One Semester Down, Three to Go!

Christmas is very nearly here and finds me ruminating on the last few months. I began Nursing school in August and it seems this is the first deep breath I've taken since undertaking that challenge. We had a couple of short breaks while we were in the term, but they were not nearly long enough and we had tests at the end of them. You, dear reader would not believe the amount of material we studied while we were in school!

We began clinicals feeling woefully inadequate to the task of taking care of a patient on our own. We just knew we would be responsible for someone dying on our watch. But guess what? None of us did! Most of my classmates and me came out with flying colors! : ) We really did learn how to take vitals (the old fashioned way with the manual sphygmomonometers) and assess them from head to toe. I even had the great experience of finding a galloping heartbeat and a radial pulse with a thrill in it. Heart beats are supposed to sound like Lub Dub. Sound one should be equal in duration to sound two. This heartbeat sounded like Lub Dee Dub Dee Dub. It was awesome. A pulse should feel like one strong beat on a drum at one time. A thrill feels like a vibration under your fingers. It was way cool...More cool was the fact that I recognized it for what it was. We also got to give medications to patients. They said that gave good injections. I liked that a lot. I learned one other thing about clinicals, "The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get." One needs to just breathe, relax, and get into a routine. This is the best way to stay organized and on top of things.

I had one patient I will never forget. She was in a reduced level of consciousness, had a ventilator, and J tubes to be fed through. Her hands and feet were drawn in. It was my goal every day to make her smile. I would remove her "air" boots to give her a bath and as I did I would sing, "These Boots Were Made for Walking." It got a big smile every time. I also washed her hair and found it matted to the back of her head. I took my bandage scissors and cut her hair right then and there. One of the most important things that a nurse does is provide comfort for their patient. I know that she felt better because I took five minutes to make her feel better. She smiled again when I told her she was beautiful.

I also found out that I couldn't see worth a toot. When my lab partner and I did our head to toe assessments on one another her vision was 20-13! I now call her, "Eagle Eye!" I don't know what she calls me, but it could be, "Blind as a bat." : ( My vision was somewhere near 20-60 in both eyes and that was with my glasses on! I did not have time or money to go get new glasses until now and I'm proud to report that I have an appointment to get new glasses and contacts the Monday after Christmas. I also could not smell coffee in one nostril. It could have been ever so much worse. I didn't have anything horribly wrong with me and they are both fixable.

When was the last time you bought books for college? For the last several years I have bought around $500-600 worth every semester. This semester, I bought $1600 in books! OMG! When stacked in one stack they came up to my thigh. The Fundamentals book is three inches on its own, the Medical-Surgical book is four. My friend and I decided to buy all the recommended books too. We never had time to even open them. They are listed on Amazon for half what I paid for them. Just like new.

We also learned that N-Clex questions are hard! N-Clex style questions are application questions of what you have learned, not straight out questions about what you learned. It's hard to decide sometimes which of the four right answers is the one the instructors want you to use as the correct answer! Being the oldest person in class sometimes has a drawback. I am not as technically savvy as the younger students. I didn't learn until the fourth test where the others were finding all the questions they studied. Better late than never! As a result, I missed making a B for the semester by .58 of a point. That makes me nearly sick to my stomach, but onward and upward. I've learned so much and I've almost caught up with the technology.

We started with 100 students in our classroom. Another 40 attend classes in Marietta. We only saw them once at orientation. We are all in class together every day. Steadily throughout the semester our numbers declined. A few were gone after the first test, a few more after our two attempts at the pass or fail Clinical Calculations test, a few more after clinicals. I think we have somewhere in the 70s in our classroom now. I wonder how many will return after the Christmas break. I hope they find something else that they want to do, or that they reapply next spring for the program and they will know more what to expect.

We have wonderful instructors in our courses. They are really interested in how we are progressing and will answer any question. We are all broken up into groups and have a mentor. The mentor really wants to know us and what our struggles are. The faculty at our school is awesome!

Karen Williams Thompson and I along with our classmates putting on our isolation regalia.

I am looking forward to our next semester. Sometimes I find myself feeling all alone in my struggles to learn the material, trying to keep up with my home, paying bills, going to church, and finding family time. I find comfort from my family and friends and other classmates. I also find comfort in seeing all the photographs of the nursing graduates that line the hallways and know that they did it too. One semester down, three more to go and in the meantime, you will find me...Living Life!

