One of the columns I wrote for The Glencoe Mirror a few years ago: Im pretty sure the Glencoe Parents Spy Network was in force way before the 50s and 60s ; but, those are the years when I learned about it and the affect it had on my life. For many years we didnt have a phone. Then one day there it was sitting on a table by our black and white TV set. I thought it was a real cool invention and wondered how it worked. Our ring was a long, short & a long because we had to share a party line. However, after the phone arrived, I began to hear one-way conversations when I was in Glencoe ( and out of my parents sight). Some of them went like this: 1.) Hello Hazel, I just wanted to let you know that Vicki is up here at Freck Shells soda fountain and shes just ordered a cherry coke. Ohhhh...now shes spotted me on the phone and has moved off of those little round seats at the counter back to one of the two booths by the jukebox. Yes, I know shes supposed to be in school, but I guess shes cut her last class. Okay Hazel...talk to you later...I knew youd want to know what Vickis up to. Sentence: Grounded for two weeks! 2.) Hello Hap, just wanted to let you know that Vicki is trying to climb the water tower with a bunch of other kids again. No, she didnt make it past half-way up. She said something to the effect that it was way taller than the chicken house she tried to fly off of before you caught her and paddled her. Sentence: Had to clean the chicken house! 3.) Hello Hazel, Vicki, Shirley Hrabe and Sharon Honeyman just got caught roasting weenies on the stove in the Home Ec room. They had orange crush and coke bottles with them, too...but they dumped them behind the stove before Mrs. Chaffin caught them. Just thought youd like to know. Yes, Mrs. Chaffin made them clean up the grease from the weenie. Sentence: I had to clean Moms stove from top to bottom! 4.) Hello Hazel, Vicki has been drag racing again. Yes, well, thats probably why your 58 Ford is beginning to use a little oil. No, she didnt hurt anyone...but, you know, no one can catch her - she always wins. Its shameful! Sentenced to having to ride the bus for the rest of the school year! I hated that because Leland Ross would always yell Soowee!! at me. It lowered my self-esteem forever! 5.) Hello Hazel, Vicki wolf-whistled at your cousin Ida Kincaid as she walked across the stage before the Christmas play began today. Yes, she whistles very loudly!! Sentence: Coach Joe Thomas made me write a 3,000 word theme which he threw in the trash just after I submitted it. Later, I saw him reading it with interest when he thought no one was looking. Im sure if you grew up in or around Glencoe, you probably have a few of your own stories to attribute to the Glencoe Parents Spy Network. Victoria Day-Cook Just some thoughts... I remember: 1.) My first grade teacher, Mrs. Erma Burkhart, letting us catch snowflakes on a piece of black construction paper; then, letting us peer through a microscope at them. We were amazed that each snowflake - like each person - was different. 2.) Mrs. Burkhart also asked us to have our parents cut open our grocery products from the bottom so that they looked brand new. She had shelves made and we had our own little general store in the corner of the classroom. We made play money and she taught each of us to shop economically and to count change back. 3.) Mrs. Ida Kincaid, my third & fourth grade teacher (and my mothers first cousin) taught us to look up big words in the dictionary and to wash our hands thoroughly several times a day. 4.) Mr. Horace Smitty Smith, who was our chemistry teacher in high school trusted Jimmy Harwick, Mickey Lyle, and me, enough to do experiments. One in particular, when were trying to distill oil in a beaker caught on fire! He watched us a little closer after that. Fortunately, the fire just blackened the ceiling of the classroom a little bit. 5.) Mrs. Mabel McFarland, a few crumbs of lunch still in the corners of her mouth, her hair askew, taught me to write and to love literature. I was born with the love of learning and these educators instilled a knowledge of things I will never forget! By the way, I have been told my daughter Erin Beth, who is a first grade teacher in a small town near Tulsa, uses many of the same lessons used by the teachers I had. Their legacy lives on!
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 19:02:39 +0000
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