I love school

A View Of Columbus Through Rose-Colored Glasses

This column is dedicated to acknowledge examples of positives that express the community spirit of Columbus – our town.

From “day one of my first day of school, I have had a love affair with school. Whether you share this feeling or not, I hope that you have some affection for school in your memories. My first grade teacher was beautiful and she was totally kind and helpful. There was only one lesson that year when I was sad and cried, I could not cut a fabric apple. My first grade scissors just would not cut the fabric. My teacher, Mrs Johnson, actually cut it out for me and I glued it on. I remember how pretty she was each day. Her hair was shinny black and she had a beautiful smile. This was during the war and her husband was a soldier. The whole class was concerned about his safety. It sort of seems that students always see their teachers as beautiful (Maybe I’m making this up). Mrs Johnson had an unusual first name... Ophelia, and that name was even lovely to me. She taught us well. Most of that first grade class graduated together 12 years later. Mrs Johnson played cards with some of our mothers and it was so fun to hear personal things about her life.

Our country school, Tuscola, (near Abilene) had few luxuries – perhaps not any. At recess, we all rode the dangerous (big) merry-goround. Many days there were kids from all eight grades riding it and screaming together. I remember hanging on for dear life, and I can remember only one tragedy. The screams were exciting and the big boys thought the little girls with full dresses made quite a scene. Girls my age wore prissy dresses with very full skirts and of course, that contributed to the boys enjoyment.

Unorthodox was a word I used to describe some highlights of our country school. In second grade, we witnessed our teacher asking a student to come to her desk and hold up her coat as a screen while she changed her clothes. Just so you know, T substantiated this happening with my long time best friend, Minnie Sue. To this day, we have no idea why she was changing clothes in our class room. We are not the only two who recall those strange happenings.

After fourth grade, Tuscola consolidated and we became South Taylor County Independent School District. Our Tuscola students moved to the Ovalo School. Ovalo was a ghost town; however, it was a turning point for sure. The school building was two stories. We had doubled the number of classmates and there were many new teachers. It was sort of like growing up. We had our own lockers and participated in athletics. Our basketball uniforms had white shirts and blue felt numerals. The blue felt numbers had to be removed and sewn back on after each washing. One of the finest attributes of this move was Bald Eagle Mountain. It practically joined the playground and provided such exciting adventures. It was easy to climb, but there were also snakes and lots of stickers. We loved the challenge and learned various ways to convince our teachers that we should have an outing rather often.

We started basketball early on. It became a life-long interest. Most of us played together the rest of our school years. We often rode a school bus many, many miles to play games. In West Texas, the towns are pretty spread out.

When we moved our school to Ovalo, there were few places to visit. However, we were thrilled to meet great new friends. One boy in particular became a favorite. His name was Eddie Doyle Meador. He was quite short, but a great athlete. He did tell me that he liked to sit by me because I was shorter that he. Eddie rode his bike to school. However, he had the privilege of driving an old car with a rumble seat.

We managed to talk our teacher into allowing us to make “important” jaunts back to Tuscola. No, not one of us had a license: however, country kids learned to drive very early. Eddie sat on two big cushions so that he could see out the windshield. I’m sure that we drove slowly since we had a full rumble seat. Of course, we stayed off the main highway – and boy did the dust whirl!

Once we were in high school, we moved back to Tuscola. We loved being the Flying Tigers and athletics became even more important. There were hardly enough boys to make two full eleven man football teams.

It was a shock to us all that Eddie Meador was deemed too small to play. After his freshman year, his family moved to Russelville, AR.

We all kept up with Eddie and were so happy when he made the team at Arkansas Tech. Now, at this point in the story, you might have recognized Eddie Meador who was the man who played many years for the Los Angeles Rams – quite an accomplishment for a kid who failed to make the high school football team.

Speaking of schools, our own hometown school district is coming up for a ‘big one”. This serves as a reminder to get out and vote.