Miss "3rd grade " Brown had a wig that would slip every so often...Bill Daniel and I did all we could to make her quickly move her head hoping it would fall off;...
4th grade and Miss Rains...the dictionaries and the ruler slapping under you elbow when you let your arms sag;
Mrs. Bethay in the 5th grade....she taught us to square dance for an "assembly"...it allowed us to put our arms around a girl...we loved it;....
in the 7th grade, we had Miss Poor....she was very little and testy(we thought she was mean), so the boys renamed her Piss Poor....she caught several of us calling her that one day and many parents were at school the next day...I heard my dad laughing about it on the phone with Bill Daniel's dad a few days later.....
can't wait to see everyone next
year...thanks for all of your hard work...
.....Peter (Barber)
Yes, Miss Rains (not spelled Raines as we thought). Yes, I got the dictionary treatment. SO embarrassing and painful. If you did that once you were certainly very careful to avoid a next time!
Also Miss Jones, First grade. Did you know her son who I met several years ago when visiting the Birmingham Country Club is Chairman of Compass Bank! He must have learned a thing or two from his mother!.
Its along the line of punishments (why do we remember those so well?) Miss Jones also had a unique approach. You got to come up to the front of the class, where she would take you firmly by the shoulders and give you very vigorous shake. It didn't hurt, but like Miss Raines' approach it was extremely embarrassing, and the shake was serious enough to let you know she meant business! "SEE SPOT RUN"
Well, I will certainly be turning on my memory before this is all over, I am sure.
All the best,
Roy
[ from M.D. Smith ]
I remember some teacher, perhaps Miss Jones, making us write sentences during recess or after school if we misbehaved in class. I wrote many times, "I will not talk in class". You had to do it and if you had time when finished, then you could go to recess, or leave for home. Well, once I spent a part of the night writing these sentences in advance, then talked during class the next day.
Sure enough, I was "sentenced" to write the sentences 50 times. After about two minutes, I turned my prepared work in to her and watched her amazement. Of course, she knew what I had done. I smiled and left the room. I got great pleasure out of that victory, since she didn't keep me in. So, during the next night or two, I prepared many more pages, 25 sentences to a page. Victory was sweet and that "homework" was fun.
It was not long before I was caught talking in class again. She wanted 100 sentences. No problem, I had now about 8 pages pre-written with 25 per page, so I was looking for 4 pages full when she announced to me I was to write a NEW sentence, which she wrote on the blackboard. It was something like, "Talking is class is not permitted." WOW! All that work for nothing and I had to write a NEW sentence a LOT of times. I complained that "it wasn't fair to change the sentence." She replied something like, "I never said you always had to write the same sentence and it's good for your english to practice different ones."
Well, that pretty much cured me. I never again wrote sentences in advance and she never again assigned the exact same sentence for me to write when I had to do others. I didn't talk nearly as much in class anymore. Dog-gone, teachers always win in the end it seems.
MDS, IV
++++++++++ [email of 7-13-04 ]++++++++++++
Hi Class of '55 member:
As one of the web pages, I'd like to add as many teacher's names as we can think of from our years there. I have my graduation certificate (a scanned copy of which will be added to the web site in near future). I also have most of my report cards that my mother saved and gave to me with a bunch of newspaper clippings a few years before she died in 1997.
The graduation certificate was signed by Miss Margaret Hanes. Our 8th grade graduation program had all the home room teacher's names of Mrs. Rebecca Cumbee, Mrs. Barbara Rush, and Mrs. Mildred Porter.
My various report cards teachers (and ones others remember) are:
1st Mrs. Jones (but I don't have that card)(also Mrs.. Hendrix)
2nd Ellen W. West
(Frob Bob Smith- Ms. Prince (still have the knuckle marks on my knee
where she hit me with a closed fist(I deserved it) for something I did in
Sunday school) She taught us the multiplication tables thru 12X12. My
children can't go beyond 9X9 with today's curriculum. Mrs.Prince was a fine,
fine teacher.
3rd Edna M. Brown
From Bobby Smith - (3rd grade Brown & music teacher) plus Mrs..(3rd grade)Nabors, who taught us fractions and could snap her fingers like gun shots.
