If this REALLY is teacher appreciation day (I approach the concept with a bit of skepticism since facebook seems to have a “something” day every day of the week) I need to blog about the many individuals who helped shape my life and my personality and truly express my gratitude for each and every one of them. So here goes … in no particular order.
Mrs. Ethel Horton – my first grade teacher and the epitome of the benevolent schoolmarm. She was, to put it mildly, the standard by which all who would follow were to be measured. She was also the school music teacher and a very good piano player. I can still remember the spelling and pronunciation tests, having trouble as I did pronouncing the word “want”. I learned how to be an indian giver in this class, taking all my new creepy crawlers to school one day with the idea we could all play with them during recess, and then I would take them back home. Needless to say I had a lot of trouble getting them back from my classmates! Occasionally Mrs. Horton would take the class upstairs and we would listen to music tapes on this old “Voice of Music” reel to reel tape deck. I sat there and tried to comprehend this device, trying to decide whether it just stored sound or could store the notes and play them back at will. So thank you, Mrs. Horton, not only for all you did and taught, but also for my lifelong fascination with audio (and later video) recording.
Mrs. Rebecca Seivers.
Mrs. Seivers was the nicest lady and a member of our church. She was probably the only teacher able to “out-nice” Mrs. Horton. I remember few details of this class, but one item does stand out. My vocabulary was quite good by this point and our story time book was “Charlotte’s Web”, so she would often call on me to read to the class, since I didn’t pause on the difficult words. I also remember skipping the exercise time and repeating my multiplication tables over and over. It was a wonderful year, so I thank you, Mrs Seivers, for all you did. (and I was very impressed that your husband was named Abraham Lincoln Seivers!)
Mrs. Virginia Burress (later Croft).
Mrs. Croft was the school physical education teacher. At some point during the week all the classes would be taken to the old gymnasium, and we would all “get under our number”, which was written on a small piece of masking tape and placed on the wall every foot and a half or so. We did everything, sit-ups, push-ups, arm circles, tumbling on the mats, and even softball out back of the school. I remember going into the gym to the left and down the steps through a small storage room underneath this giant gas heater that always had flames inside it. I was always scared that it would burn down the school, but it never did, so we dodged a bullet there. One thing I did not know about Mrs. Croft was the fact that her best friend in high school was Clarice Wallace, who just happened to be my sister-in-law. I could never figure out how mom seemed to find out about EVERYTHING I did at school until much later. So thank you Mrs. Croft, for all those wonderful gym memories (and all those paddlings I got at home, seemingly never able to get away with anything).
Mrs. Opal Fritts.
What can I say about Mrs. Fritts? My next door neighbor Tom had me convinced I was going to die on the first day of fourth grade, but of course I didn’ t. She was a very demanding teacher, and I went with the flow for about three weeks until we settled into a two-and-a-half hour nightly homework routine. I quickly decided I simply wasn’t going to do it, and spent the next nine months with mediocre grades because of it. My standard tests that year came back mostly in the 99 percentile range, so I wonder how she reconciled that. I had Mrs. Fritts in fourth and sixth grade, and don’t know how I got through it all, but I obviously learned SOMETHING. So thank you Mrs. Fritts, if for nothing else showing me that if I could make it through your classes, I could make it through anything!
Mrs. Marie Watlington
Mrs. Watlington was always nice to me, and she quickly became my favorite teacher in the older kids pod where we changed classes for different teachers with each subject. She left the classroom not to return after a few months, and she was replaced by our nemesis substitute, Mrs. Mildred Cross. Mom and I ran into Mrs. Watlington by accident the next spring at Cas Walker’s store, and mom found out through casual conversation that she had cancer. She died not long after that and was buried in the cemetery on Bethel Valley road at the turn to Oak Ridge, so RIP Mrs. Watlington. Mrs. Cross taught the math classes for the remainder of the year. So thank you Mrs. Watlington for being so nice to me and thank you Mrs. Cross for being so effective.
Mrs. Ruth Grizzle
Mrs Grizzle was my kindergarten teacher the summer prior to first grade. I remember so much about that class, the numbered circles on the floor, the finger painting, the big TV on the rolling cart that was always tuned to WSJK TV channel 2 Sneedville TN, and being told not to pick our nose and eat the snot. I really wanted Mrs. Grizzle in third grade, but was extremely disappointed not to get her class. I think she retired from teaching and ran a motel in Gatlinburg in her later years. Thank you Mrs. Grizzle for getting it all started.
And thank you Mrs. Nelson and the cafeteria staff for those wonderful rolls, that icy cold Norris milk, and most of those wonderful meals (I didn’t eat on the days we had mac and cheese, black eyed peas, chilled peeled tomatoes, and cornbread), but on certain days I did convince more than one gullible classmate to give me their cornbread so they could go back for seconds with an empty plate (on those days the “cornbread” was really cake)!
More to come …
