I hope this isn't a wild goose chase. This whole thing is getting way out of hand. Makes me almost wish I'd not started out trying to find out. Though getting that bit yesterday was nice... I wonder what else we can dredge up. I wonder, if we find the thing that caused the memory loss, will it all come back? I guess that's what I've been hoping for anyway. I wonder if that enrichment class had anything to do with it, or if it's just a coincidence. "Ahhh. Let's get this over with." I said to myself realizing my mind was wandering again. I climbed out of the car and headed up to the building.

"Good Morning. I'm Bill Wyman; I have an appointment with Dr. Sandhurst this morning."

"Yes sir, he's expecting you. Why don't you head on in?" She indicated a door.

I knocked and heard a come in, so in I went. He was sitting behind one of those LARGE wooden desks... The kind you expect lawyers to use. "Hello Mr. Wyman. You're not here about either of your kids are you?"

"No Craig and Ginny are doing fine. I'm actually here about myself."

He looked a bit surprised at this, and said "That's a new one on me. How may I help you?"

"Well, I also grew up in the school district, and even went to school at the same elementary school my kids have been attending."

"You don't want your grades changed at this date do you?" I laughed a bit at this, and he went on. "I guess you're here, because your records are here, and not at the school."

"That's right. I'm looking for information on an enrichment class I took while in elementary school. I think it was third or fourth grade."

"Think?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I've got a memory issue and I don't recall much of anything that happened to me before fifth grade. My parents mentioned a special enrichment class that I and two others were in that spanned the two years, and I was looking for some information about it, in hopes of finding the two kids in the class with me. They were apparently friends and might have some information about my early years."

"I see. That's an interesting story. I think we can partially help you. We should have records on the class you refer to and the instructor's name. We also should have your classmates names, but due to legal constraints we can't release your classmates names to you."

"Can you give me anything?"

"Oh yes, we can confirm you were in the class or classes. We can confirm how many kids were in the class. We can give you the teacher's name, but not contact information. Not that his or her information would be current anyway. We can even give you your regular class teacher’s names for your grades through fourth. Perhaps you can find one of them and they can give you some more information. At this point, I'm not sure what else we can give you. No, if your teacher had a syllabus on file for the enrichment class, or some other information about it, we can give you that as well, since you were a participant. At a minimum, the document your folks signed allowing you to participate in the class should be there."

"Thank you, that's not as much as I'd hoped, but more than I'd feared. How do we go about this?"

"Well, it depends on what years they were. Some of our older records are still on microfilm. It takes time and money to convert that to more readily searchable media but we're going there. I'll have Abagail find the information you need. She'll also need to check your IDs to confirm you are who you say you are. We have to be careful with our records. You may recall the story from Duchess County a few years ago where someone posed as a parent, got some student records?" At my nod he continued. "What wasn't published was that he was a predator. Luckily someone saw him parked watching one of the schools and they caught him as he was about to take a child. We can't be too careful. Odds are records as old as yours are not likely to be of interest but we can't be too careful."

"I can see that. As far as I know we've not had any real celebrities graduate from around here but I can see the tabloids going after school records if they thought a story was there."

"Exactly." He said as he stood, and beckoned me toward the door. "Abagail, I need you to check that this is in fact Mr. Wyman. Then I need you to go back into the records and get some information for him. He can give you the years. He was apparently in a two year enrichment course during his third and fourth grades. I'd like you to confirm for him that he was in such a class, and if so provide him a copy of the permission page, any syllabus information the instructor may have provided, the instructor's name, and the number of other kids in the class. No names there obviously." She nodded as she took some notes on this. "Then, look up his first through fourth grade teachers, and kindergarten if he took it. If you come across anything else along those lines check with me before giving him copies but I'm guessing as long as other student names are not referenced, it'll probably be okay." She nodded again.

"Do you need anything before we head to the dungeon sir?"

"No, I think I'll be able to survive. Just switch my phone to ring directly on my desk until you get back."

She reached down, and pressed a few buttons. "There sir."

"Okay, get along then." He turned and headed back into his office.

"Well Mr. Wyman, let's get the ID bit out of the way. You said your name was Bill I believe."

