Articles provide inspiration for many years
At the time of a person’s birth, one can predict the quality of life that new individual will or will not lead. As if they can look into a crystal ball and say this or that person will or will not do this or that.
This points to an instance that I heard my Dad tell numerous times. Dad would say that after I was born the doctor told him, ‘He’s lucky to be alive, if you want to call it luck.’ Dad asked, ‘What do you mean’? The doctor explained, ‘He will never be able to do anything for himself.’ Each time Dad told this, he would add, ‘I wish that doctor could see him now. ‘
Life within itself presents us all with a number of challenges. Challenges that we have to meet or be beat. As I was growing up, I saw the other kids doing things I would have loved to have gotten in on, but I was not able to participate. I understood. I had things that the other kids wanted to play with, even though I was ‘playing’ with them at the time.
Schooling was a challenge. My first nine grades of school was by homebound teachers, having teacher instruction three hours a week. If the teacher came Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the teacher stay was an hour per visit. On Tuesday and Thursday the duration of the visit was an hour and a half.
Homebound schooling or home schooling as it is called now was only for those students who weren’t able to attend school. I can only give you my opinion about home schooling. There is more to education than what we get in books. Learning to get along with one another is an important part of education. I do not believe any student can learn the key to team friendship unless he/she is exposed to other students. I speak as one who was a homebound student. The only people my age that I was ever around were cousins and a few at church which were also mostly cousins.
How many of you remembers 1957? Well Chevy came out with a classic car, McMinnville opened City High School, and Gribble Memorial School opened on Spring Street. Gribble Memorial School was a dream that came into reality through the hard work of parents of disabled children. Rummage sales were held almost weekly. A booth was manned at the county fair where tickets for a television were sold. All of this was done probably a couple of years before the school’s opening dates. Through the generosity of Martin Gribble the school was able to open in new building built especially for disabled. Great excitement was evident as opening date neared. Test were run to find out the capabilities of each student. Because it was thought that some mistake was made the first time, they had me to take the test again. They got the same results. The people giving the test made the suggestion that I should go to a regular high school. The principle of Central High school was contacted and I was excepted as a student. I spent my sophomore, junior, and senior years at the school, I even went on the senior trip to Washington D.C.
Before all of this I went to Vanderbilt sometimes weekly for physical, speech, and occupational therapy. One day in occupational therapy I was drawn to an very old typewriter. The therapist saw my interests in the typewriter and suggested that I should see what I could do with it. I learned to use it pretty well although I have never typed like most people. I later bought a rebuilt typewriter from Sears and started typing articles for practice.
Dad told Rayford Davis, then editor of the Southern Standard, what I had been doing. Whereupon, Mr. Davis asked me to write something to put in the paper. Thinking it would just a one-time thing, I wrote a little something and gave it to him. When he published it, he said if everything goes as planned, I would be doing articles for the school page. That was something I had not planned. I never had any ideal that 50 years later I would still be writing articles. That is something nobody could have ever envisioned. I truly thank everyone for all their kind words about the column.