By Matthew Hall
When someone thinks of a teacher, instructor, or professor, they always think of some kind of 
schooling or class. Most do not think about the other side of a teacher. As students, we do not think of the other aspects of our professors’ lives and memories they have outside of school.
Roger Gatchet, an assistant professor of Communication, has decorated his office, in part, to showcase the person he is outside of the classroom.
“When I graduated from high school back in 1996, I went to the university for a year and didn’t enjoy it, and wasn’t happy with my major at the time, so I decided to take a year off from school,” Gatchet said.
He moved in with one of his best friends from high school, Drew Ophaug.
“At the time, this is in the late ‘90s, [Ophaug’s family] owned, or they operated, an antique mall that was in a huge building that obviously no longer functioned as a railroad station anymore and had been converted into, basically, an antique mall,” Gatchet said. “This is an original, Disneyland “Wet Paint” sign. I’m not sure how old it is, but it is used. Disney, if they were painting a wall or painting a fence or something, that’s the sign they would put up, and I always liked it. I think last year or two years ago I found it on eBay for pretty cheap, so I bought it because my friend Drew still has the original. I just think it’s cute.”
Other than pictures, Gatchet also had another unique object displayed on his desk: a wrestling mask.
“The Lucha Libre mask…yeah, I got this from my mother in law, my wife’s folks,” Gatchet said. “They went to Mexico over vacation, and they know I enjoy professional wrestling. It’s one of my guilty pleasures. Instead of reality TV, I like to watch pro wrestling, and so they brought back a Lucha Libre mask. It’s kind of fun. I like it, and it fits perfectly over my computer speaker.”
Gatchet also has a distinctive figurine on his windowsill beside his desk. It’s not just any doll, it’s a singing doll.
“That is Jake Blues, one of the Blue’s Brothers,” Gatchet said. “It is what inspired me to go on to play blues harmonica. A friend of mine bought that for me because I was such a big fan of the film, so I’ve been carrying that around for probably 12 or 13 years now.”
One other item he had was a little arcade game system hooked to his TV. Things such as these definitely bring back memories for Gatchet.
“I used to have an Atari,” he said. “That was the first game system I ever had. They call them retro games now, which makes me feel old, but when I was in second grade, my parents bought me an Atari 7800.”
“Ms. Pacman was one of the games we had and Pole Position, which was an old racing game,” he continued. “We also had Pole Position II and Mario Brothers; not Super Mario Brothers, but the original Mario Brothers. We had that and a few other different games we had for that.”
The objects in Gatchet’s office serve, in part, as a window to his non-academic life. They also serve as great conversation starters for students who want to know about Gatchet’s interests in the blues, wrestling, and Disney.