was married to another teacher. And all I remember was she was from Salem because we used to joke that she was a witch from Salem because she wasn't particularly kind. But he. Or, uh, that's how I remember it. But he was amazing. He was everybody's favorite teacher. And every. Like, I can't tell you how many things I've known on Jeopardy because of that man. Like, for example, the other day, it was a question about the Sumerian Alphabet. And I was like, yeah, it was the. It was the final question.

Marco:  And Amanda says she.

Amanda:  What is cuneiform?

Marco:  And I'm like, how do you know that?

Amanda:  Uh, Mr. Davis, he. He managed. He was so excited about history and all kinds of history. I remember him telling us that he campaigned for the guy that lost first against Reagan. I want to say he was clearly a Democrat, I guess. Uh, but I didn't know those things at that time. And he was joking because he was like, nobody in history has lost as bad as this guy. And he's the guy I was rooting for. And even that he was so engaging with his storytelling and his teaching. It was social studies, so we did the Egyptians, we did the Sumerians into, um, you know, Greek and Roman. But anyway, he, um. I'd love to find him because I just thought he was such a great teacher.

Marco:  Well, if you know John Davis, who taught of Massachusetts, taught in Massachusetts grade,

Amanda:  uh, what grade would he have been?

Marco:  The, um, grade that teaches the Sumerian lessons. Please connect them with our podcast.

Amanda:  I think grade four and grade five, probably. No, maybe I was older. Maybe it was more like grades six.

Marco:  Anywhere between grades four and six or the fourth grade six.

Amanda:  Hanover elementary School is where he taught, I believe. And maybe Hanover Junior High actually as well. It's really specific. I've tried to find him. I can't find him.

Marco:  Well, fair enough. Maybe he doesn't want to be found.

Amanda:  He might not teach anymore. He. He was really engaged. Maybe he went into politics. I don't know.

Marco:  Maybe he's a warlock and he disappeared himself.

Amanda:  Well, wherever he is, I hope that he's still enjoying a wonderful life.

Marco:  Listen, if you're a teacher listening to this podcast, I just want to say thank you for all the work that you do.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco:  And uh, you know, if you're not sure, give the student an S instead of an N. Having said that, we've come to the end of our podcast. Did you want to say something, Amanda?

Amanda:  No, I was just an S instead of an N. It's funny because I think an A, B, C or D.

Marco:  I know this is. Even to me this seems unusual that, that I was um, marked as. What was it? Satisfactory progress or needs improvement?

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco:  That's how old I am, I guess is that they have a system that no one remembers, not even myself.

Amanda:  There's other teachers. I feel now guilty that I should have mentioned them. I'm not sure to whom I feel guilty.

Marco:  Well, we'll save that for another episode.

Amanda:  Sounds good.

Marco:  Until the next episode. We hope you enjoyed this one. And a walk down report card lane. And uh, let us know if you have a topic that you'd like us to cover. And please don't forget to give us a five star review on whatever podcast platform you listen.

Amanda:  Five S's, Five S's for us.

Marco:  Until next time. We hope you were able to listen and sleep.