One of the perks of living into your 8th decade is being able to remember the interesting parts of your life. They may not be interesting to others and they may not all be laudable but they are there for recall whenever you want to review them. Sometimes they are beckoned to come forward by some action of others. A recent trip that my second grandson took to Nashville, Tennessee brought forth a string of memories. He was on a break from school and attending a social event at Vanderbilt College.
The memory that came into focus was in the 1950's when my husband was in school at Peabody college in Nashville. One of my "firsts" took place there. The famous Kefauver hearings were in progress in Washington D.C. and our landlord for the summer invited us to come in and watch them on television. That was a first time for me to see a television in action.
Our landlord informed us about other things as well. I had never heard of "hush puppies" and she explained the origin of that name. According to her during slavery times the slaves would be outdoors cooking on an open fire making cornbread balls and dropping them into a pot of grease. The dogs would be wandering around and whining for food. The cook would pick up a cooked ball of the bread and pitch it to the dogs saying "hush puppy". She told it as the truth and I was not able to dispute it.
My husband was the first to earn a Masters degree in our family, from Peabody in Nashville. This was during 1950 and incoming students to the colleges in Nashville were required to register for the draft (for the war in Korea). Having already served in the European theater of war he simply ignored the request and went on about the business of studying. He had heard that the state of Tennessee was taking their quota of recruits from the list of young men out of state who did register there for the draft. Not quite fair it would seem so probably that is why he ignored it as he was already registered in his state of Kentucky.
One of the firsts that I remember was speaking on a telephone. It was on the wall in my father's office. The hearing part was held up to the ear while the speaking part was still attached to the wall. He held me up in his arms so I could speak to my sister in town where she worked.
Another sister who was 17 years older than me was my first grade teacher. Being under her direction at school and having her living at home caused some confusion for me. I think it still causes confusion for children when more than one authority figure is present.
My first dentist was a family friend and I walked alone to his office for dental work. We walked everywhere then, it was the way to travel. My father had a car which he drove to his work, which was too far to walk. But from elementary through high school I walked to and from school, and some of those years I walked home for lunch. We did not have a lunchroom in school then.
I well remember my first whipping. Yes, it was done back then even in the best of families. I had been instructed to remove my new shoes after I got home from church and I did not. I remember being surprised by sudden stings on my legs as I was happily dancing around outside in my new shoes. My mother had applied the willow switch to remind me.
I was born into my first church, baptised there and married there. My membership stayed there until I moved away to another state and then I transferred it, at the suggestion of my mother. I suppose it "took" as I am still an active Presbyterian.
The first time I drove a car was in Texas on the Naval Air Base at Corpus Christi. My brother-in-law's brother was my teacher. He was an instructor at Rodd Field there and took it upon himself to teach me to drive. Since I had no car I did not continue driving. I had to learn all over again ten years later. This time the teacher was my husband and I do not recommend that as it can cause unintended consequences, like hurt feeling when corrected! I think I needed a lot of correcting the second time.
My first visit out of the country was while I lived in Texas and the trip was to Monterrey, Mexico. I went alone on a bus and loved it there. I still have silver jewelry that I purchased there and some pictures of the trip.
I was not ever "lucky" in winning things, but the first award I won was in a Teachers Fair when I was a new teacher in Georgia. I won for a project in teaching Language Arts to first graders. The prize was $25 in a local bank savings account. I was so totally surprised as I had not even considered being a winner. I was more focused on sharing an idea which worked well for me.
Maybe being surprised at pleasant things in your life is a nice bonus to put in the plus column. It is not particularly pleasant to recall the bad things that come along and we all have them at one time or another. Looking back on happy events can make the walking forward much more pleasant.
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