Is your name "Spath"?

While I was at the movies last night, I put this on my twitter time line:

Man parked next to me @ #bengies saw my last name on car sticker-taught school where my dad was principal "nice man" 40 yrs ago-I'm so proud

I put as much as I could in the 140 character limit; here's more.

I went to a triple feature at the Bengies Drive-In Theatre, the last one left in Maryland, with the distinction of having the largest movie screen in operation in North America.

To get my favorite spot (row 5, left of aisle) I arrived early, and brought a book and an ipod to amuse myself. A man parked next to me after I had been there a few minutes, got out, walked around, and then came over to ask me if "my name was Spath" and did I have a "relative who was a school principal." Well, of course I did, my father taught school, and was a vice-principal and principal in Baltimore City (read: inner city) schools for 30 years.

He told me his name was Keith, and he had worked as a teacher for my father at an elementary school at Oliver and Eden Streets (which I later remembered is, or was, called Rutland Elementary School). He said how nice my father was; I told him my dad is no longer with us, but my mom is.

A few minutes later, he came back to say he had called a co-worker he was still in touch with to let her know he had seen me, and that she was happy to hear abut it. He told me (and I grabbed a piece of paper to write this down before I forgot) it "would take a lifetime to find anyone who didn't like my father, and I probably still wouldn't find one."

Wow.

Within a few minutes, my ipod shuffled to Leo Kottke's Jack Gets Up from My Father's Face.

Just a coincidence.