Candace Watson and I finding our temporal pulses while studying.

Plainview Scene of Double Trajedy Friday -- Wisner & Everett Victims Best of Friends

From the Collinsville News, Volume 19, Number 47, May 11, 1945

Plainview was the scene of a double tragedy last Friday, when B. D. Wisner, 53, killed his close friend, Green Bogle Everett, 64, and then turned the gun on himself and took his own life.




The scene of the act was at Wisner's store. As far as we have been able to learn Mr. Everett went to the store, and when asked what he wanted, told the proprietor there wwas no hurry, to finish what he was doing, whereupon Mr. Wisner walked around to the his cash register, where he had a pistol lying on the counter, took it up and fired twice at Everett, missing him with the first shot, the second killing him.



No cause for the tragedy has been established, other than Mr. Wisner's health wasn't good and according to an attending physician he was suffering from a blood-clot on the brain and would not have lived but a little while had this not have happened. The two men had been the best of friends for many years, and as far as anyone know, no hard feelings had arisen between them.



Mr. Wisner is the father of 2 daughters, and Mr. Everett has several children. The men were neighbors; the deed is a mystery to the people of that section.



This is verbatim from the Collinsville News, May 11, 1945. There are a few discrepancies between this and my earlier posting about my grandfather's murder by his best friend, Mr. Bob Wisner, who was also his next door neighbor.

Shoking Tragedy Takes Two Lives

My grandfather was killed by his next door neighbor May 3, 1945. I have always known about it but, I never knew the details. Thanks to my cousin, Kim Everett, I found this at the library in Fort Payne, Alabama today. Another neighbor was an eye witness to the events and his account is in this piece from the DeKalb Times, May 9, 1945, No. 50. This newspaper cost $1.50 a year for in county delivery and $2.00 a year for out of county.



Quoted from the paper verbatim:



Shocking Tragedy Takes Lives of Two



The store of Bob Wisner near Plainview School was the scene last Thursday afternoon of one of the most shocking tragedies in the history of DeKalb County. The tragedy took place when Wisner shot and killed a neighbor, Green Everett, and immediatelly turned the weapon on himself and inflicted a mortal wound. A 38-caliber pistol was used for the double killing.



Mr. Snowdon Dupree, an eye-witness to the homicide and suicide, has furnished The Times with the following account of what took place:



"Thursday afternoon at 2:15 Uncle Green Everett came into the store where Uncle Bob (Wisner), his wife and daughter, and myself were sitting. Uncle Bob went around behind the counter. Uncle Green thought that Uncle Bob was busy over behind the counter. Uncle Bob said, 'Something for you, Mr. Everett' the reply was 'Just go ahead' By the time he had finished saying that he was fired upon with three shots. Then Uncle Bob swung around the corner to about where Mr. Everett was standing and turned the gun on himself, firing one time. I ran to the door, hooked the screen and called the law and doctor. About that time three men stopped, Alfred Dupree, Granville Hasting and another man; then came Mr. John Hopper. By that time the patrol drove up and the story was told. May I say right here, that was the most nerve-shocking of anything a man ever witnessed, between two good neighbors that had never had any trouble, that had lived in the same community for years, and still there was not trouble between them. I want to say to the Everett family and to the Wisner family that I am praying that the Lord will bless you all."



Everett was 65 years old: Wisner 53. As stated by Mr. Dupree, they were neighbors and good friends. Their families were friends, and still are. What it was that prompted Mr. Wisner to such a rash and shocking act will probably never be known. It is reported that Wisner had been under the treatment of a physician for some time for severe headache. Many think that he suddenly became demented and in that condition killed his good friend and himself.



Surviving Wisner are his wife, Mrs. Lizzie Wisner; two daughters, Mrs. Gladys Sayre and Miss Ruby Nell Wisner; three brothers, J. A. Wisner, J. H. Wisner and M. C. Wisner; seven sisters, Mrs. Emma Dupree, Mrs. Hattie Lynch, Mrs. Mary Lynch, Mrs. Alice Prewett, Mrs. Ida Gorham, Mrs. Irene Hodge and Mrs. Florence Keith.



Funeral services were held Saturday aftenoon at 2:30 o'clock at Town Creek Church, the Revs. J. B. Ledford, W. D. Sparkes and Ted Dawson, officiating.



