Individual Crossroads Reflections
Deb Bailey
When I was at Crossroads, the show Hill Street Blues was on television every Thursday night. There was a character on the show named Sgt. Phil Esterhaus who would start every episode by talking to the police at morning roll-call about what they needed to focus on during their shift, (and of course, to say “…be careful out there”)
He was something of a sesquipedalian (check out this word, folks) and always had me running to the dictionary after his opening briefing. Carol and Arthur Lieber (as well as seemingly 98% of the Crossroads faculty and students) watched the show, and they would write up the weekly Phil Esterhaus Vocabulary Quiz after the show Thursday nights, and then “run it off” (that kind of reflects the time!) for Friday morning. The kids would run into school on Friday mornings to take the quiz and see how they did on it. That was 44 years ago, but I will never forget the joy that quiz brought! It was classic Carol and Arthur going the extra mile for the kids!
Other wonderful memories were of camping with the kids, both on urban camping trips (on the top of a parking garage downtown) and in a campground along a river, laughing with the kids and the incredible staff, watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes on a Friday night at school, having Veronica Hamel (from Hill Street Blues) come talk at the school (everyone was starstruck!), and mostly, teaching math to the most interested and interesting students I ever had. After I moved from St. Louis, I went on to teach math for 40+ more years, but it’s the kids at Crossroads that were the most exciting to teach!