THOSE WHO INFLUENCED OUR LIVES: Clarise Etscheid - Teacher

Mrs. Etscheid, a high school teacher of mine, was a chic and striking woman. Think Maria Callas when she looked good. Mrs E. arrived at our school from New York when I was a Junior at North High to teach Choir and English. The first time I saw her in the Choir class I noticed the gray one button suit she was wearing was designed by the English designer Edward Molyneux and the diamond ring on her finger was a Marquis cut - minimum 3 carat. Yes, a budding Gay noted those things. Rumor was that she had been the rehearsal choir director of the Metropolitan Opera and often I wondered what the hell was a woman like that doing teaching in a Minneapolis high school. Mrs. Etscheid had a no nonsense approach to teaching music. She would keep time clapping her hands together in a loud strict military tempo. One day, questioning me in front of the class about a Chopin Polonaise, I purposely mispronounced the word Polonaise because I was embarrassed to say it in front of my classmate in the correct French. She demanded I repeat it correctly and then said a simple phrase I never forgot. "Back your convictions". In my senior year I met some unsavory Drag characters from Miami and one morning she observed me being dropped off (shocking for the time) in a white Lincoln convertible. Later that morning she called me into her office and said "If that is the kind of life you want, there are much much nicer people out there". Two years later I walked into a store in Santa Monica and encountered Mrs E. with her rather effeminate husband. Upon being introduced to him for the first time, I realized he was undoubtedly Gay and she was probably a Lesbian. How wonderful it was to have a teacher who understood and who influenced my life so positively.