Last week, while speaking to the Lewis County School Retirees Association (LCSRA), I thanked those present for all the hours they devoted to teaching children. Throughout their careers, they’ve influenced many lives and, even today, as retirees, they continue helping students and teachers succeed.
The LCSRA, which meets monthly at Ramblin’ Jack’s Ribeye near Napavine from September through May, has more than 400 members. Every year, the chapter provides $7,000 in scholarships through Centralia College to Lewis County high school seniors pursuing degrees in education and grants to paraprofessionals for college or living expenses.
“If we have it, and we have the demand, we give double that some years,” said Carolyn Stella, chapter president, who joined the organization in 2004. Deadlines for scholarship applications are in March and April.
Like her counterparts statewide, as chapter president, Stella said she’s worked closely with state lawmakers to advocate for education needs and protect state employees’ pensions.
The Washington State School Retirees Association (WSSRA), which has 17,000 members, will hold its annual convention at the Great Wolf Lodge June 1 to 3. Membership, which costs $7 a month or $84 a year, is open to both certificated and classified staff who worked in the schools.
The local chapter also provides tours of the one-room Borst Schoolhouse, coordinates with the WSSRA, publishes a newsletter, updates information on its Facebook page, and supports special projects of teachers in classrooms.
I spoke to the group about Matilda (Koontz) Jackson, my favorite pioneer and the focus of both my nonfiction book, “Washington Territory’s Grand Lady,” and my debut novel, “The Reluctant Pioneer.”
But all week, I kept thinking how it’s not headline-making actors, musicians, politicians or other celebrities who most influence our lives. Rather, when I interview people to capture their life stories, I ask about their favorite teachers.
When I recall grade school, I remember Miss Scilley, my kindergarten teacher who tossed Native American arrowheads onto the playground for us to find; Miss Bruehner, Colorado state teacher of the year who morphed from playful friend at recess to the strictest teacher ever in the classroom; and Sister Jocele, who gave me a small picture of Jesus with the words “to our spelling champ” written on the back. (I still have it.)
Although our family spent only one year in southeast Colorado, three of my most influential teachers were in Las Animas: Mr. Tanner, my eighth-grade Spanish teacher who videotaped us doing weather reports and performing plays of nursery rhymes (I can still recite “Mirror, mirror on the wall” in Spanish, although I seldom have use for it); Miss Schmeiser, our social studies teacher who encouraged a friend and me as we created a sugar cube replica of Bent’s Old Fort and performed a script featuring Kit Carson and the Bent brothers; and Mr. Stevens, the school newspaper advisor who showed us how to diagram sentences and taught me more about English than I ever learned in college.
Oh, I had a few bad teachers, too, such as Mrs. House, who pulled my ponytail when I spoke during class and clipped a sixth-grader’s long fingernails in front of the class as tears streamed down the girl’s face.
When I look back at teachers who inspired me as a child, I can see how they influenced my career path as a journalist, a writer, an editor and a historian.
Looking around the room at the restaurant last week, I realized I may have interviewed some of the teachers in the 1980s while writing school features or stories about classroom overcrowding for The Daily Chronicle. I recognized a few people. Rosalie Bond and I sat beside each other at the memorial for Toledo’s Don Buswell, who died just shy of his 103rd birthday. I believe I met Margaret Wharton, a descendant of pioneer Samuel James, at the memorial for Doris Bier. And Carolyn Stella stopped by our Elma Country Christmas Bazaar table to greet my author friend Sandy Crowell of Olympia, who spoke to the group last year.
On Saturday morning, I spoke to the Olympia chapter of the Pacific Northwest Association of Church Libraries on their theme for the year: “What’s Your Story?” I love encouraging people to share their life stories with their loved ones, and a good way to start what can seem a Herculean effort is to focus on the question I mentioned earlier: Which teachers most influenced you in your life?
Just write the answer on a piece of paper or type it into the computer, and you’ve started recording your life story, which is the most precious gift you can provide your children and grandchildren.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
