SCHOOL DAYS

I was very fortunate to be in a good school system in Meridian MS from the first grade through two years of Junior College.  The church to which my family belonged had within its membership the principals of several elementary schools and a good number of the teachers in the local public schools. The Presbyterian Church nationally was heavily involved in education. Under its wings many mission schools and colleges were established.  It is no surprise, then to find the local church members involved in education.  In the early days in the South public education was strictly segregated racially.  The public schools for Blacks were certainly not up to the standard of the school for Whites. I remember seeing  children from the rural areas riding school buses to school while black children walked by for miles to school, Many blacks did not go to school at all.  In spite of this handicap we had a special black woman named Irene who saw to it that her children got an eduction.  At least one of the children became a nurse.

HIGHLAND SCHOOL

I had the privilege of receiving my first six years of education at Highland School, where all of my brothers and sisters also got their start.  My first memory of the school was when I was riding by in the car with older siblings, my brother Donnell said, "There's the school house." Misunderstanding what he meant, I thought he was talking about a residence next to the school.  Thereafter I thought that one was the school and the other the school house.  The principal was Miss Ursula Majure, a member of our church and teacher of the women's Bible class there.  Of course I could not get away with any misconduct, for Miss Sula as we called her was in easy contact with my mother, a member of her Bible class. The school day began with a strict alignment in front of the school with all the girls on one side of the front walk and the boys on the other, the walk being the dividing line between the girls' playground and the boys' playground. The playgrounds were further divided by grades one through three and four though six. Each class of boys or girls were lined up according to height. Throughout grade school I was always next to the last in the row in my class, since there was only one boy, Alvin Sanders, who was taller than I.

Miss Sula always stood on the front steps with a brass bell in her hand and led us in the Pledge of the Allegiance to the flag after which we would march into our classrooms to the beat of march music played by one of the teachers on the piano or from a Victrola record player.

I remember my first grade teacher, Miss Robel McRaven, using flash cards to teach us how to read and spell.  She had taught my seven brothers and sisters before me and went on to teach my youngest sister Virginia as well as some of my nieces and nephews.

A couple of instances stand out in my memory.  One day in the third grade we had a substitute teacher who was reprimanding  one of the other students by use of a clicking sound.  I made the mistake of imitating the teacher's clicking and got a severe reprimand myself.

In the upper grades we had a period when the teachers rotated to lead a session with their own specialty: music, penmanship or art.  The art teacher Ms Moore was one of my favorites.  One day when she came into our class the students were a bit noisy and she asked "Who would like to go down to the Principal's office?"  Thinking she wanted someone to run an errand for her, I quickly volunteered and soon learned that was supposed to be punishment for bad behavior! Being sent to the Principal's office was not all bad since we had access to a stack of National Geographic Magazines which we could peruse while we waited the verdict by the Principal.  I don't remember being punished by Miss Sula.  I do remember one day on the playground when I climbed up on the berm separating the little boys play ground from the big boys playground.  When Miss Sula saw me she didn't say a word to me, but pointed her finger at me and showed me the way I should come down.

I was always grateful to Miss Sula who gave me my first New Testament and it was at Highland School that I first learned the Christmas story from Luke 2.

My most embarasing time was once when I was using the urinal in the boys room I found that I had sprayed my pants.  Not only did I try to hide the fact, but when I went home that day I didn't want Mama to know so just let the pants dry and wore them back to school the next day--not a good idea for by then I was quite odoriferous.  If Mama ever knew about my accident she never said a word about it and washed the pants on the usual wash day along with all the other dirty clothes.  In those days we took our weekly baths on Saturdays,  so I probably stunk up the place for days!

One of our favorite sayings on April Fools Day was,"Highland School burned down last night" after which we would say "April fool!"  Some years later after the school was closed when I was away from Meridian Frank Sinclair told me that Highland School did burn down!  When I returned to Meridian for visits I drove by the old school site and saw for myself the empty lot where a memorable part of my life was lived out.