Mr. Everett is survived by his wife, Mrs. Lilla Everett; five daughters, Mrs. Eulene Hardeman and Mrs. Edith Hammond, Chattanooga; Mrs. Inus Sudduth, Hollywood, California; Misses Mary Evelyn and Delina Jean Everett, Fort Payne; five sons, Gelisco and Barnard Everett, Detroit, Mich.; Guice Everett, Camp Fannin, Texas; Edward Everett, U. S. Navy Hawthorne, Nevada; DeArmond Everett, 5th Division U. S. Marines, San Francisco, Calif.



He is also survived by ten grandchildren.



Funeral services will be held for Mr. Everett this afternoon (Wednesday) at two o'clock at Town Creek Church, with the Revs. Brown, Taylor, Black and Jones officiating.



Honorary pallbearers: A. O. Murdock, Dave and Walter Jack, Dr. R. F. Elrod, O. V. Case, J. H. McCartney, C. A. Wolfes and Lester Thompson; active pallbearers: Sam Hixon, Leonard Hammond, Edge Tumlin, John Hopper, Frank Davis, Tom Head, Taylor Goza and Ephren Finch.



McBryar Funeral Home in charge of arrangements for both Everett and Wisner.







All the names were spelled correctly in this article except for my Uncle Glysco and my grandmother's name was Lillah.



I went to Aunt Jean's on my way home today. This is the account she gave me today. We have talked about this day once or twice in my life but never in detail. Aunt Jean Everett Beasley was 11 years old when this happened and it is very painful for her to talk about this. I am writing it down while it is still fresh in my mind because I want my family to remember this before all the principle parties are gone on before the present generations of my family.



Aunt Jean said she had just come home from the store and she went in the kitchen to get something to eat. There was a knock on the door just a minute or two later and she looked through the window from the dining room to the front porch when Grandmother answered the door and she heard her crying. Mr. John Hopper was at the door. Grandmother looked at him and said, "Which one of the boys is it." Three were in the service and Uncle DeArmond was in the South Pacific theatre of WWII. Mr. Hopper said, "Mrs. Everett, you don't understand, it is Green not one of the boys."



Mr. Hopper walked with Grandmother and Aunt Jean out to the store. They went into the store. Aunt Jean said feed bags were along the left wall and the tin cans and counter were along the right wall. The cash register was about halfway down the store on the right side counter. She saw Grandaddy bleeding everywhere and Mr. Bob near him. She said that she didn't know what Grandmother thought taking her in there. My guess is Grandmother was thinking at all and was in shock. They had to wait to remove the bodies until the Coroner came.



Aunt Jean said that they had to hold Grandaddy out for eight days because they thought that Uncle DeArmond was going to be sent home from the South Pacific. All the other children got home for the funeral. She said that Grandaddy was laid out in his coffin in the living room and there were people at the house 24 hours a day until he was buried. In those days (and until I was grown) people "set up" with the dead. Grandmother sent Uncle DeArmond a letter and that was how he found out his daddy was dead. He called to say that he couldn't come home and they went ahead with the funeral. The paper was one day wrong. He was buried on the Thursday a week later after he died.



My cousin, Zoa Ann Suddarth, was around four when this happened and Aunt Inus, her husband and children lived in Hollywood. Aunt Inus had driven to the dentist on the day Grandaddy died. Aunt Inus took the train home for the funeral by herself. That was the last time Zoa Ann remembers her mother ever driving a car.



Uncle Barnard got on the first train that he could get from Detroit. He worked in a tire store there. He said he was very quiet on the train and a gentleman asked him if he was alright. He told him, "No, my daddy was shot and I'm on my way to Alabama to bury him."



Uncle Guice was given a hardship discharge from the Army shortly after Grandaddy's death because Grandmother; my mother, Mary, and Aunt Jean were home alone. My mother was 20 years old at the time of Granddaddy's death.

Jack Guice Everett, Abraham Barnard Everett, Edward Peace Everett, DeArmond Everett, Glysco Glossam Everett, Green Bogle Everett. June 3, 1940 at Aunt Edith's house in Valley Head, AL. There is only one more picture of my Grandaddy that I have ever seen and it is in a frame in Uncle Barnard's living room.
 

This is Greene Bogle Everett's casket at Town Creek Cemetary in May 1945 in Rainsville, Alabama. At that time the neighborhood was called Chavies. Chavies is still a small community across Highway 35 from my grandparent's home on the bank of Town Creek.

