The author has always had an appreciation of language--its rhythms, sounds, wordplay, dialects, usage variations, and powers to manipulate. Reflecting on how she came to this appreciation, she remembers her father reciting poems to her when she was a little girl. She was enthralled by the rhythm, the rhyme, and the sounds of the words--both familiar and unfamiliar. Language became for her a fascinating mystery, a venue of entertainment, and a highly respected tool. In her early years of teaching, she realizes two things: first, her appreciation for grammar was not rubbing off on her students; and, second, drilling on grammar was driving her students into a dislike of English class altogether. As a result, besides teaching the curriculum, including grammar, she made it a goal to expose students to other areas of English language that were interesting, useful, and even fun. Over the past couple of years through social networking, she has been fortunate to become reacquainted with many of her former students and she is confident that many of these students inherited her aesthetic appreciation of the various roles of language. (Contains 1 figure.)