"That's my nickname actually. My real name is, now please don't laugh, it’s Leslie Carol Wyman."

"Of course not, but I think I understand why you go by Bill." At my nod she continued. "Let’s get this ID thing out of the way. What all did you bring?" I showed her my passport and drivers license. "Are you still at the address on your license?" She asked as she took the information down.

"Yes. Is this enough?"

"It’s fine. Your name was the same while you were a student?" she asked looking up.

"Yes it was, though by fifth grade, I was already Bill to everyone."

"You were probably luck at that, otherwise you'd have been teased mercilessly."

"Probably true, but I don't remember that time really. That's a big piece of why I'm here actually. I'm trying to recover memories of that part of my childhood."

"You don't remember it? That’s unusual isn't it?"

"Apparently. As far as my memory is concerned, I almost may as well have not existed prior to fifth grade, well, except I could talk and spell and such. I just don’t' remember learning or any friends or anything."

"I'm so sorry. I hope we can find something that'll help you. First, let's find out what years we're working with. That'll tell me whether we can do it here, or if we actually have to go to the dungeon." Well, I graduated from High School in 1974, so I guess that puts fourth grade in 65/66?"

"I was afraid you were going to need that. We've only got '69 on in digital form so far. So we're off to the Dungeon."

"Why do you all keep calling it the dungeon?"

She laughed at this. "Oh, because it's in a climate controlled room down in the basement. No iron maiden or racks down there. I hope you're not disappointed." She said, as she keyed in a code on a cipher lock, and opened a door. I could hear the air pressure change.

"Wow, so this is how our school tax money is being spent."

"Actually no. This was built with a grant from Williamson Communications. We initially used the grant to microfilm all the old records starting back in the '60s. We went back to them for another grant in the mid '90s to convert to an electronic approach and were able to implement it in 2001. I started in '95 and I can tell you getting things out of the new system is so much faster and easier. Luckily the grant paid for a big chunk of the migration of the old microfilm back to '85, and we've been budgeting for another year conversion each budget year." She said this as she walked over to a cabinet and pulled out some film. I felt a bit strange; it's been so long since I'd actually used something on microfilm. "Well, let’s check the index for '65/66. That should tell us which films we need to start with."

"You really know how to find stuff in here." I said complementing her efficiency and how she was explaining things. "Sorry about my crack about tax money."

"It's okay Mr. Wyman. I guess you're lucky I started while we were still actively using this system Sally, the other admin, didn't start until the new system was in place, and she's a bit slow down here. Ahh, I found you. Leslie C. Wyman. I'll be able to get your normal teacher from this one, but it says supplemental is on a second film." She then wrote down my teacher's name, and checked for other info she could share. "I can print out a copy of your report card for the year and a few things like that as well." I could hear the printer going in the background. "Nice grades there Mr. Wyman. Well, except for that first quarter. You can grab those pages over there." She said indicating.

"Umm Thanks." I said as I went over, and noticed what she meant about my first quarter. It looked like I was disrupting class.

"Okay, let's go get the supplemental film and the previous year." She put the film away and grabbed two more. "Let's see if we can find your enrichment class or classes. Okay, you were added to a drama and an electronics class toward the end of the fall term. Want anything there?"

"The drama class might be useful. I think I remember a bit there."

"Okay, I'll crop and send a few pages to the printer then. It looks like you were in a small class on team building for most of fall term, but it didn't continue into the winter or spring. It was you and two other students."

"That sounds like the session. Anything you can provide for me there would be appreciated."

"There actually is a bit, and I'll write down the instructor's name for you. I'll print out what I can for you." Looks like the instructor decided to end the class before Christmas, and he's the one that recommended other classes for you and your classmates. Well, let's go back to third grade shall we?"

"Sounds good, I'm sure it was a less stressful time." She laughed at my weak attempt at humor.

"Well what do you know?"

"Yes?"

"It turns out my aunt was your teacher back in third grade. I'd forgotten which school she was at back then."

I looked up at this. "Do you think you could get me her phone number? She might be able to remember some things that could be helpful."

