Today is my mom's birthday. She would have been 104. The photo of the two of us was taken in1945. I miss my mom.
Mom was a school teacher. She often entertained us with stories about her early days of teaching. She was a great story teller.
She began her teaching career in Texas in 1924. Her first contract to teach in a public school there contained clauses that not many would sign today. It stipulated that she would never use tobacco, drink spirits, play cards, nor “keep company”on school nights. It also required that she attend church services every Sunday. One final requirement was that she would quit immediately should she ever marry. She signed without hesitation, happy to have a job, and thinking there was nothing unusual in the contract.
My favorite of her many teaching stories concerned a light bulb. She had grown up in a home without electricity. Electric lights were a wonder to her. She considered light bulbs to be very valuable things. One day there was a fire drill at her school and the building had to be evacuated. She hurriedly sent her students down the outdoor fire escape. She then looked around the room to see if there was anything valuable that she should save from the fire. She saw that wonderful electric light bulb hanging above her desk and knew that it should be saved. Quickly she climbed onto her desk, reached up and unscrewed the bulb. Before climbing out of the window and descending the ladder she thew that bulb to safety on the ground below where it shattered into a million piece
10 comments:
Love this. The light bulb story and the contract. That is amazing. My favorite teached in high school was a known heavy smoker and alcoholic. My son has him now and, bless his heart, I could smell alcohol on him from across the class on back to school night. Still love him though.
Oh, that is too funny--about the contract and about the lightbulb! :)
It really makes you think about how far we've come in the past 80 or so years.
P.S. I just added you to my blog links. *smiles*
Holy cow!..Not only could I never have been a teacher back then,I don't think I would have been allowed to be a student!
Love the stories mom. :)
Those types of clauses died hard. My MIL was a teacher in NYC and did not tell anyone she was pregnant because they would have made her quit immiediately. She taught till the end of the year and gave birth in August. This was in 1960.
Your Mom looks like she would have been a very nice school teacher... and a nice Mom too!
It is amazing, because this story is reflective of the many I have heard, not only of teachers, but that of nurses. Nurses too were not allowed to do certain things. Including marriage...oh yes, all that training and out the door you go if you became married.
Thankyou for the story, I love it!
Maybe this explains why when I separated the eggs for breakfast, I let the white go down the drain while I juggled the yolk from shell to shell.
Happy Birthday Grandma!
What A great story....funny how our parents did without modern conveniences and we take them for granted.....Sue, you are so blessed to have such wonderful memories of your parents.
Hahaha a bit like what my old aunty did when her husband yelled at her to get a bullet for his shotgun to kill a snake...she ran and grabbed what she thought was a bullet off the table but picked up her lipstick (they were metal and heavy in those days and ran out to the shed with it for him...
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