Living Life in the Okefenokee

We went to the Okefenokee Swamp for our summer vacation at the end of May. I would not suggest you go at the end of May. There was one huge disadvantage in going at this time of year. Yellow flies! If you are not out of the swamp by the heat of the day, they will eat you alive, through your clothes and even seem to be attracted to insect repellent.

Am I glad we went anyway? Yes! If you have not visited the swamp, it has a charm and beauty that is different than any other place we have ever been. There are several portals of entry into the swamp, but we chose the Eastern portal near the small town of Folkston, Georgia. Folkston is famous in its own right for the Folkston Funnel where 60 trains or so go through a day. It is where the trains going North and South and East and West meet along the East coast. Across the tracks from the old depot there is a covered viewing stand with lights and fans for people to watch the trains go by. From the north, one could also enter the park, but it is more for the general tourist with more attractions.

We love to watch Georgia Traveler and Georgia Outdoors and had seen the owners of Okefenokee Adventures on both shows. Chip and Joy Campbell were wonderful people and we met them on Friday on our first visit to the swamp. We were eating lunch in there store and I heard them talking about paddling with another lady who was at the swamp on a paddling trip. I went over and listened for a bit before asking questions of my own. Hubby and daughter joined me and we soon became friends and made plans to go on a guided paddling trip with Chip on Sunday morning. There is a small lunch counter in the shop and the food was very tasty! We ate lunch there three days! After booking our trip we visited the education center at the park. It had very interesting examples of the wildlife and peat batteries in the swamp. An animated mannequin made to look like an old man tells stories of the Okefenokee from the days when it was logged and pine trees were tapped for turpentine in the late 1880's and early 1900's. We then watched the video about the swamp in the theatre. One of our favorite exhibits was a 3D representation of what the swamp looks like from underneath.

On Saturday we visited St. Mary's, Georgia which is the portal to Cumberland Island. We did not have the opportunity on this trip to visit the island, but enjoyed lunch at Pa-Pa's Deli and Grill on a patio overlooking the marshes and a large sailing boat came through and moored to one of the largest buoys I have ever seen. It was a beautiful ship. We wondered around St. Mary's and visited their Visitor's Center and picked up brochures and maps. We also visited the cemetery. Hubby and I love old cemeteries and the ones on the coast have the oldest graves in our region. One epitaph greatly amused us. It was obviously a mother's grave and had a phrase her children must have heard every time they left home. It read, "Y'all be careful now, you hear? We had a lovely dinner at Seagle's Restaurant where they are famous for Rock Shrimp. Freddy had it and it was scrumptious.

Sunday morning we got up early (for us) and headed to Okefenokee for our guided kayak trip through the swamp. Daughter and I used our sit-on-tops and they provided Hubby with a Loon kayak. We headed out through the canal that was dug out in the 1880's in an attempt to drain the swamp. That didn't work so the idea for cutting the huge cypress trees began. Nearly all the old-growth cypress in the swamp was cleared and what we see today are much younger trees. We paddled through little water trails that are maintained by the National Parks Service and Okefenokee Adventure staff. We saw many wonderful plants many, many alligators. On one little peat battery I saw yellow and black stripes moving and going into the water. It was baby alligators! I'm sure I saw at least two dozen. By the time Hubby and Daughter got to them they only saw a few. Chip told us about how the mothers built the nest and that we could be assured that she was nearby. About 10 feet along the trail we came upon the mother on a peat battery. She growled at us and sank into the water. She did not stop with her noise making and I could see the water dancing from the sub-sonic sounds she was making!

Farther along the trail, we came to a crossroads. We turned to the left and there was a six to eight foot long alligator right in front of me. He sank from sight and as I crossed over him, I could feel the ridges along his back and tail rip, rip, rip, rippling along the bottom of my kayak. The water in the trails is only about 18 inches deep. The trails we were on at first were only as wide as our kayaks so we paddled by putting our paddle blades onto the peat batteries and propelling ourselves forward. The farther we got into the Chesser Prairie the wider they became, but I don't think they were more than ten to twelve feet wide at any point. The prairie was several hundred acres of water lilies and small clumps of cypress trees and other bushes.We saw cranes and herons in several places. We came upon a small Florida banded water snake. It was beautiful and very calm. It didn't even crawl off when our guide moved it with his paddle. That is not always the case with the Georgia banded water snake!

