My sister Sherry was born into this world to be a teacher, just like I was. She taught fourth-graders for well into nearly 4 decades. Back in May of 2010, we both kind of decided that it was time to call it "quits" from teaching and each of us officially "retired" at the end of that school year. After 32 years on my part and 41 years of service on her part, it surely seemed enough. Sherry flunked out of retirement shortly before I did later on that year, and within just a few months both of us found ourselves right back in the same school systems that we had only a short time before said our good-byes to. Geesch, go figure! She has been still working away with kids, teaching in the very same building she retired from, Roosevelt Elementary here in Altus since then. Me? Well I gave retirement a try twice back home in Kansas and since those didn't seem to work out so well, I'm giving teaching another year or two or three in south western Colorado. I guess we must have been born to be teachers, would you think so?
You know I believe that I learned to be the kind of educator I am today by watching my sister teach before me. She already had more than 5 years of experience before I even entered the profession and it was only natural that in my beginning years that I would seek out her advice as to what to do in the classroom. Sherry was a natural teacher, it was her gift. What I really liked about her teaching style was that it seemed even the naughtiest and most challenging of her students would always show her respect. Honestly, all she had to do was just show them her "look" and call out their names. Those kids learned from her and they managed to learn a lot! But heck now that I think of it, I guess the same thing has happened to me. I learned how to handle the difficult experiences in the classroom just by watching her. For the gift of showing me how to reach the ones that many think are unreachable, I thank my sister.
We've had a lot of fun experiences together with the kids in our classrooms over the years. Our students have been pen pals with one another countless times and how enjoyable it was to be able to share the great things about living in the states of Kansas and Oklahoma with one another. We've challenged one another to aluminum can recycling contests with each other, seeing whose students could pick up the greatest number of old pop and beer cans alongside the roadways of both the Sunflower and Sooner states. I would like to say that my students had the best record, but alas Sherry's kids always found the way to find the most 3 out of the 5 years that we did it. Guess it really doesn't matter any way because the end result was that we were able to combine fun and learning into one big ecology unit for science. And oh, by the way...just imagine that! A kid could actually learn AND have fun at the same time.
We found a way to teach our students a lesson in gratitude when we challenged one another to see who could collect the most pennies in the springtime of 1996 when one of my young Amish students back at Yoder Grade School was very ill with leukemia. Between Sherry's Oklahoma 4th graders and my Kansas first and second graders, we came up with more than enough pennies for "Calvin's penny mile" and we were able to give his parents over $3,000 towards his medical care. Sadly within a year, young Calvin Bontrager had passed away from the disease but before he died, Calvin knew that two teachers and over 45 kids from both of the schools had cared enough about him to collect even the most meager of the coins, the penny, for him.
In the past two days we've had the chance to visit about the old times of growing up together back home on a farm in south central Kansas and laughed our fool heads off as we looked at boxes of photographs together. We have talked about how we miss our mom and dad and wish they could still be here somehow to see how things are going for us. There are times that I wonder what our folks would say about the both of us still being teachers, especially since our names are officially on the retirement rosters from both states of Kansas and Oklahoma. In all honesty, I think they would have told us we should not have even done that in the first place :) I can just about hear my father say, "Peggy Ann, I told you and I told you!" To him I would reply, "I know Daddy :)"
This home on Cherokee Strip in Altus holds a wealth of memories for me. If I close my eyes, I can just about hear the footsteps of my Ricky, Grahame and Ursela and of Sherry's two kids Brandy and Mandy, running through the house. Back in the early days when I was a newly divorced single parent of a little 4 year old boy named Little Ricky, it was this house here in south western Oklahoma that I would always come to in the summer time when I needed a break from life in Kansas. Sherry and Wes took that little boy of mine under their wing and treated him as if he was one of their own. They did that expecting nothing in return and they did it because they loved him and me too. One thing you have to say about the St. Clair Family, they believed in the concept of "it takes a village" long before it became a popular notion of today's culture. If your life has been touched by them in any way, then you should consider yourself among the most blessed. I know that I do.
Well, the clock on the wall reads nearly 5:30 now so it's probably time to get going. A few more things to be packed and then we are on the road once again. Not sure when we will arrive back in Montrose but if not tonight, then by tomorrow in the morning for sure. We are heading out a different route this time as we go through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and then north to Pueblo, Colorado. The weather may be a little on the snowy side so if we cannot cross back over the pass in the daylight hours, then we will be sure to wait it out safely somewhere along the way. God is with us so shoot, I'm not afraid. We have been most fortunate to have been spared any serious problems thus far and with that knowledge, all a person can do is head out. Prayers go out for all people this day, especially the many travellers who are trying to get home just like Mike and I. I always love to remember the song about God's eye being upon the lowly sparrow. Surely we count for more...
Have a good Saturday everyone out there. We are thinking of you all and love you friends and family very much. This is the 28th day of December in the year 2013 and it's a great day to be alive in. If you are reading this just take it as a sign. You were meant to be here, you are alive. Go out and find what your destiny for this day is. I'm heading out soon to learn what mine might be. You know, it's just a part of the plan.
Reliving the "old days" and remembering some very happy memories :)
Back in the spring of 2010 when we only THOUGHT we were going to retire.
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