I recently found a picture of me and some of my students in my very first teaching job. It was in a nursery class of three year children . The setting was an experimental Nursery School on Rodd Field, at the Naval Air Base in Corpus Christi, Texas in the 1940's. I had gone there to stay with the family of my sister's brother-in-law who was a Lt.Commander in the Navy. World War II had ended and he was an instructor there. His wife was expecting another baby and was having difficulty caring for her three year old. I was ready for a break as a different sister was trying to push me into a job I was not anxious to take. When I was asked to go there for a time I agreed.
I went by train overnight. This was my second train ride. The first had been to Richmond, Ky. to college. I well remember it as an old flame was on the train and he bought my supper on the train. I think he was going to his college as well. For some reason I remember him telling me his criteria for a wife. Maybe I remember it as I thought it was odd. She had to wear hats !! I think he was trying to say that he wanted her to be well groomed.
This trip to Texas was instructional on many levels. While there I saw my first buttermilk skies, and witnessed an amazing electrical storm. The sky was filled with lightening strikes and out in that flat land you could see great distances all around. That is not the case when you live in the mountains as you are limited to the sky you can see between two mountains.
While there I was able to take a week-end trip to Monterrey, Mexico. I went by bus and God must have been looking out for me way back then as I met a lovely elderly couple from Michigan on the bus, who took me under their wings. He owned a Mortuary in Michigan and this was a holiday trip for them. They took me around Monterrey with them, escorted me everywhere. They even took me to a shop where I sampled wine and to a restaurant where I had bean soup. I had never had beans mashed into a soup before. Also we visited a leather shop and I purchased a black leather purse which I used for over 20 years !! I still have some silver jewelry which I purchased there, earrings and a bracelet. I also have some pictures of the town and I saw so much beautiful tile on the sidewalks and buildings. It was a great trip and I almost missed it. Elma and John said "you should go as you may never have the chance again". They were so right .
Elma helped me learn to cook and sew. I made a striped woolen suit while I was there and wore it for quite a few years. I saw it in some of the old pictures I found. Elma showed me new ways to make old dishes. When I came back to my home in Kentucky, my brother teased me about my cooking saying, "some day she will be frying lettuce". Well, he was right . I have used swiss chard in my stir fries and it is a lettuce.
John was very good to me. He taught me how to drive and was very encouraging. Being an instructor for young pilots he knew how to direct instruction so that no doubt accounts for me learning so quickly. This was before we had automatic transmissions so I was using a shift drive. He encouraged me by saying " I think you can do whatever you want to do in life". I have thought of that many times when I learn something new - like using a computer !!
In addition to having a job in the nursery school I enrolled in an Art class in the junior college there. I went to the USO in town and met a very nice young sailor from North Carolina. We were great friends and had a lot of fun together, he was like a brother who looked out for me. I had a few dates with some of the cadets there but I had the most fun with the sailor from Winston Salem, North Carolina.
The young children I worked with in that first school were having their first experience with school. They were well behaved and enjoyed our activities. One day one of the little girls ran up to me, grabbed me around the legs, looked up to me and said "I love you Miss Mattress". She was mispronouncing my name but I loved it and it is still an endearing moment to me.
One day when I had the children in a little group reading a story to them they were all entranced except for one little boy named Alfred ,who had other ideas. I had him come and sit beside me thinking that would keep him calm but it did not. Eventually I had to send him away from the group for it was unfair to the other children. For any incidents of that sort the parents were told what had happened. Alfred's mother said "you did exactly the right thing". I later learned that Alfred's mother had written a book on child psychology. I am rather glad I had not known it before !
We had a Halloween party for the children and they each had on masks for the event. I sent some pictures home to my parents and my father said "what in the world is wrong with those children's faces' .
All in all it was a very good experience for me to live in the lone star state for almost a year, to be on a military base and to get a taste of being a teacher. For when I went back home I went back to College for a year and a half, graduated and did take the very job I had once gone across the country to avoid.
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