Yearbook notes

I still can't find my yearbook from 1978, but I thought I would read some more signatures from my 1973 one.

"Phyllis, remember how much trouble Cathy had trying to wear a dress. Good luck, Linda" I remember this event. Cathy Beauchamp was one of my best friends and she liked wearing dresses about as much as I did. Usually, we would pick one day a year our whole gang would wear a dress and everyone would be shocked at us. We were the tomboys who played sports and were generally better than half the boys. Linda was probably the biggest tomboy I knew as a kid. She grew up on a dairy farm near my Aunt Joan's. She was definitely the strongest girl I had ever met. She could run like the wind and she could do more pull ups than any boy I knew. I used to go to her house to ride horses with her. I remember when we were about five, her coming by my aunt's house on a horse and just being amazed that a girl my age could commandeer an animal that big.

She came from a big family, a bunch of girls and one boy, Robert. He was so wild, seemed to be angry at the world. He was actually the one who taught me how to ride, and to ride bareback. He never talked much, but I fell in love with him. He was so good, and so strong and could ride so fast, he seemed like he must have been part Indian. I wonder if he remembers me at all.

I'll always remember Linda. When we were in I think 7th grade, or 8th, there was a fire out on their farm and she was running through the cornfield towards it. Her mother was driving their station wagon at the same with half the kids in it, trying to get to the fire and not seeing Linda, she accidentally ran over her. She didn't kill her, but she ran her legs over. Linda was never the same afterwards. She couldn't run like she used to. I don't think she ever even came back to school. I went to see her, but it made me so sad. It felt like she didnt' want me to see her like that.

I hope that she finally healed and is living a good life. She had a really good heart and hilarious sense of humor, and always made me feel good about myself.

Looking through the yearbook, its funny looking at the pictures of the teachers. Someone wrote "fem" on about ten of the male teachers pictures. It just makes me laugh thinking about it. And the teachers look so much younger than I remember them.

It made me think about the Mrs. Flemings that taught at Kennedy school when I was little. One taught I think it was second or third grade and one taught fifth grade. I remember back then thinking they were 90 years old. I wonder how old they really were. I remember the fifth or sixth grade one was my social studies teacher and i remember her setting up the movie reels we would watch every class. Learning about pygmies and native tribes of south america. Did those classes really matter to me as an adult? Could I have made it through adulthood without ever learning about them? I think I could have. Maybe I needed more science and more literature. I definitely needed more science and even before I was a nurse.

I turn another page and see a picture of Mrs Peck, a PE teacher and I wrote "peckerhead" next to it. And I also put a huge X across her face. If I hadn't done that, I dont' think her name would ever have registered with me. Its so weird to look back and think that, at one point they were so important, or at last that is what I thought. Why did I write "tutu" next to Mr Garafalo's picture?? Maybe ellen will remember, I will have to ask her :)

but I do thank my teachers in the little town of Ogdensburg, New York for my education. For those who fed my eagerness to learn, for those who challenged me to seek the answers to what I wanted to know, from Mrs. Tracy in first grade to Mrs Bateman in fifth. A special thank you to Penny Raftis Sharrow for teaching me the things that books and formal classes can't teach and for believing in me when no one else in the world seemed to. while we may have thought they were "fems" or "peckerheads" they provided us with a valuable education.

"A child miseducated is a child lost." John F. Kennedy