4th Adle Rains (hold those dictionary's out straight)
From Bobby Smith - Miss Winn or Wynn later Mrs..Simmons, whose daily review of the Korean war makes today's coverage of Iraq look pathetic. She made sure we knew the location of the 38th parallel and heard the live farewell of General McArthur, "Old Soldiers never die..."
5th Mrs. Malcolm Bethea (did she replace someone midyear?)(Mrs. Galloway in the 5th from Arthur Freeman)
From Bobby Smith - Mrs. Galloway who found some red dope paint in her car seat. I swear I didn't do it. She also had the class vote on whether or not there was a Santa Claus.
Yours truly wasn't taking any chances; so, of course I voted "Yes". It was a
50/50 tie.
6th Lerna N. Brown (and Mrs. Nabors from Julius Linn)
From Bobby - and Ms Kyle who became Mrs.. 6th grade Nabors, who encouraged someone each morning to read his favorite Bible passages. She also asked the question: "What is the word for a pleasant and harmonious sound?" Our brainy classmate Cathy Walker raised her hand and said "Euphony." "How do you spell it?" Cathy replied e-u-p-h-o-n-y." Damn, that was good!
7th Barbara Rush
from Bobby - Barbara Rush and Mrs.. Poor, who taught science and showed us that air has weight by comparing the weight of an inflated and uninflated basketball.
8th Rebecca N. Cumbee (I'd rather be feared than liked)
From Bobby - The best and most inspirational teacher I ever had who taught us algebra and sentence diagramming. She liked me so well that I got suspended twice in the same six weeks; As a teacher, philosopher and human being, she was second to no one.
From Bobby Smith - Don't forget Mr.. Owlsley, who made sure we heard "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" played by all violin students. And then there was Matilda, who kept our halls and rooms clean and tidy.And our phys ed teachers: Mrs. Robinson and Jean Clarke who was a tennis professional. Do the jocks remember: Scott Corley, basket ball, Bob Townley & Millard Burgess, football, and "Cactus", Tommy Williams, baseball.We were undefeated in baseball in the 8th grade. Take that, Crestline!!!
Also there was a Ms. Rice who taught vocal music downstairs where Mr. Owlsley also taught band & violin.
I (M.D.) remember Mrs. Poor, who I liked a lot for science. The other section had other teachers. Help me out, give me any I am missing and a short rememberance of them if you can.
Any other input, stories or memories also greatly appreciated. (web site list was updated today with yet a few more names, addresses and numbers from Margaret McCall - Thanks Margaret!)
Regards, M.D.
++++++++++ [email of 7-12-04 ]++++++++++++
Ms Bill was the name of the matronly woman who punched the lunch cards that we bought for $2 and had all the 5 cent numbers around the edge and she'd punch out the amount you bought each day which was from 25 cents to 35 cents for a lunch and usually lasted at least a week. Near the end with all the punches on the card, it got really raggedy on the edges. The teacher collected them after lunch and kept them till the next day and would tell us when we needed to buy new ones. If we ran out, a red marker showed what we "owed" and would be punched out on the new card when we bought it. First we knew of "credit" on account. Bill Daniels thinks she had a last name of "Mattison."
My sister, Anita, years later, said there were dimes and nickles and they used a red marker pen to charge off money as you used the card.
Can someone share and add to the lunchroom memories?
[from Mardis Howle ] The dear lady, that managed the lunchroom and punched our lunch ticket was known as Mrs. Bill. I also remember she was born with a hair lip and my mother advised me never to look at or to mention her problem!
++++++++++ [email of 7-12-04 from Roy Knight ]++++++++++++
M.D.,
Now that you mention it, I am sure the teacher was Mrs. West, Second Grade. Your mention of the ground floor rang that bell and now I remember that she was the one who had that practice. Second grade and first grade were on the ground floor when we started. That was before all the additions were built. Then, the upstairs seemed somewhat mysterious, the effect heightened by the squeaky, thumpy, wooden, but quite grand looking stairs.
Roy
