{"id":173,"date":"2015-06-12T23:58:56","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T03:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=173"},"modified":"2015-06-12T23:58:56","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T03:58:56","slug":"a-most-happy-fellow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=173","title":{"rendered":"A MOST HAPPY FELLOW"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My latest book, HALLEY,<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction. Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ta-da-da–da-da de Dah de dah ta dah de dah!\u00a0 Dah–de dah…<\/p>\n

Every time I hear a John Phillips Sousa march I am taken straight back
\nto East Side School in the 1950s!\u00a0 Every day I attended East Side in
\nDalton, Georgia, I marched in along with all the rest of the students
\nto recorded marches blasting from strategically mounted loudspeakers
\nall around the brick building.\u00a0 We lined up by classes at assigned
\ndoors at opening bell every morning at eight, and after morning and
\nafternoon recesses.\u00a0 There were about 40 children in every line
\nbecause that was about all the desks you could cram into one
\nclassroom.\u00a0 When students exceeded that number, the county had to hire
\na new teacher.\u00a0 Sometimes that teacher had to teach a split
\nclass–perhaps half fourth graders and half fifth–in order to make
\nthe numbers work.\u00a0 As time went by, the county had to build a
\nbarracks-like building in\u00a0 back to handle all those extra classrooms,
\nand, eventually, a whole new brick addition to the original building.<\/p>\n

Sousa marches also bring back the smell of wooden floors cleaned by
\noiled sawdust, the dusty smell of chalkboards, the popping and
\ncracking of radiators in winter and, in growing season, the smell of
\nfresh plowed dirt blowing through open windows.\u00a0 Then there were the
\nsmells of books–some soft cornered and dark with age, showing hints
\nof mold–but occasionally we got a new textbook with sharp corners and
\ncrisp pages.\u00a0 Those books were splendid and seemingly faultless in
\nlooks and content!<\/p>\n

Much later I discovered that East Side had the poorest kids in the
\nentire county.\u00a0 My siblings and I were among the poorest of those.
\nBut we were blessed with teachers who cared.\u00a0 With only a few
\nexceptions, they were outstanding.\u00a0 Some, including the best teacher I
\never had, did not even finish college. Miss Albertson read to us every
\nday and she used her own money to buy crayons and paper for \u201cart
\nperiod,\u201d which we had maybe once a month.\u00a0 Another teacher bought
\nwatercolor sets and paper from his own pocket and had watercolor
\nlessons on Friday afternoon if, and only if, the class had reached the
\ngoals that were written on the chalkboard every Monday morning.\u00a0 We
\nhad a class tutoring system for kids falling behind in math, reading,
\nspelling, or whatever.\u00a0 I needed lots of help in arithmetic, but
\nhelped those with reading problems.<\/p>\n

Reigning over this little kingdom was the Sousa-loving principal, John
\nA. Cantrell, who must have been in charge of music appreciation.\u00a0 He
\nwas the happiest principal I have ever encountered–as a student or a
\nteacher, or otherwise.\u00a0 He was strict when the situation called for
\nit, but he was fair.\u00a0 Paddling was reserved for extreme cases. His
\npraise meant everything.\u00a0 He visited every classroom just about every
\nday and he loved to single out people that East Side could be proud
\nof.\u00a0 He always had a little joke or two to tell before heading back to
\nhis office to choose which Sousa records to broadcast for the next
\nend-of-recess march.\u00a0 At least, that is all I ever pictured him doing.<\/p>\n

His methods worked.\u00a0 Some East Side failures might be out there, but I
\nnever met any of them.\u00a0 Mr. Cantrell, you did a good job!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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My latest book, HALLEY, Awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction. Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon Ta-da-da–da-da de Dah de dah ta dah de dah!\u00a0 Dah–de dah… Every time I hear a John Phillips Sousa march I am … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}