
{"id":1287,"date":"2007-11-14T15:30:42","date_gmt":"2007-11-14T23:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/11\/14\/marty-ravellette-was-a-teacher-too\/"},"modified":"2007-11-14T15:30:42","modified_gmt":"2007-11-14T23:30:42","slug":"marty-ravellette-was-a-teacher-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/11\/14\/marty-ravellette-was-a-teacher-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Marty Ravellette was a teacher too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Jock Lauterer\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/marty3.jpg\" height=\"185\" width=\"247\" \/><br \/>\nAt Sutton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Marty Ravellette\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daily morning hangout, the late Carrboro landscaper and motivational speaker liked to read over stories journalism students had written about his life. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This kid got it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he used to say of a piece he liked. Photo by Jock Lauterer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I always wanted to write a story about Marty Ravellette, but never imagined I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be writing a footnote to his obituary.<\/p>\n<p>When Marty Ravellette, 67, of Carrboro died Monday, he left behind not only a loving family but also a veritable fan club of friends who are heartsick over his untimely death. And the fact that his demise came with him at the wheel \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a fact of which he was so proud \u00e2\u20ac\u201d makes his passing all the more poignant.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not here to discuss Marty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, but to celebrate his living. For Marty was a voracious life-hog. In the short eight years I was privileged to know him, he became one of my resident \u00e2\u20ac\u0153perfessers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d teaching me more than I could ever pass on to him, regardless of his lack of higher education.<\/p>\n<p>Like many others, I discovered Marty at Sutton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Drug Store \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and watching him chug a cup of coffee using his left foot as deftly as you would use your left hand, I invited him to speak to my fledgling journalism students.<\/p>\n<p>After all, if my kids couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t write a story about the trials and eventual triumph of an armless man \u00e2\u20ac\u201d then their souls must be made of granite.<\/p>\n<p>Picture this: Marty entering the classroom unannounced, marching up to the whiteboard, grasping a marker with his bare left foot, (while balancing himself effortlessly on his right foot) and reaching up to chest-height with that same left foot and writing his name in perfect cursive.<br \/>\nIf the students hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen it, now they did: Where his short sleeves hung limp, there were no arms.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, I permitted myself the reward of stealing a glance at my glazed-eyed, slack-jawed students.<\/p>\n<p>A barrel-chested mature man in blue coveralls, his graying hair swept back over a sun-darkened forehead, Marty perched on a desk in front of the students. All eyes followed him as he raised his bare left foot, thoughtfully stroking a salt-and-pepper beard before he launched into his story.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was born in 1939 to a sharecropping couple,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said in a soft baritone voice, as if speaking to a loved one rather than to a class of strangers.<\/p>\n<p>And for the next hour, he would hold my college kids in thrall \u00e2\u20ac\u201d this the Millennial generation so hyper-mediated and saturated by electronic flotsam and jetsam that many observers have written them off as mere intellectual chaff. Marty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simple but eloquent stories of one man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s struggle for equality, understanding, clarity and finally redemption trumped all.<\/p>\n<p>As you must have read by now elsewhere, much of Marty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life was one of struggle, hard work and loss. But lately he had found love, affirmation, meaningful work and happiness.<br \/>\nHis \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Marty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hands-On Landscaping\u00e2\u20ac\u009d business became the stuff of legends.<\/p>\n<p>Marty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stories carried a stunning subtext that students heard loud and clear: If I can make it in this world without arms, kids, then you have nothing to whine about.<\/p>\n<p>Marty had too many stories of quiet heroism to tell in this brief space; so a single story must suffice. One of the best involved a letter Marty received from a man who had been driving to the mountains to commit suicide \u00e2\u20ac\u201d until he passed Marty mowing someone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lawn, pushing his lawnmower with his chest. The sight so shamed and chastened the suicidal man that he jettisoned his self-destructive thoughts and embraced life again, even writing Marty a thank-you letter for saving his life, in which he called Marty his angel.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, he called Marty his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153angel with broken wings.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>An angel indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jock Lauterer\u00c2\u00a0 At Sutton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Marty Ravellette\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daily morning hangout, the late Carrboro landscaper and motivational speaker liked to read over stories journalism students had written about his life. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This kid got it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he used to say of a piece he liked. Photo by Jock Lauterer I always wanted to write a story about Marty&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}