We eventually came back to the canal and took a side trip down another canal to visit the privy. Daughter and I learned a new skill in our boats. We pulled parallel to the steps of the privy, placed our paddles with one blade resting on the privy platform, and lifted ourselves from our kayaks to the privy step on our butts. The kayaks never even wobbled at all. The privies are maintained by the park service and had toilet paper, and hand sanitizer. It was very clean. The liquid waste is filtered by the peat in the swamp and the solid waste is collected several times a year by the park's service personnel. Chip said that he was glad as the concessionaire for the Eastern part of the park that he didn't have to do that job!

There were many fishermen on the canal under the shade trees fishing. They caught many hand-sized bream and they fought like the dickens. One of the rules of fishing around home is that if you aren't going to eat the fish, you throw it back. In alligator country you never throw a fish back! Another friend that is a guide in the St. Mary's River told us that once a man he was guiding threw a fish back after being told not to and a 12 foot alligator tried to climb in the boat and got halfway on the transom before he could push it back in the water with a paddle! He said it very nearly capsized the boat. We saw many alligators near boats of the fishermen, but we didn't see any throw a fish back into the water!

We had a wonderful time in the swamp. We will try to go again in December so that we can see the Sand Hill Crane migration. If you would like to learn more about the swamp, go visit Okefenokee Adventures. Chip and Joy run a great business and Chip knows everything about the flora and fauna. You will be glad you did. Just don't go in the summer when it's so hot and there are yellow flies to eat you up! In the mean time you find me Living Life and avoiding yellow flies!

Okefenokee Vacation

Getting ready for vacation can be a killer, especially when one owns a motor home that has not had a bath since September of last year. Hubby spent three days of his vacation griping that we needed to be on the river paddling or on the road in our car going somewhere without said motor home or just taking it dirty. I just think that if we are going to spend a great portion of our income on this monster that we lived full-time in for close to three years, we should clean it up and use it from time to time! So we did spend three days cleaning and scrubbing the black stuff from the trees from it's roof, and washing the rest of the four sides took very little time at all. Then I had to clean the inside. I only had to vacuum and dust and we were pretty much ready to roll. I packed all our clothes in collapsible laundry baskets I used when we lived in the motor home. Then all the groceries and pots and pans came on board. We had to carry the paddles and other accoutrement's that we would use on this vacation. Then of course, daughter came on this trip! That's a whole 'nother thing!

We left the house around 5:30 Wednesday evening for the little jog to Chapel Hill UMC to hook the truck to the motor home. The radius of the turn from our driveway to the road is just barely wide enough to get the motor home out, there's no way we can tow the truck out the driveway too! Since the truck is not set up to tow, poor Hubby has to get under it and remove the drive shaft connection and hang it from the frame so we don't hurt the transmission. I hook the tow lights up. Hubby pulls the fuses from the truck so we don't have a dead battery when we get to our destination. It's quite a little production! Since it was Wednesday, there were friends at church and we gave tours too. I think we pulled out around 6:30.

We were sailing down the by-pass when our right front brake locked up. This is the second time it happened, so Hubby pulled into the big yellow striped space in the middle of the road, got his hammer, screwdriver, and WD-40 and climbed underneath the behemoth. It didn't take very long to loosen the brake up and we were off again! We got on 411 toward Cartersville and didn't make it five miles before the left brake locked up. I sit in the driver's seat and pump, pump, pump the brakes, while Freddy bangs, sprays, and wiggles things around underneath. Daughter takes a turn with her little legs and after about an hour, the second brake is free! We were so tired that we stopped at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Cartersville for a few supplies and a little rest for Hubby.

Daughter spies a Chinese restaurant across the parking lot and declares she is starving. We walk across the way with Daughter about 20 yards ahead of us. Hubby says, "I just know right when we get there, that open sign is going to go off." Daughter touched the door, and indeed, that is exactly what happens! The people were so kind they cooked us a full dinner to take with us back to the motor home. We were finally well fed and ready to leave about midnight. I know this sounds ridiculous! And...it is, but it's just sort of normal for a Boyd family trip.

