“The News from Tamarack Stand” is first and foremost a fiction. Based on American writer Garrison Keillor’s “The News from Lake Wobegon” radio segment, this piece of writing is a fictional letter bearing fictional news from a fictional town. That does not mean, however, that it is fake news. The places and people of Tamarack Stand are based only loosely on reality, but my hope is that what this town has to say hits its readers where they need to hear it. Writing an open letter from a fake friend was a way for me to give myself the encouragement I needed to hear at this point in the year, and my sincere wish is that even in a small way, it can do the same for you. Tamarack Stand High School may not be a real place, but I hope that for you, the reader, it is true enough in its own way.
Earlier this week I received a letter from an old friend of mine, Jake Barnes, who teaches English at Tamarack Stand High School. Tamarack Stand is a tiny little farm town on the rocky forest beaches of northern Wisconsin. Their school is a lot smaller than ours – probably no more than four hundred students – and their mascot, for clarity, is the mighty Holstein, one of the most common breeds of dairy cows in Wisconsin. Mr. Barnes is only in his 4th year of teaching, but I find he’s one of those people who is far wiser than his age would suggest. We keep a regular chain of letters going back and forth, and this one really struck me as what I needed to hear this Spring. Maybe all of West Ottawa could benefit from hearing it. Here’s what he wrote:
“March 24, 2024,
Dear Seth,
It’s been a quiet week at Tamarack Stand High School. It’s colder here than in Michigan in the winter and early Spring – something to do with the lake. You can ask one of your science teachers how that works. I don’t have a clue. Anyway, it’s cold. We still have a lingerance of snow and as I write this letter it’s being whipped off the empty farm fields and across the country roads on the wind. It’s a beautiful sight; the kind of weather that makes life seem slower because you have to be inside all the time. But it’s hard to live life that way for so long as we have this past Winter. It’s the same way the mood has settled over the school this time of year. A little slower, a little quieter, and definitively cold.
Lately, it seems like students are walking slower and slower between classes, taking longer and longer to turn things in, and have less and less to say. When I ask them to work, there’s often an edge in their responses and sometimes outright refusal. Everyone needs a break – Spring Break to be exact – and the other teachers would agree. For me, this is the most exhausting stretch of the school year. We all need a chance to stretch our legs and our minds before hurrying along to the end, to Summer. Maybe you feel it too, Seth.
So yes, the mood these days is pretty negative. It’s been a hard couple of weeks in my English 9 classes, especially. The freshmen are slogging their way through essays on To Kill a Mockingbird and I’m sad to say that the apathy of Springtime seems to have sucked all meaning from the book. Instead of the wonderful talks I had imagined about equality, doing the right thing, and making a difference in your community, I’m having to give a daily pep talk about staying on task and how to properly cite textual evidence. These things are not the reason I signed up to be a teacher, but I am reminding myself to keep working hard at them. If you’ve ever felt this way, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Even the things we do not like to do can carry great importance.
That said, it sounds like just about every other teacher is having the same draining, doldrum experience as me right now. However, there are two notable exceptions here at Tamarack Stand. I’d like to share these stories with you, hopefully as a form of encouragement.
First is Coach Rosen, the physical education teacher and coach of the women’s basketball team. In the classroom, her kids are all itching for the snow to melt so that they can get on to the flag football unit, but on the court her players brought as much joy to the school as anyone this year.
The Lady Holsteins only lost three games this season: their first two and their last, which was the regional final. It was an altogether unexpected and joyous season that no one saw coming, and Coach Rosen guided those ladies to be something special. It’s amazing what someone like her can do with a group of young women. I read online about your women’s team’s run this year, so I’m sure you understand what I mean. Congrats to them, by the way. Back here there really weren’t any standout performers on the team, at least not at the beginning of the year, but all the girls learned to play with a chemistry and fluidity that’s never been seen before in Holstein basketball. Two of them – seniors Amanda Boot and Rianna Gomez – ended up earning All-Conference. You could tell the whole team cared deeply about ball and about each other by the way they played. Tamarack Stand High School has not had a team this together in a long time, and on Wednesday it all ended in the regional final down in Sheboygan.
