{"id":165,"date":"2015-05-24T14:05:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-24T18:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=165"},"modified":"2015-05-24T14:05:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T18:05:09","slug":"elementary-mr-watson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=165","title":{"rendered":"ELEMENTARY, MR. WATSON"},"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

<\/span>\u201cMr. Watson\u201d was not the kindest, most handsome, or the best teacher I had at East Side School in Dalton, Georgia.\u00a0 He had a sarcastic way about him sometimes.\u00a0 One of my vivid memories is the time I was marching in from recess with the rest of the class and slammed my shoulder against the classroom door frame.\u00a0 \u201cWe are really going to have to widen these doorways,\u201d he said to a teacher across the hall, and laughed.\u00a0 I was mortified. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Mr. Watson was the teacher who told all 40 kids in our class every day that they mattered.\u00a0 He told us we could do anything we wanted, if we got our education.\u00a0 In fact, he would list possibilities:\u00a0 doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse, airline pilot, engineer, scientist or whatever else we dreamed of.\u00a0 Of course, for a roomful of kids whose parents almost all worked 8-5 at the mills, except during lay-offs when nobody worked, this seemed unlikely.\u00a0 But, still, there comes a time you begin to think just maybe it is possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Watson told us one other thing that was important.\u00a0 \u201cWhile you\u2019re getting an education, make sure you learn at least one skill that involves using your hands.\u00a0 It will make your life more satisfying, and it might help you make a living.\u201d\u00a0 Mr. Watson\u2019s skill was bricklaying.\u00a0 He had paid his way through college with it, and even as a teacher he took summer construction jobs to add to his income.\u00a0 He had done all the brick work on the house he and his wife lived in.\u00a0 It was near Mill Creek, so I saw it often on our long bus ride to and from school.\u00a0 Then, when my family mainly lived in small, rundown places, his house looked fancy and large.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Time passed.\u00a0 Even though my mother couldn\u2019t see the sense of it, I went on to high school, instead of dropping out and working at the mill as she wanted.\u00a0 Often I wondered myself about the sense of it.\u00a0 There were problems in our family.\u00a0 It seemed like Mama had been sick forever.\u00a0 For two years my sister and I took day about, missing school to stay home with her.\u00a0 Some days my only relief was to head for the woods.\u00a0 On our most recent move we found a house just beyond Mill Creek.\u00a0 The woods behind our house were my refuge.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One afternoon, just after several days of rain, I was walking through the woods to the creek bank. I was deep in thought.\u00a0 It was getting harder and harder to stay caught up with school work.\u00a0 I hardly had any clothes to wear and every few days I was having to hand stitch the soles of my shoes to keep them attached. I had untreated cavities in two molars.\u00a0 Maybe Mama was right about finding a mill job. \u00a0 I came to the old bridge, which had been closed to traffic for at least ten years.\u00a0 I stepped on it and took several strides before I realized a man was on the bridge.\u00a0 He was leaning over looking at the water.\u00a0 As I retreated, he looked up. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Watson!\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t seem him in several years, but it was him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou still in school?\u201d he demanded.<\/span><\/p>\n

I nodded, still backing up. \u201cYes sir,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGood.\u00a0 Get your education.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir,\u201d I said, turning.\u00a0 \u201cI will.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 On the way home, I thought–hard.\u00a0 Getting more schooling might or might not take me to a place I wanted to be, but it almost had to be a better place than where I was now. Mr Watson had laid one more brick to decision process.\u00a0 Though I sometimes wavered, I became more and more sure that I needed all the education I could get.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes the best teacher is the one who tells you what you need to hear.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My latest book, HALLEY, Awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction. Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon \u201cMr. Watson\u201d was not the kindest, most handsome, or the best teacher I had at East Side School in Dalton, Georgia.\u00a0 He … 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":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}