We had no more troubles and we needed LP for the refrigerator to run. The nearest Flying J truck stop, which is heaven for RV travelers was in Jackson, Georgia, about three hours away. I emptied the ice from the freezer into the compartments of the refrigerator as we were rolling along I-75 at 65 mph! Visions of Lucille Ball in the Long, Long Trailer comes to mind. I have become adept at walking the aisle for drinks, snacks, and bathroom breaks while flying along. We arrived at the Flying J around 2:30 and I went on the manhunt to find the middle of the night attendant to fill the LP tank. Hubby fills the gas tank and we join the ranks of other vehicles and RVs in the far parking lot to nap. One thing you need to know is the Boyd's never wake up and go anywhere early! I awake at 6:00, take Lexi for a little walk, meet people in the parking lot, go get Hubby coffee to wake him up a couple of hours later. Who can complain? He does all the driving! We eat a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant and leave about 10:00.

We roll down the highway until Hubby needs another little break several hours later. We stop in a rest area, walk Lexi, and take a little nap. Then it's up and at them again. Daughter decides she doesn't want to stay on the bed anymore and takes my co-pilot position. Hubby pulls over and gets a lawn chair for me. Daughter was watching movies on her computer on the bed and suffering panic attacks until now. If you've ever sat on the back seat of a school bus, you may have some idea of how the back of the motor home swings and sways as it rolls down the highway! I've never been able to lay back there when we travel. I don't like the sofa either since I could literally open the window and lean out and touch the transfer trucks going by. It's not as bad from the co-pilot seat unless Hubby is passing a transfer truck himself. Then my heart races, and my irrational fears come flooding my body with adrenalin!

We finally reach our destination, Trader's Hill Recreation Area in Folkston, Georgia. Whew! Quite a trip! Now we wait for vacation to really begin. In the meantime, you will find me Living Life in this zoo we call the Boyd household!

My Great-Aunt Annie May

My great-aunt, Annie Mae, was one of my Grandmother Everett's younger sisters. She was always sweet to me and I loved her. Her husband was a rake, a drunk, and abused Aunt Anni May all her life.

He was bed-ridden when I was a kid and still as mean as he had ever been, he just couldn't be mean out in public. Once my mother was painting Aunt Annie May's living room. Uncle screamed at Aunt Annie Mae and when she brought his plate he knocked it out of her hands and raised his cane to her. It was a big thick cane of some kind of hardwood. My mother rushed in and grabbed the cane and broke it over her knee. She told him that he'd never hit anyone with it again. She was furious and so was he, but he was no match for my mother!

My grandmother, Lillah, prayed every night for the Lord to take Uncle home. She also let Aunt Annie May know that she was doing it. My grandmother passed away. The saddest thing I think I have ever heard was my Aunt Annie May say to my Aunt Jean, "Who's going to pray for Francis now?" My Aunt Jean told Aunt Annie May that she would, and you knew she was not joking! A beautiful smile spread across Aunt Annie May's face. I think she was afraid to pray that particular prayer herself. I think Uncle lived less than a year after that. I miss my stern grandmother and my sweet Aunt Annie May. I do not miss the evil uncle.

This story was brought back to me this morning by a website group asking to have the group removed from Facebook that is praying for the death of President Obama. I guess some people think he is evil. I don't think they know what true evil is, and that they are sadly mistaken. I haven't known anyone evil enough to pray for their death. I think it is probably better to pray for someone than to pray against them unless you were my grandmother. In the meantime, you will find me praying for our president and leaders and...Living Life!

Do You Remember Rainsville?

One of my Facebook friends has started a new Facebook page entitled do you remember Rainsville? I do! I lived there most of my life until we moved to Rome, Georgia 27 years ago.

Until I was in the 6th grade, we lived in grandmother's rock house. My mother and my grandaddy built it out of rocks that they snaked out of Town Creek with a yoke of oxen. It has walls in it that are nearly a foot thick! My Uncle Barnard helped mother build a house in the back of the pasture on Dupree Circle when I was 12 and in the 6th grade at Williams Avenue Elementary in Fort Payne. It was the first time I had my own room and slept in a bed by myself. I loved our little house.

I went to the first grade at Williams Avenue with Uncle Guice. He was my principle. I went to school with him every morning and we stopped in Pine Ridge to eat breakfast with Mrs. Stout. She had a flat top hair cut and she was the only woman I ever knew with that short a haircut until the last few years. Uncle Guice would run the cash register and she would go back in her kitchen and cook our breakfast. She had a squirrel in a cage that she loved. I wanted to hold it like she did, but it was a one woman squirrel! He would bite me all the time.

