MISS SULA KATE

8-3-09...MISS SULA KATE

Miss Sula Kate was quiet a lady. She was Superintendent of Schools during most of my High School Years. She also taught some classes one being my Geometry class. She had also been my Daddy's teacher when he was in first grade. She was only a teenager at that time which they allowed then.
Miss Sula Kate was never married. She told a bunch of us girls once that she sure didn't want a man in her life trying to tell her what to do. She said women go down into the depths of pain to deliver babies and men never appreciate it because they are all pigs. Like I said she was quiet a lady.
She was what I would call ex centric now but then we just called her odd. Now don't get me wrong, we all loved and respected Miss Sula Kate. She was smart and fair. When she got enough of something she would call an assembly. We would all assemble in the study hall and wait. The first thing she would always say was, (and I remember the words like she is just saying them) “Big ol' Stand up in the corner and bawl for buttermilk”. What did that mean? I'm not sure. But I think she meant that something we were doing wrong had been told to us before and we were like a bunch of little nuts that just couldn't get it in our heads. This never made anyone mad and that was probably because we all knew she was right.
If Miss Sula Kate couldn't get a point across one way then she would do it in another way. Usually her 'other way' was something that taught us we shoulda' done it right in the first place.
Miss Sula Kate was very fussy about the library. One day she didn't like the way a book was put away or something. She went in the library and threw every book off the shelves and in the floor. I remember helping put them all up on the shelves in the proper place with her guidance. There were several of us who helped. I think it was my class but I'm not sure.
One day in Geometry class she was mad because some of us couldn't understand a problem we were working on. She wrote the problem out on the blackboard with the answer and said “There it is”. Then she picked up a folding chair and threw it across the room. I can still see Jimmy Harbottle ducking when it sailed over his head and hit the door. Were we afraid of her? Heck fire no, we all loved her.
Miss Sula Kate had worked like a man all her life. She had her own farm which she took care of herself. She had a sister and a brother whom she adored. She talked about them all the time. Her Dad was dead when I knew her but her Mom Carrie was alive and lived with Miss Sula Kate.
Back then Teachers could paddle us and Miss Sula Kate had a big paddle that she used often. I heard some of the boys say they would rather have a spanking from one of the man teachers than Miss Sula Kate anytime.
She never made herself up or dressed in fancy clothes. Her hair was never fixed but she did keep it dyed black. Her Mom and sister both had bright red hair. I don't know what her natural color was. I remember her wearing colors that clashed. They clashed then but now anything goes. She wore yellow and green a lot and that was one of those clashing no, no's of the time.
I had been graduated and gone a long time before Miss Sula Kate finally retired. When I came back to my home state in 1998 I went to the same Church with Miss Sula Kate. She was living with her sister then who took care of her. She had grown senile but she was a beautiful Lady. Dressed nice, hair fixed, make up, and looking good. I told her who I was and she said, “Oh you are one of my kids. I love you and you are beautiful”. She said that to me every Sunday. I'm not sure if she knew for sure which Kid' I was but I think she did.
Miss Sula Kate died very shortly after I moved back home. I am so happy that I got to see her again. I got lots of big hugs from her and I'm grateful that she was a part of my early life. I count her a big asset and a joy to have known. YEP!