I told the following story at the retirement party for KOMB (Kindly Old Mr. Barnes). Well, actually, this version is slightly enhanced, but I had been prepared to say it. It just didn't all come out once I was actually on the stage.
Many people here today might not know that the phrase "Kindly Old Mr. Barnes" was coined by him, quite early on, and that it was entirely ironic. He certainly wasn't that old, only in his 20's, and he was not always kindly. In fact, he was known to get quite upset with people that were not prepared for rehearsal, or were disruptive during rehearsal.
We were rehearsing Don't Drink The Water in the spring of '78. We had reached the point in the rehearsal schedule where everyone was supposed to have their lines memorized. One girl, Chris Manella, was struggling. She was growing more and more frustrated with herself, to the point of tears.
We finally took a break, and I could tell that Mr. Barnes was frustrated with the process, also. I took it upon myself to approach Mr. Barnes on Chris' behalf. I said something like, "Please take it easy on Chris. She's being hard enough on herself as it is."
Mr. Barnes gave me a look. A long look. And said, "Don't you think I know that? Do you think I'm not human? That I have no feelings?"
Ladies and gentlemen, in that moment, the cosmic axis shifted.
Up to that moment, my answer to that question would have been, "No". I hadn't considered that he was a human being with real feelings. Up to that point, I had thought of him only as a "Teacher", in the pejorative sense of that word. He was nothing more than a form of social parasite, scraping a living from the oppression and indoctrination of real human beings, such as myself and my fellow students. He was, at best, a cog in the universe that rightly revolved around me.
I mumbled some sort of apology, and slunk off. But, in that moment, Mr. Barnes stopped being just a teacher. He started to become my friend. That friendship has lasted thirty years. That friendship has brought me back to his lake house every year for the past nineteen years, and to this party today. And, in honor of that friendship, my youngest son's name is "David".