At school, I sat in Uncle Guice's office while he worked on paper work, then we would go around and visit teachers and the lunch room ladies. Lee Chambers was the janitor and he didn't open the doors until 7:30. Kids would be standing outside in the cold and I would be warm and toasty. I had convinced many classmates that Uncle Guice had an electric paddle in his closet in the office! Somebody started a rumor that there was an electric paddle in his office. I jumped right on that, since I was the one student with total access all the time! As far as I know, the only things I ever saw in that closes were school supplies and an extra suit Uncle Guice kept there in case it was needed.

Mrs. Frances Smith was Uncle Guice's secretary and she also would go shopping with us and help us pick out his suites and his ties. He was a natty dresser and I would always get something new too. One of the teachers there had taught my Uncle Guice, my Aunt Jean, my two brothers and myself. Martha McPherson could put the fear of God into any student! She carried a yard stick every where with her and she wasn't using it to measure things. After she retired, she became a baliff for the DeKalb County Superior Court. She was tough there too. I learned so much from her, I was afraid not too.

I went to school at Plainview in the second grade and was put in Mrs. Wadell"s class. She was a wonderful teacher. When she would ask a question, I would always put my hand up first and wave my hand! "I know, I know!" She would ask other people first, but finally she would ask me sometimes. It would make me so happy when she called on me.

One day, Loretta Green, brought her little brother, Russel, to school with her. We were out on the playground and the boys started picking on little Russel. The girls got in a circle and put Russel in the middle.
I don't have any idea where he got it, but Boyd Scott got a rope and tried to lasso Russel out of the circle. He lassoed me instead! He pulled me on the ground and I had a little pleated skirt with a white blouse with a Peter Pan collar. He dragged me across the playground and it pulled my little skirt right off! It cut my thighs all up on the gravel on the playground. Mrs. Ootsey was substituting for Mrs. Wadell that day. She picked me up, got my skirt back on and took me inside to patch me up. We went back outside. She grabbed Boyd by the hair of the head, lined our class back up and marched us in. She threw Boyd into the coat closet and told him to sit down and shut-up! She left him there all afternoon. Every now and then, Boyd would knock on the door and say please let me out! He was afraid of the dark. I guess she had all she could take that day, I don't think she ever substituted for our class again! We all loved her, she wore her hair up in a big bee-hive, she wore short (for the times) skirts and little black ankle boots with stiletto heels and black fur around the top. She was from Germany and we thought she was beautiful and had an exotic accent.

In third grade, I was in Mrs. Durham's class. She was the meanest teacher I had ever had. She weilded a yardstick too and she broke it on my back one day for talking. She had a rule that you had to eat two bites of everything on your plate or you couldn't go outside to play. I could NOT eat two bites of stewed prunes on my plate every week and I never got to go outside all of the third grade!

In fourth grade, Mrs. Thompson was our teacher. I always thought she was wonderful. Fourth grade must have been pretty uneventful, because I don't have any outstanding memories of it. I remember that Martha Burk went to church with Mrs. Thompson, and I thought she had the inside track with Mrs. Thompson. I thought Martha was the teacher's pet.

In fifth grade, Miss Edwina Armstrong was my teacher. She was tall, big boned (but not fat), and strong just like her name! Everett and Terry played football and had practice every day. I would stay after school every day and clean the blackboard and the erasers. At Everett's class reunion a couple of years ago, Mrs. Davis (she married late in life) was there! She said I would never go home from school! I just laughed. I had to wait on Everett or Terry to cross Highway 35.

In sixth grade, Mother moved me back to Williams Avenue in Fort Payne. I went there for sixth and seventh grade. Uncle Barnard had opened his store, The House of Color, and Mother managed the store for him. It was just around the corner from Williams Avenue and I walked to and from school. I spent many hours at the Aloha Beauty Salon, Alton Beason's Barber Shop, and the western store. I loved going to the store every day after school. We had to be at the store every morning at seven so Mother could mix the paint for all the painters in town. The store was a happening place when I was a kid. I learned to mix paint, measure for carpet, how to paint properly, and hang wallpaper.