Now, it wasn’t exactly what you would call a “good game.” There’s only so much we could do. Boot, our point guard, came down hard on her ankle after a foul in the first quarter, made both her free throws, but was unfortunately unable to continue. She spent the past week living up to her last name as she crutched around the school, that’s for sure. Our ladies fought like sheep at the shears but the opposing team – the Ironhill Harvesters – were simply too good. As soon as they ran onto the court for warmups, scythe logo standing out brightly against their blood red uniforms, I had a bad feeling that a swift and painful death was coming. Once Boot was sidelined, our fate was sealed. Credit to our ladies for trying their best, but it was nearly a blowout. A couple of three-points from the team and some good defense in the fourth quarter saved our dignity, but not our championship run.
Despite this rather dismal drubbing, Coach Rosen has been a hero to all of us this week. But more than that, her team had created an air of real excitement, of humble disbelief all season that our school was important, and more specifically, that our school was important to be a part of. The Lady Holsteins have never gone this far and to bring home a trophy, even just the district one, was quite something to see.
As I sat by myself in the stands during that final game, I saw the very same students who are barely making it through a day of classes cheering their hearts out. Kids who normally hide their faces behind computer screens instead painted them proudly with the Tamarack Stand black and yellow, and I think it was the first time I ever saw some of my freshmen with their eyes open at all. It reminded me that even when school seems dull or frustrating, we are all a part of something bigger, a community that we can contribute to in a meaningful way. The Holsteins were brought together over basketball this year; I hope your Panthers find a way to do the same, to see everyone on campus as one big team, no matter what your roles may be. Maybe in that way, you can reach a little higher than you have before.
The other exception to our list of disillusioned and despairing teachers right now is old Mr. Madison, Tamarack Stand’s ancient philosophy teacher. By that I mean he is both ancient AND our school’s philosophy teacher. I think I’ve told you about Mr. Madison before; he’s been here forever. His classic line is “I was here, then the rocks were here, then they built the town, then they built the school.” The truth is, I have no idea how old he is, but he’s been a teacher here longer than anyone else. All the students think he lives at the school, and honestly I kind of do too.
Anyway, I walked past his room the other day on my way to make some copies and heard him reading something aloud to his class. I couldn’t tell you what he was reading or even what it was about, but what caught me was the sound of his voice and his expression. You could actually hear the smile as he read. I peeked into the room and saw a sea of students that were pretty much tuned out. A few phones under the desks, a plethora of heads down, and maybe just one or two kids taking notes. Mr. Madison, though, either didn’t notice or didn’t care. I think it was the latter. I could just tell how much he loved what he was doing, loved what he was reading and feeding his brain with. It was as if reading this book was Mr. Madison’s purpose on Earth, and nothing else mattered in that quiet moment. I stood and listened for more than a few minutes.
I think that Springtime is for being like Mr. Madison, for throwing yourself headlong at whatever you were made to do. We’ve all been stuck inside for so long, but now is when we get a chance to get back to life with renewed energy. I’m guessing that over in Holland you’ve got plants starting to bloom. Maybe the old maple trees are budding, or the grass is becoming green again, or those world-famous tulips are starting to sprout up and down the streets. Back here in Tamarack Stand, the farmers are warming up their tractors and the dairy cows are flicking their tails, ready to taste real live grass. I even saw a pileated woodpecker fly in and get to work in my backyard yesterday. I want to remind you to be like the plants and the farmers and the cows and the birds, Seth. This time of year, when the world feels gray, they don’t care what others are thinking or what others are doing around them. When Springtime hits, all the living things wake themselves up from their ruts, shake off the dirt, and practice their purposes with a new joy and enthusiasm. Even if you are the only one who does this, do your best at it. It will brighten up your little corner of the world more than you know. And if everyone at West Ottawa or Tamarack Stand does it, well then our schools will become beautiful places indeed.
Do you hear it, Seth? Can you feel it whispering in the branches? Marching through the hallways and into your classroom? Springtime inviting you to start singing a song, your song, all over again?
Go well, do good work, and keep in touch,
-Jake”
That’s the news from Tamarack Stand, where all the dreams are grand, all the teachers are patient, and all the students are on time. I’ll make sure to share some wisdom from Mr. Barnes with you all again sometime soon. Keep at it West Ottawa!
