Crastinus in Illinois

I am very excited to be presenting Gaius Crastinus next Saturday at Pekin High School in Pekin, Illinois!  My good friend and colleague, Marcene Farley, is hosting a regional Latin convention and despite the fact that I have spoken at this event twice before, she has invited me back, this time as Crastinus.  Perhaps it is precisely because I will be someone else that I got the invitation!

Marcene was my Latin teacher for my senior year of high school, and we have remained friends ever since.  I had the good fortune of having three Latin teachers during that time.  When I was in ninth grade, which was part of our junior high, a friend and I walked to the high school each day to take Latin from Joyce Woller.  My sophomore and junior years, I had Alice Ranck.  She retired at the end of my junior year to marry her high school sweetheart, and Marcene became our new teacher.  She took another friend and me, along with my mom, to the state Latin convention that year, and my friend and I won the upper level certamen!  That friend posted this picture to Facebook a few years ago.

It will be an honor as well as a pleasure to present Crastinus at Marcene's school next weekend.  She is a great teacher, and her students are quite fortunate to have her.

On a separate note, do check out the new Facebook page for Roman Personas.  It has lots of pictures and other fun stuff related to ancient Rome.