The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Retired Teachers Association (HCRTA)This book continues from last week and was a project of the Henderson County Retired Teachers Association (HCRTA) by president Mary Alice Huntoon of Stronghurst who produced, between Nov. 13, 2000 and March 12, 2001, a storybook of “Memories” from retired teachers in the HCRTA organization.
Ms. Huntoon asked HCRTA members to share things they remembered when teaching.
She also included any articles from the last ten HCRTA newsletters where people had shared “Teacher Spotlights” or articles about “Graham School $1.00”.
We began the series on 12/29/2021 thanks to Ms. Huntoon.
HCRTA Members Included in the Memories Project
My happiest winter holiday memory took place back in 1947. School was out on Friday, December 19th for the Christmas holiday vacation.
Roy and I were married on Sunday, December 21st. We took our honeymoon during the Christmas vacation.
I left on Friday, December 19, 1947 as Miss Joan Huber and came back to school in January 1948 as Mrs. Roy Gerling.
Roy and I got to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary on December 21, 1997.
I am so thankful for all my happy memories of years gone by. Roy passed away November 9, 2000.
I started to school when I was five years of age. My first grade teacher was “Miss Bertha”. I dearly loved her after two weeks and told my mother I was going to be a teacher just like Miss Bertha. All through grade school and high school I held onto that dream. The next week after I graduated from high school I started college at Illinois State Normal in Normal, Illinois. Two years later I received my Teacher’s Certificate in December just before the holidays. Two days later our county superintendent called me to his office and asked if I wanted a job. Of course I said, “Yes”. A teacher had resigned from a rural one-room school near Pocahamtas, Illinois. It was nine miles from my hone on a mud road and I do mean MUD! They wanted me to start January 2. That didn’t give me much time to prepare but they paid $85.00 a month (a good salary for then) and I needed the money. I didn’t have a car to commute so my Dad took me to the home where I was to board. we went a day early. It was a mile from school. That mile was either mud or snow drifts most of the time but I managed to walk and get there by seven each morning. I went early to get the furnace going in time so it would be warm by the time the kids arrived.
I had just got my fire going when a lady with a big boy drove up in a big wagon pulled by a team of horses. She hitched the team to a tree and then they came in. I immediately recognized the lad to be the troublemaker my boarding parents told me about. But the mother was carrying a gun, a long barreled Winchester shotgun. I went to the door and greeted them. He spoke but she just looked at me and scowled and handled the gun very carefully. I tried to take her coat but she just jerked it away from me. Was I scared? You bet! I thought, “this is my first day of teaching but may be my last day to live”. I couldn’t notify anyone. There was no phone and nearest house was one mile away. I picked up a chair for her, placing it against a wall. She promptly moved the chair closer to the teacher’s desk and laid the gun across her lap. The other pupils began to come in. They looked at the gun and were as quiet as mice. I think they were wondering if the gun belonged to me. The lady never spoke to anyone. Her son was obviously embarrassed.
Nine o’clock came. I rang the little hand bell and all took their seats. I asked them if they’d like to sing for opening exercise?
They all agreed. There was an old piano in the room. We chose “Yankee Doodle” and “Dixie Land” to sing. I had the big boy pass out the songbooks.
I said, “Give one to your mother”. He hesitated and then offered her a book. She pushed it away with a scowl.
I told the kids to sing loudly. I was to regret that request. The piano was badly out of tune and five or six kids were off key and they sang at the top of their voices. If you’ve ever heard a pack of howling dogs there was no comparison. It was hilarious!
After that we go down to the books. Each class (there were eight grades) showed me where they were in their books since it was the middle of the term. I was familiar with the textbooks since the same books were used countywide. I hoped they could learn something that day. I know I learned from them.
About recess time the lady took up her gun, put on her coat and went home. I wanted to be polite so I made the mistake of asking her to come back sometime. The big boy gave me no trouble that day and never did. When I went to my boarding home that evening I told the man about the gun incident. He was one of the schools directors. He just laughed and said, “Oh, she’s harmless”.
But the next day there was a repeat performance. I was looking out the window. Her son was obviously trying to get the gun away from her. I hoped it wasn’t loaded. Finally he won out. She laid the gun carefully back in the wagon and they both came in. This time she stayed for about an hour and left. In the three years I was at that school I never saw her again.
My salary got up to $125.00 a month. I thought I was really in the money! I worked hard at the job and received many “Thank you”. I hope I did some good. I, myself, learned a lot from them.
After that I was given a job at my home school in Smithboro, Illinois as seventh and eighth grade teacher and principal of the four-room school. I was there until I got married and moved away. I quit teaching for four years but went back to it duringWorld War II at the Loagootee School.
My husband’s job caused us to move to Brownstown, Illinois where I took the job of teaching the seventh grade. This was a consolidated school and there were ninety seventh graders. I had half of them.
I was not departmentalized so I taught all the subjects except music and art. One year I had fifty-four girls in a P.E. class besides.
Imagine grading papers every night from forty-five students in several subjects.
Almost every summer since I started teaching I was in summer school at Eastern at Charleston or University of Illinois.
When my husband’s job took him to Henderson County, IL, I decided to hang up my shingle and rest. I was always a very strict disciplinarian and let the kids know I expected their work done and done on time.
Much of this required extra help on my part but that's why I was there. There were some ups and downs, but most of them were ups. I got great satisfaction out of this extra work.
I recently saw a man whom I had had in the seventh grade as a boy. He was one that I had to come down on very hard at times. He put his arms around me and said, “You were the best teacher I every had” and then he added, “but the meanest one”.
How could he have added that last remark if I had been like “Miss Bertha”?