How we find out things has drastically changed over my lifetime. Getting information today has never been easier. A few taps on the keyboard or even a few words spoken into a phone gets us instant results, not always dependable but results just the same. And for free (relatively speaking).
Social media such as YouTube, Facebook and many many other websites teach us things we never would have imagined when I was growing up. Back then, I bought many books on different hobbies I wanted to explore, but today I look at them, and my first thought is how was I so patient to learn anything from them? I mean, really, you have to read…slowly.
And that takes me back to the old days when many people claim things were so much better. I wonder.
My sixth grade teacher was an older lady with a hairdo that went every which a way. My nickname for her was Miz Einstein, and it didn’t have everything to do with her appearance. She was very knowledgeable on lots of subjects, and I and other classmates were always asking her questions.
This is a yearbook photo when she was really “dolled up.”
Later, when my own kids were in school, I found out Mrs. Mann’s love of knowledge was not a fluke. Sometime in the early 70s on a weekday, near Rising Sun, Delaware, I was at home alone, kids in school, husband at work. The doorbell rang and when I opened it, to my astonishment there stood my “really old” six grade teacher. We recognized each other right away, and both of us started talking at the same time.
“I can’t believe it’s you. What a surprise!” And other similar exclamations. You get the picture.
Of course, I invited her in, eager to learn how she came to be at my house. She was carrying something that looked similar to an old book bag from the 50s, and she walked a little lopsided from the weight of it. We sat side by side on the sofa with the book bag deposited near her feet.
We caught up on our current lives. Yes, she still lived in Harrington, but was now retired and no longer taught school. Her husband had passed away a year before, and she was coping with all the changes that were involved, the big one being income. I immediately started putting two and two together and came up with four. My math skills were excellent.
Soon, she leaned over to open the catches on the book bag and out came the “A” volume of the World Book Encyclopedia. Well, you can imagine what happened. This was my former 6th grade teacher, and she was in need. Financing could be arranged, and in a few weeks I would be the proud owner of a complete set including a two-volume dictionary. And wait, there was more. Each year for the next ten years, I would receive, through the mail, a “yearbook” updating all previous information that may have changed.
We had a wonderful visit, and in addition, I was immensely aiding my children’s education. I was excited and anxious to receive those books. But, then Mrs. Mann was gone and reality set in. Jim was going to kill me. I had not consulted him, and we talked everything over beforehand.
That night, after supper, we settled in front of the TV to watch Gunsmoke, one of our favorite shows. I waited until the end when a commercial had come on before I broke the news of Mrs. Mann’s visit and my purchase. It turned out Jim loved the idea, and, in fact, he had lugged an old set of encyclopedias around with him to Lackland (Air Force training in Texas) and even to Dover Air Force Base where, ever the business man, he had sold them to a roommate!
And today, here they sit on a bookshelf in my living room, much used, much loved and today remembered, but sorely out of date. They take up two shelves with the yearbooks and dictionaries but another photo of that shelf would definitely be boring.
Not long ago, I actually looked up something in one and found an old sheet of 3-ring notebook paper on which my daughter had written a school assignment. I wish I had taken a photo since I gave it to her for her memories. She couldn’t believe it had survived all these years in an old set of encyclopedias.
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