8-3-09...SMOKING!!!
I learned a lot of lessons from a hard experience. Some of them were funny at the time, others were not funny till years later.
I decided it was cool to smoke cigarettes in the 7th. Grade. I had dabbled with them before when I was much younger with bad results. This time I thought I was grown up and I wanted to keep up with the 'cool' kids. I was tired of being a square which is what we were called if we had strict parents and wouldn't join in with things we knew were wrong. But heck I knew lots of grown ups who smoked. It looked sophisticated to me. I had even seen cigarettes in the Home Ec. teachers desk drawer. Of course Miss Farris didn't want us to know she smoked and we never saw her smoke. My friend Pat and I were in the home ec. Building one day alone. Now I have no idea if we sneaked in or how we came to be there alone but we were.
I said, "Pat, Miss Farris has some cigarettes in her desk drawer". "Aww Clydene she does not" she answered. "Well I'll show you", I said. I opened the drawer and rummaged around till I found the cigarettes. "See Pat, I told you. Lets smoke one". Pat was all for it. There was even a book of matches and an ash tray there with the cigarettes. We lit up with difficulty. I even had mine flaming up at one time. Don't know how that happened.
We waltzed our little smart elec fannies in to the living room and sat down on the couch and just puffed up a storm. About the time I got choked I looked over at Pat and she was white as snow except for a green tinge around her eyes. My eyes were watering till I couldn't see a thing then I got sick.
Pat looked out the window and exclaimed that Miss Farris was coming. "Oh my gosh Pat we gotta get rid of these and get outta here", I said. "What are we gonna do with them Clydene" she answered. "Oh Heck fire Pat, I'm sick and I can't see a thing"!
We took off running to the kitchen sink to run water over the cigarettes. I couldn't see so before I got there I heard Miss Farris coming in the door. I smashed that dang thing in my hand and of course it burned. I screeched like a wild animal of some kind just as Miss Farris got inside. In the meantime Pat has vomited all over the place but at least she had gotten her cigarette put out.
What happened? Well not much. Miss Farris did tell Miss Sula Kate on us and we did get a good talking to but Miss Farris got almost the same treatment when Miss Sula Kate told her she had no business having the cigarettes in her desk. There was no nurse in schools at the time so Miss Sula Kate doctored and bandaged my hand. Oh and by the way she told me I deserved a burned hand for what I did. I know now that I did deserve it. Yep, some lessons I learned the hard way.
Monday, August 3, 2009
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!
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!
GRANDMA'S APRON
8-1-09...GRANDMA'S APRON
I posted this a while back in bulletins. It has been sent around in emails for years. The author is unknown. It is just the way my Grandma was with her apron. I remember her doing all these things right down to spitting on it and washing something off our faces. As I read this I can almost see my Granny. Hope you will enjoy this. It is recopied here from my files. Clydene
I posted this a while back in bulletins. It has been sent around in emails for years. The author is unknown. It is just the way my Grandma was with her apron. I remember her doing all these things right down to spitting on it and washing something off our faces. As I read this I can almost see my Granny. Hope you will enjoy this. It is recopied here from my files. Clydene
MY 7th GRADE TEACHER
7-31-09...MY 7th. GRADE TEACHER
I was talking with my friend Tommy Shirley yesterday and he mentioned our 7th. Grade Teacher Miss. Hamilton. I had almost forgotten that woman completely but when Tommy brought her up I remembered some things that I didn't like about her at all. That's the way it goes. We all remember things and events differently. Some of the things he mentioned I don't remember at all, but just bringing her up got my memory working on the things I do remember.
Miss Hamilton was tall and snooty. She seemed to think the world was a better place just because she was there. She also thought our little country school was not good enough for her expert talents. And besides that we were not even close to being what she wanted in her students. To her we were just a bunch of hillbillies with no concept of learning the finer things in life.
