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| Story ID: | 618 |
| Written by: | Wanda Molsberry Bates (bio, contact, other stories) |
| Story type: | Serial Fiction |
| Writers Conference: | Three Years In a Teacherage |
| Location: | Greeneville Township near Spirit Lake Iowa USA |
| Year: | 1936 |
| Person: | Wanda Molsberry Bates |
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"Three Years In a Teacherage" is part of a 9 chapter serial fiction piece written by Wanda Molsberry Bates. To see all chapters, please select this link - Three Years In a Teacherage . Other memories come in as I write these words. I think of the many hours we spent preparing eighth graders for state tests which they were required to take before entering high school. I remember pre-basketball game pep rallies with their feverish activities and the trips to the games where we teachers crowded into school buses along with the students. I had not planned to stay for a third year since I was anxious to get back to college to earn my degree, but when the school board offered me a raise-the sum of $70 per month-I couldn't pass it up. The winter was not so severe that third year and families were able to attend the Christmas pageant which we had at the school. With some trepidation I had approached three of the high school boys in hopes that they would consent to dress up as the wise men and enter, singing "We Three Kings.". Some "If he will, I will," remarks were made, and finally all three did agree; and their part of the pageant was one of my proud moments. An unhappy memory was the measles epidemic which almost closed down the school. Irene and I, along with Arthur, came down with it, but Gwen and Frances escaped. Smarting eyes and a headache kept me from making lesson plans, so my substitute, one of the farm wives who had had some teaching experience, had to handle the work as best she could without help from me. In the beginning I didn't know why I felt so bad, but, as I put my hands in hot water to start washing dishes, the breaking out started. There were a million spots, more or less, which soon ran together into a solid red covering which caused me to resemble a boiled lobster. I missed a week of school that year. Another unpleasant memory was visitations from mice with which we were sometimes blessed. A funny sight connected with that was Gwen standing on her desk chair in the schoolroom and bending over to grade papers on her desk after she saw a mouse running around the floor. Then there was a time when I found a dead mouse in my desk drawer. I accused Arthur of putting it there but he declared he was innocent. It was a happier day when the students presented the teachers with "fruit showers." It was a pleasant surprise to see oranges and apples being rolled in the aisles and headed for the teachers' desks. An episode to be long remembered was the home birth of the second baby in the superintendent's family. I cowered in my bed with my head under a pillow all one night as I tried not to hear Mrs. Ainsworth's cries for help and the footsteps of someone running up and down the stairs. (I presume the doctor gave L. P. the usual husband's task of boiling water.) During that night I resolved never to marry, but the new baby boy was really adorable and in later days I even did some baby-sitting for him. Eventually I decided it was probably worth the effort it took to get him. -------------------- I sat on the schoolhouse steps for perhaps an hour, immersed in nostalgia. I grieved for the young men of the area who lost their lives in WWII. Then it was time to say goodbye to Greeneville Township Consolidated and return to Herman's park to join Charles and the children. I had felt a little bit as if my youth had returned as I pictured the events of those days which Jimmy had called "the olden days"-those days of the 30's when we were young. EPILOGUE Today, as I re-read this story written long ago, I think of the words of an old song, "O, memories that bless and burn." For of the GTC teachers I knew and the dashing young men we married, only I remain. The memories are precious, but they are indeed bittersweet. Footnote: Words of the songs sung and descriptions of the motions in the party games are available. |
