I am in the process of writing a series of articles about the songs on my fourth Jamendo album, Points of Departure. This is about the fifth track, In Memory of Dorothy Blair.

Dorothy Blair was my first grade teacher.

My father was in the Marine Corps; our family moved around a lot.  In 1974, we were living in Albany, GA.  The place I grew up, my “home town”, was the Marine Corps base.  Even today, I think of regimented streets, numbered buildings, control towers, and radar dishes as home.

The base kids went to school at Mock Road Elementary.  There were two first grade teachers that I recall . . . I was lucky, and I got Ms. Blair.

Now, I wasn’t an easy student to have.  By the time I was in 2nd grade, I was already reading novels meant for adults.  Dorothy Blair is the one who encouraged me.  Some teachers “stick to the program” with every student, regardless.  She didn’t.  By the end of my first grade year, I’d already worked my way through all the language books and was up to the sixth grade books — the last set I could get on campus, actually.  She let me go to the library and get new books any time I wanted.

She set me free.  From that moment on, I knew if I wanted to learn something, I could get the right materials together and figure it out for myself.

So in that way, I owe her for my music career — I’m almost entirely self taught.

When you grow up a Marine dependent, you move a lot.  Even after we moved away (in 2nd grade), Ms. Blair kept in contact with us.  We used to receive Christmas cards from her each year.  One time, in 1985, when I participated in a summer program called Governor’s Honors, we went by Albany and visited her.

But the years passed . . . and then, the Christmas cards came no more.

Today, I try to carry on in her memory.  She’s just one of the many teachers who inspired me, but she holds a special place: she was the first.

So, this song is dedicated to her.