Miss Hamilton's hair was done up in a style that to me now was very much like a wig. A big tidy lump on back of her head right down by her neck. Now that I look back I am more positive that it was a hair piece. Yep! I can almost see her now standing in front of her mirror pinning that monstrosity on the back of her proper neck.
Now we had just come up from our little white Grade school to the big brick building across the road and I felt inept enough already so when she started her snotty looking down her nose at us it was hard for me to take. She thought we had no manners or 'social graces' as she often said to the girls. We needed to be proper ladies. We Arkies didn't measure up to her Mississippi standards. I pointed out to her one day that Mississippi was farther South than Arkansas so I figured that made me better than her. Well that thinking didn't jive with her. Heck fire no.
She started trying to teach us how to be graceful. How to walk, speak, and “Carry Yourselves like Ladies” she said. Well we just weren't having none of that. Nope! To heck with that old bag.
I was born with scoliosis of the back which is a curving of the spine. Therefore my back was not straight. Never was, still aint, never will be. That's just the way it is period, end of story. She wasn't even listening to my excuses she said. I was just a slouch and needed to learn how to hold my shoulders back.
She would make me stand against a wall and she would push my shoulders back and try to straighten them. That was impossible. She would get me during my free time and push my shoulders back against the wall and hold me there for what seemed like a long time to me because it hurt. She just kept telling me I had to train my body to not slouch.
I went home one evening and told my parents that my back was hurting bad. Mama looked at my back and found bruises and finger prints on my shoulders. “Clydene have you been fighting” she asked. “No Mama I never fight” I said. Well more questions and more answers until My Parents figured out what was going on.
The next morning I didn't ride the bus but my Daddy took me in his car. He was mad and I mean madder'n'a hornet! I didn't really know what he was going to do but he told me to go about what I usually did that he was going to talk to the Superintendent. Miss Hamilton quit the trying to straighten my back and she even told me she was sorry. Her face looked like she had just eaten a green persimmon and then tried to eat a lemon as she said I'm sorry. I knew she didn't really mean it. I still don't know what Daddy said to anyone but I do know he was steaming for some time to come. I had to go to the Dr. but don't even remember what he said.
Then came the next thing this woman did. My Grandma who was living with us had lived through the bad depression of the 30s When my Mama was growing up food was scarce . Money was even more scarce. Even if you had money you had to use what was the food stamps of the time to buy things. The way I understood it each Family got a book of these food stamps. They were for whatever they bought but they couldn't buy everything and the stamps didn't pay for the food. Each stamp was marked with, coffee, sugar, flour, and etc. If you had money and wanted a can of coffee for example, you had to have so many coffee stamps to buy it. No stamps, no coffee, even if you had money. Grandma had some of these stamps in her possession. They were not worth anything then. I had seen them and for some reason I told Miss Hamilton that Grandma had them. She asked me to bring them to school. She was so interested in seeing them that I asked Grandma if I could take them to School.
When I showed them to Miss Hamilton she wanted to take them and show her husband so I let her. I never saw them again. Grandma never asked me about them and I forgot all about them. We didn't know they might be valuable but Miss Hamilton did. Years and Years later I thought about that and I realized that old bag same as stole them from me. My family might never have know that many years later those stamps would become collectors items and be very valuable. In fact they might have been just thrown out in the trash. But knowing that Teaches who thought she was so much better than us had stooped that low is a revelation to me. She was a terrible person. I thought so then and now I am very sure of it. I have never stolen a thing in my life and never will. So to my thinking that makes me a better person than she was. Yep! She is probably not even alive now but I just wonder if she ever once thought about that little school again and the way she treated a bunch of kids she was supposed to be teaching History. I doubt it very much. Yep, I really doubt it!!!!
I was talking with my friend Tommy Shirley yesterday and he mentioned our 7th. Grade Teacher Miss. Hamilton. I had almost forgotten that woman completely but when Tommy brought her up I remembered some things that I didn't like about her at all. That's the way it goes. We all remember things and events differently. Some of the things he mentioned I don't remember at all, but just bringing her up got my memory working on the things I do remember.