In seventh grade, back to Plainview I went. That was the last time I changed school. Even though I lived within sight of the school, I was first on the bus and last off. Ollie Corbin was my bus driver and if I wasn't ready when he got there he would wait a few minutes for me. He blew the horn as he came off Marshall Road onto Dupree Circle and out the door I would go.

Until the seventh grade, all girls had to wear dresses or skirts. In seventh grade we could wear pants with long tops that had to be within four inches of our knees. Teachers everywhere at school walked around with rulers to measure our tops. After the first year, that kind of went away! By the time I got out of school we were wearing mini skirts that bearly covered anything! There is a picture of me at the Technical School as a VICA officer with a skirt so short I blush to think I wore that. It was red, white, and blue.

Do I remember Rainsville? Yes I do, and I love it. I love to go home and visit with Uncle Barnard and see my friends and family. I love to go to the cemetary and visit my Mother. There are many memories, some good, some not so good, and I will write about them sometime. In the meantime, you find me Living Life...

Living Life on the Homefront, at School, and On the River

I have been so derelict in my duties lately in updating my blog! I've been derelict in my other duties as well, but I'm getting caught up! It is the 23rd of January and last night if finally took down the Christmas tree. What was up with that? I liked looking at it...the simple truth! I'm always sad to see it go. We only take the ornaments off the tree and then we tie it up with rope and haul it and its accoutrements in big plastic boxes to the warehouse where it sits lonely and abandoned until next Christmas!

School began on the 11th of January and I have jumped back in with both feet. At Georgia Highlands I am taking Anatomy II and Microbiology with their accompanying labs against the advisor's advice. I also am a staff writer with the school newspaper, The Six Mile Post. This is the most fun thing I get to do as an "old" college student. My first post was put in the online edition. I did an investigative report on the heating and air conditioning systems on the various campuses and it was entered in the Georgia College Press Association's annual competition. I won an award! I don't know where I placed yet, we will find out at the meeting, February 5th and 6th at the GCPA Press Institute in Athens. I am excited to get to go, and looking forward to it. I got to write articles for every edition this past semester and started a column because the editors were intrigued by my blog's title: Living Life. I wrote one about Living Life and going back to school, the second was about Living Life and my love of reading and teaching my daughter to read, I have another one in this month's paper and haven't decided what to write about yet, maybe it should be about being organized in life and in your study habits!

My daughter decided to clean her room about three weeks ago. This involved washing about 20 loads of clothes and giving away the whole back of my car full of clothes! I will finish the last of them today. I am determined. I also went through all my drawers and contributed to the donations. We gave 13 bags of clothes and things to the Goodwill. I have two more bags that I am in the process of filling. They will go to the Hospitality House's Thrift Store. I like to spread the "goodwill" around. We used to give a lot of money to various organizations, but we don't have very much extra cash since I have been in school and paying tuition, so this is one way we can "give back."

I went paddling with the CRBI on their annual Polar Bear Paddle, Saturday the 16th. I have done this stretch of the river many times. I've done it only when Altoona Dam was releasing or at flood stage I suppose because I'd never seen it this low! Another young father with his son and another couple in a canoe led the paddle the whole way. There were a couple of shoals and fish weirs that I had never been able to see before and as I was telling the second canoe how to go through the first shoal at the very beginning of the paddle, I hit a little bit of rock sticking out of the water and fell out of my boat! Thank goodness it was only two feet deep and I hopped back in my kayak and finished the paddle. In any other season this would not be much of a problem, when it is 38 degrees, it sort of was. I got wet to my waist after the water wicked up my underlayers. My feet never did warm up even though I had on socks and my neoprene dive boots! However, the quick dry underwear saved the day and I made it. Two people in a canoe were not as fortunate and had to be rescued and taken to shore where they were warmed up and had to go home. Jonathan Cook and his son, Zach, finished the paddle first and I was right behind them. The Rome News-Tribune said we finished in an hour and 45 minutes but the rescue people on shore said that we did it in 1:20. When I fell out of my kayak I called Freddy and asked him and Nicole to bring the truck to Heritage Park so I could get into my dry shoes and socks as soon as I landed. They did. That was the best thing I saw all day! I didn't really feel too cold until I stopped paddling and got on shore. Those dry shoes and warm truck were heavenly along with the hot chocolate that was provided by CRBI and I was warmed up lickety split. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday in January and the conditions of the water and weather and my little spill made for an adventure.

On the homefront, at school, and on the river, that's where you'll find me...Living Life!