I would be remiss if I mention my youth in Clinton and Oakton without a mention of two wonderful, but tough ladies.
I had Ms Laverne Kimbro in seventh grade and she was a hoot. She usually punished by using a wooden ruler on an out stretched palm. She was also adept at grabbing a hand full of a boy`s hair and giving a shake if she saw him asleep or not paying attention.
She had pulled about every head but mine so I decided to outfox her. I went to Alfred Kell and had him give me a flat top haircut with no more than three quarter inch of hair in front. He called my dad to see if he approved. He was reluctant but said if I wanted to make a fool of myself go ahead. Short hair then meant trouble makers and it was not desirable with the older folks.
I read an article once where the writer wrote about kids and long hair being trouble. I agreed with him. His punch line was that he was quoting Ben Franklin in Poor Richards Almanac. In the almanac Franklin was quoting Aristotle. If the parent had long hair the child will have it short. We are so determined to be different we are conformist without realizing it.
Anyway back to my story. The next morning when the bell sounded first class I was in my seat near the back and close to the door. When Ms Laverne got to my seat she reached out and caught my short stubble between her fingernails and her palm. Then she gave a big shake and said, “Robert Templeton did you really think that I could not shake your head with that hair cut?” (I was not called Bob until I was in the service and there were four of us named Robert. We became Robert, Rob, Bob and Bobby.) She never did shake my head again. I think I somehow was one of her favorites. I know she was one of mine. She did use her ruler a time or two and each was deserved.
I was a poor speller and she made me so mad that I vowed that I would be able to out spell her by the time we finished the year. Little did I realize that I was responding to her challenge exactly how she wanted. I finished our speller in a few weeks and started on the dictionary. I never did out spell her. I am so thankful that when I started carrying mail that she was on my route and I took the first chance to tell her how much she helped me get my job. A large portion of the test then was correct spelling, capitols and memory. She was tough but also a softy. She weighed every bit of ninety pounds wet and holding a brick.
A few years after I had her for a teacher she went to the Central Office and had the duty of truant officer. One day several of us decided to play hooky from school. We headed to Pools grocery at lunch to get a drink and sandwich. We looked out the window and there she was pulling into a parking place. Sharecropper Williams and I ducked behind some boxes near the front and two others headed out the back door. I think it was Charles Poole who ran to the back and ducked behind the counter. Like a bird dog she headed straight too him. I suspect she saw him through the door glass. She reached behind the counter and grabbed his ear between her fingers and that palm of hers and twisted it leading him out to her car and off to school and Mr. Phillips well used paddle. As little as she was seeing her leading a big old boy out by the ear was a comical sight. How could a ninety pound light weight intimidate so many roughneck boys?
Another teacher I remember so well was Miss Dola Camp. She started in a one room school on Wolf Island before transferring to Central School. The funny thing is that I never had her for a teacher. She had two double blackboards in her room. One working board behind her desk and she had another installed against the wall of the room for notes and for decorating at holidays and season changes. She knew that Ronnie Beck and I were pretty good artist so, when we were in high school, she would send a note to Mr. Phillips. She never asked, she instructed him, to have us in her room at a certain time and day to decorate her board with seasonal scenes using colored chalk.
We were doing a Christmas scene one time and I had my back to her. Suddenly there was a wop and an eraser hit the wall over my shoulder just missing my ear. She laid back and chuckled. I will never forget what she said next, “I never had you for a student but I have had most of your family and you have always been one of my favorites.” She meant it too. She knew that she was also one of my favorites even though I was never in her class as a student. I always hated that I never got a piece of chalk thrown at me to get my attention for I hear she was as accurate with chalk as with an eraser.
Mrs. Mariah Brinkley was another favorite. We were neighbors and Priscilla and I both collected and traded comic books. Ms Mariah had shelves mostly filled with the classics. I would borrow hers and loved reading them. I finally read all that she had. Once when I was in her English and Lit class she assigned me to do a report on a piece of classical literature. I was reading something else at the time so I ran by Henry Featherstone drug store to buy it in classic comic form.
When I gave my report she was really giving me praise on my report when Richard Puckett reached under my desk and pulled out my comic. He said, “Ms Mariah, he did not read it. He used a comic.” She replied that I was instructed to give a book report not to read a book. Richard, she said, I know that he probably reads more books in a month than most people read in a year.
Poor Richard, that same year he caught it again because of me. I was beaten along with four others by Phoebus Pruitt the year before as freshmen and I heard that he printed out the same word every year, really a chemical compound, and would give ten percent extra semester grade to anyone who could pronounce it correctly. I wrote it down and memorized it over the summer. As juniors in chemistry he wrote it on the board with the ten percent offer. I raised my hand and he asked if I really thought I could. I replied that I would like to try so he told me to have at it. I intentionally turned my back to the blackboard and looking out the window said, “Paraparadimethylaminoazobenzinesulfonicacid.” His face was livid. Poor old Richard had a big piece of bubble gum which, when he laughed so hard, landed in the hair of the girl in front of him. I am not sure but I believe the girl may have been either Shirley Wilburn or Bertha Davis. Regardless, she had long dark hair. He proceeded to take five percent of Richard`s daily grade while he was adding ten percent to my semester grade.
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