Miss Hamilton was tall and snooty. She seemed to think the world was a better place just because she was there. She also thought our little country school was not good enough for her expert talents. And besides that we were not even close to being what she wanted in her students. To her we were just a bunch of hillbillies with no concept of learning the finer things in life.
Miss Hamilton's hair was done up in a style that to me now was very much like a wig. A big tidy lump on back of her head right down by her neck. Now that I look back I am more positive that it was a hair piece. Yep! I can almost see her now standing in front of her mirror pinning that monstrosity on the back of her proper neck.
Now we had just come up from our little white Grade school to the big brick building across the road and I felt inept enough already so when she started her snotty looking down her nose at us it was hard for me to take. She thought we had no manners or 'social graces' as she often said to the girls. We needed to be proper ladies. We Arkies didn't measure up to her Mississippi standards. I pointed out to her one day that Mississippi was farther South than Arkansas so I figured that made me better than her. Well that thinking didn't jive with her. Heck fire no.
She started trying to teach us how to be graceful. How to walk, speak, and “Carry Yourselves like Ladies” she said. Well we just weren't having none of that. Nope! To heck with that old bag.
I was born with scoliosis of the back which is a curving of the spine. Therefore my back was not straight. Never was, still aint, never will be. That's just the way it is period, end of story. She wasn't even listening to my excuses she said. I was just a slouch and needed to learn how to hold my shoulders back.
She would make me stand against a wall and she would push my shoulders back and try to straighten them. That was impossible. She would get me during my free time and push my shoulders back against the wall and hold me there for what seemed like a long time to me because it hurt. She just kept telling me I had to train my body to not slouch.
I went home one evening and told my parents that my back was hurting bad. Mama looked at my back and found bruises and finger prints on my shoulders. “Clydene have you been fighting” she asked. “No Mama I never fight” I said. Well more questions and more answers until My Parents figured out what was going on.
The next morning I didn't ride the bus but my Daddy took me in his car. He was mad and I mean madder'n'a hornet! I didn't really know what he was going to do but he told me to go about what I usually did that he was going to talk to the Superintendent. Miss Hamilton quit the trying to straighten my back and she even told me she was sorry. Her face looked like she had just eaten a green persimmon and then tried to eat a lemon as she said I'm sorry. I knew she didn't really mean it. I still don't know what Daddy said to anyone but I do know he was steaming for some time to come. I had to go to the Dr. but don't even remember what he said.
Then came the next thing this woman did. My Grandma who was living with us had lived through the bad depression of the 30s When my Mama was growing up food was scarce . Money was even more scarce. Even if you had money you had to use what was the food stamps of the time to buy things. The way I understood it each Family got a book of these food stamps. They were for whatever they bought but they couldn't buy everything and the stamps didn't pay for the food. Each stamp was marked with, coffee, sugar, flour, and etc. If you had money and wanted a can of coffee for example, you had to have so many coffee stamps to buy it. No stamps, no coffee, even if you had money. Grandma had some of these stamps in her possession. They were not worth anything then. I had seen them and for some reason I told Miss Hamilton that Grandma had them. She asked me to bring them to school. She was so interested in seeing them that I asked Grandma if I could take them to School.
When I showed them to Miss Hamilton she wanted to take them and show her husband so I let her. I never saw them again. Grandma never asked me about them and I forgot all about them. We didn't know they might be valuable but Miss Hamilton did. Years and Years later I thought about that and I realized that old bag same as stole them from me. My family might never have know that many years later those stamps would become collectors items and be very valuable. In fact they might have been just thrown out in the trash. But knowing that Teaches who thought she was so much better than us had stooped that low is a revelation to me. She was a terrible person. I thought so then and now I am very sure of it. I have never stolen a thing in my life and never will. So to my thinking that makes me a better person than she was. Yep! She is probably not even alive now but I just wonder if she ever once thought about that little school again and the way she treated a bunch of kids she was supposed to be teaching History. I doubt it very much. Yep, I really doubt it!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)