10-21-10...MISS SALLY
I talked to a couple of my school classmates just recently. We talked about School days of course. The conversation got on our First Grade teacher, Miss Sallie. There are conflicting memories but I just have my memories so that's all I can relate to. Miss Sallie had been a very gifted and educated teacher in her time. She was old as dirt I think and her mind tended to wander. My friend Ruby says she just loved Miss Sallie to pieces. My friend Tommy and I both remember her being very weird. My first grade was traumatic any way you look at it with me bawling every day and Brenda across the hall wettin' her pants. I had plenty of adventures but today it's Miss Sallie I'm focusing on. Miss Sallie had a big knot of hair that hung kinda' haphazardly on the side of her head. Probably was supposed to be on top but I think it slipped. She had big thick glasses that made her eyes look big and buggy. I don't remember much teachin' going on. She told us stories. She would take her desk chair and move it in the middle of the floor near our desks. She told stories like, Jack and The Beanstalk, The Three Little Pigs and other children stories of the time. I don't remember her telling them the way I heard them from my Parents, or anywhere else for that matter. She just scared the ever'lovin' stuffins' out of me. When she told Jack and The beanstalk she would act it out. She could just curl my toes with her FE-FI-FO-Fum and she would stalk around the room swinging that paddle as she was saying her Fe Fi Fo Fum in a gruff voice. Then she would go to someone desk an slam that paddle down. When she did that to me it jarred my teeth. I got up to run and she said “HALT You Swine.”By golly I halted. I was so sure her stories were all true and factual. The one story I remember her telling that wasn't any I ever heard then or since then was just horrifying to me. She said that when she got ready for bed each night a little elf, that lived in her watch, jumped out and hopped around her bed and chattered and giggled. Then she said when she got ready to come to school the next morning the little elf got back in her watch and stayed there all day. She would take that little gold watch off and put it up to her ear and listen. We got to listen too if we dared, which I did, and of course the watches ticked then. Sooo! The elf took form ,at least in my mind it did, and became reality. The one time I told someone about it they laughed at me and called me a liar. Guess I told the wrong person. Miss Sallie never married and lived with her Mother next door in the house she was probably raised in. She took us over there all the time and I was just scared spitless. I couldn't really remember but I thought her Mom was still there and My Friend Tommy confirmed that she indeed was. I got a clear picture from his description of her. Solid white hair pulled up on her head in a not too tidy bun. Kinda big and has long hairs growing out of her chin. That old house as I remember it was like the story of Hansel and Gretel that Miss Sallie had told us. So Of course the lady was the witch in the story as far as I was concerned. I hated going over there but My Friend Ruby told me she just loved going. I remember one day I said to my friend Billie, lets run, we gotta get outta here. She was ready to go and we started to do just that but Miss Sallie saw us and told us, Come on now girls, we are having an adventure, there is more to learning than books. Well for my part of that I'd rather have been back where the books were! I just knew that little elf was lurking around there getting ready to jump on my back and chatter in my ears and I sure didn't want that. The house was dark, drab, and musty smelling to . She took us in a bedroom. I remembered the elf and bolted again. She said “Come back little girlie, you can't get out”. Horrible Horrible Horrible. I realize now that Miss Sallie must have taught us something, that is just not the part I remember. Surely to Goodness we learned, at least some of us did. As I remember there were about 15 in our first grade class but 9 of us is all that made it to the second grade. And it was us 9 for the next 11 years. We graduated in 1962 and we aint any of us no dummy. We had to of learned. That was Miss Sallies last year to teach. The next year Miss Bonnie was the first grade teacher. Miss Bonnie had never married either. Sometimes I think those were the smartest people but they were weird to me then and still are. Yep my first grade of school was certainly a big adventure. But I did OK. No worse for the wear. Yep did pretty good I'd say. YEP
Thursday, October 21, 2010
SCHOOL WAS A DRAG
10-19-10...SCHOOL WAS A DRAG
When I started first grade Brenda was in the second grade. She was seven month's older and her birthday fell so she could start before me. We both hated it. The morning I started to school Brenda and I were so sure that we could again be together all the time the way we had been all our lives. How wrong we were. We of course were in different rooms and only saw one another at recess. Well I dont know how Brenda made it through the first grade without me I just knew it was a hard time for me. Brenda was still shy and wouldn't ever speak up and I wasn't there to do it for her so she almost failed the first grade. Auntie thought it would be better the year I started, but it was not to be. Brenda wouldn't ask to go to the bathroom and she would wet her pants in class. At recess I would go running to Brenda's room and we would go out together to the playground. I don't think I even got aquainted with my class that year very well. And the reason was I cried till recess when I could see Brenda. We tried everything to stay together. One day we climbed a pear tree on the grounds and tried to hide when the bell signaled recess was over. Another we got in the toilet and stayed in there. Our teachers caught on to our little schemes and watched us very close. They even decided to separate us and not let us play together at all. Well