"Let me check with her when we get back up stairs. She usually enjoys chatting with her old students. But they usually come back a little sooner than you will be." I could hear the smile in her voice. "If she does remember you, she probably can tell you quite a lot. Ahh, this time, the supplementary info is on the same film. That's good. Looks like you had another bad start to the school year, and they decided to test you for a learning disability. I guess back then, they'd have called it retardation. They were a bit crude then. Ahhh. Seems you flunked that test. No surprise I guess. Yes, and here it says the tester was the one that suggested the enrichment class for you and two classmates. Interesting... There's no record of them needing to be tested. That is unusual. In any event, he had a syllabus that was designed to bring out the best in under achievers, and he's shown some success in other schools in and outside the district. It was supposed to be using some new learning techniques. Here, I'll print all this stuff out, and we can check with the Super to see if it's okay to give it all to you, or if we have to summarize it. I'll pick up the next couple pages that print." She went over to the printer, and grabbed a small stack. I'll admit to being intrigued!

"Sounds fascinating! You sure I can't skim those."

"Actually, I suspect you'll be able to take them with you Mr. Wyman, but we have to follow procedures here. Okay, some more reports. Interesting that you weren't put into any of the normal enrichment classes we had that year. The electronics and drama classes were listed then too. Oh well. Your grades also started going up a little bit at first, but by late Fall; there are some notes in your record about dramatic improvements. I'll just print out a bit more stuff here. You can grab it all. Then we can go get your earlier years. You were mostly looking for teachers’ names and such then, right?"

I nodded a bit at this. "Umm, Yea, I think so." I went back to skimming what she'd printed for me, while she went and got two more spools of film.

"Okay, I've got your first and second grade teachers, your report cards and some warning slips. You certainly were not the stellar student back then where you?"

"Umm" I started to say, when she realized what she'd said. "Ooops sorry. Why don't we take a peek at your fifth grade for a comparison, since you seem to remember some of that? If memory serves, the schools were doing an experiment where the teachers would move from class to class, so you'd have had several teachers that year, and one home room teacher. In the late '60s and early '70s the district was doing that at a few schools. The hope was it would prepare them better for Junior High when they would be moving." She said this as she returned the films, and got one more out. "Yep, your school was one of the looping schools. Let’s see what we can find. Grades still good all year Mr. Wyman. Looks like that class, or something, helped with that anyway. Consistent too. I'll note down your teachers names for with the rest, then we can head back up to see the super about the info I printed."

"Great. Out of curiosity, what will they be using this room for once everything is moved to digital format?"

"We've talked with the town and the library. They'd like to take advantage of the controlled environment to store some old documents and such. It's still a few years away at the current rate of conversion. We have microfilms of records going back to the mid '50s and before that for the high school. But I'd guess that within a few years this room will be down to half the capacity in microfilm and they'll do something like that."

"A climate controlled room would be really useful for a library I'd think. You might be able to get some money from rent of space here as well - from some of the business or even a few individuals."

"I don't know about that. You might mention your idea to the Super later. I know we're always under pressure to cost costs and improve the quality of education! Something that brought some revenue to the district would certainly help." She carefully closed up after resetting the lock, and then we headed back up to the office. "I'll see what he has to say about this bit, and be right back with you."

She knocked on Dr. Sandhurst's door, and at his acknowledgement went in. I could hear a bit of discussion in there, but I was going over some of the things she'd printed out for me downstairs. I didn't notice her come back out until she said. "Well, that's settled. He agreed that this is all okay for you to get. Let me quickly type up the list of names for you. Is there anything else?"

"Umm no, thank you very much for all your help."

"Oh, there was one more thing I said you'd do. Let me give my aunt a call, and she what she says." She quickly dialed a number and I did my best to ignore this end of the call. After a few minutes she said. "Thanks Aunt Gloria. I'll let him know." Turning to me she said. "It's all set. She'd be glad to see you. I'll put her number down next to her name, and maybe the two of you can get together. Living alone like she does these days I'm sure she'd enjoy the company."

I thanked her very much for all of her help, and headed out with my pile of papers. Wow, this was one productive day. I'd best put most of this aside when I get home though. I've a bit of prep work before that conference call this afternoon.