Let me tell you when that happened we were not havin' any of that. Nosiree guys that aint'a gonna' work. We pulled sit downs and running from them, nothing was working. Well we had'ta do something so we hatched up a good scheme. We Thought. We sneaked down to the far end of the play ground and sat down. We sat there and when the bell rung the end of recess we both laid down. “Brenda now when the teacher gets here start crying and tell them we are both sick”. Well I guess Brenda was learning not to do everything I said anymore so she said “NO I aint'a gonna' do it Clydene I ain't, You do it”. “Oh Well My goodness Brenda you little stubborn thing just watch and do what I do”. It was Miss Sally and Miss Sullivan our teachers who came after us. I started crying and said “we are sick Miss Sally we've a'gotta go home. We wanna go home”. “Yeaw we are sick” Brenda said in a perfectly normal voice. “I hollered Brenda you are'a sposed' to cry, you aint cryin'”. Well that did it. If they hadn't already figured it out they sure did then. I had already been crying every day in class anyway so wasn't a very good idea for me to cry, and Brenda wouldn't do it so the jig was up. But I wasn't quiet ready to give up yet. I just set there and stubbed up like an old opossum and of course Brenda was good at that anyway so she did it too.. BUT------ It werent' a workin'. There weren't any Peach trees near by but the teachers didn't use them anyway. They had paddles and just happened to have them with them. They took us to the toilet. ( which was not far away. they were outside toilets don't ya know) and used those paddles. Then took us back to the classrooms and told everyone what we had done. To add insult to injury they sent notes home to our parents and they did have a peach tree. Yep I guess we learned another lesson though I really don't know what that one was cause we still wanted to be together. Had to tough that year out though and the next one. It was a small school and 3rd and 4th were in one room and 5th and sixth were in one room. So we were finally together again. Yep together till' she married and moved to Kansas, then we really had something to cry about. Was never the same again. But Hey we still had a lot of growing up to do and we were and still are close. Sisters in all but name. GOOD NUFF'
When I started first grade Brenda was in the second grade. She was seven month's older and her birthday fell so she could start before me. We both hated it. The morning I started to school Brenda and I were so sure that we could again be together all the time the way we had been all our lives. How wrong we were. We of course were in different rooms and only saw one another at recess. Well I dont know how Brenda made it through the first grade without me I just knew it was a hard time for me. Brenda was still shy and wouldn't ever speak up and I wasn't there to do it for her so she almost failed the first grade. Auntie thought it would be better the year I started, but it was not to be. Brenda wouldn't ask to go to the bathroom and she would wet her pants in class. At recess I would go running to Brenda's room and we would go out together to the playground. I don't think I even got aquainted with my class that year very well. And the reason was I cried till recess when I could see Brenda. We tried everything to stay together. One day we climbed a pear tree on the grounds and tried to hide when the bell signaled recess was over. Another we got in the toilet and stayed in there. Our teachers caught on to our little schemes and watched us very close. They even decided to separate us and not let us play together at all. Well Let me tell you when that happened we were not havin' any of that. Nosiree guys that aint'a gonna' work. We pulled sit downs and running from them, nothing was working. Well we had'ta do something so we hatched up a good scheme. We Thought. We sneaked down to the far end of the play ground and sat down. We sat there and when the bell rung the end of recess we both laid down. “Brenda now when the teacher gets here start crying and tell them we are both sick”. Well I guess Brenda was learning not to do everything I said anymore so she said “NO I aint'a gonna' do it Clydene I ain't, You do it”. “Oh Well My goodness Brenda you little stubborn thing just watch and do what I do”. It was Miss Sally and Miss Sullivan our teachers who came after us. I started crying and said “we are sick Miss Sally we've a'gotta go home. We wanna go home”. “Yeaw we are sick” Brenda said in a perfectly normal voice. “I hollered Brenda you are'a sposed' to cry, you aint cryin'”. Well that did it. If they hadn't already figured it out they sure did then. I had already been crying every day in class anyway so wasn't a very good idea for me to cry, and Brenda wouldn't do it so the jig was up. But I wasn't quiet ready to give up yet. I just set there and stubbed up like an old opossum and of course Brenda was good at that anyway so she did it too.. BUT------ It werent' a workin'. There weren't any Peach trees near by but the teachers didn't use them anyway. They had paddles and just happened to have them with them. They took us to the toilet. ( which was not far away. they were outside toilets don't ya know) and used those paddles. Then took us back to the classrooms and told everyone what we had done. To add insult to injury they sent notes home to our parents and they did have a peach tree. Yep I guess we learned another lesson though I really don't know what that one was cause we still wanted to be together. Had to tough that year out though and the next one. It was a small school and 3rd and 4th were in one room and 5th and sixth were in one room. So we were finally together again. Yep together till' she married and moved to Kansas, then we really had something to cry about. Was never the same again. But Hey we still had a lot of growing up to do and we were and still are close. Sisters in all but name. GOOD NUFF'
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