(TELE)PHONES

Recently, we needed to "upgrade" our cell phones and I got to thinking....(I know....can be dangerous.
When I was but a wee child, I can very clearly remember standing on a chair and talking into this thing hanging on the wall. The voice of the caller would come through a single piece hooked to the phone by a cord that you held to your ear. Who would think that in a few years, someone had the ingenuity to have the speaking end and listening end in one piece.
Phone numbers had 2 letters and 5 numbers. The letters were part of a word, for instance MU might stand for MUSEUM. In the days of the "piece" on the wall and the first ones that were "desk" phones, were dialed. One would stick their finger in a hole that had the letters and numbers in the various holes. After putting your finger in the hole, you would move it to the right until you couldn't move it any further...this was called "dialing".
The phone company owned the phone and "rented" it to the customer. Most were on a "party line"....which meant...you could pick up your phone and someone would be talking. You would have to wait until they were finished talking. It was also a way to pick up on the latest gossip in the neighborhood..but if you "listened in"...you had to be so quiet..so they didn't suspect.
I remember the phones that you had to "crank" to "ring up" the operator. You would tell her the number you wanted to call. Operators would be real busy at times and they always knew who called who. Lily Tomlin does such a great imitation of an "operator".
As phones were upgraded, they became more automated and human operators became extinct. You could dial a number and it would automatically ring the phone that you called. Busy signals and private lines became new "buzz" words.
Then lawsuits emerged and we were then required to purchase our phones..no more rental fees. The phone companies did a major restructuring. We purchased the two "princess" phones that we had plus the one hanging on the wall in the kitchen...they were all "dialers"...and then I was put on a yearbook committe for a church with a few hundred members and I had to call many to set up photo appointments. That job convinced me to purchase a pushbutton phone. No more sore dialing fingers. About this time the letters all turned into numbers and area codes became the norm.
Then call waiting and caller id surfaced. And then came the Bag Phones....lol......which now are about as big as a wallet....and aren't plugged into anything except a charger occasionally. Why who would believe they take pictures...lol....and even surf the Internet.........

THE BEGINNINGS.....

Recently I have made "connections" on Facebook.....that "blow me away". First, I saw "Cathy" on someone else's friends list...so I asked to be her friend...and then I saw "Sharon" on someone else's list...and then I got to thinking. When I was employed by the private Christian School where I worked for 13 years....I started their "formal" technology program....with 14 Apple IIe computers. That was it. We obtained software money by recycling soda cans...I can't begin to tell you how many bags of those I drug home and to the recycling center...what a smelly, messy job. One year, if we had $x in register receipts from a grocery store we could obtain an IBM PS 2 computer... guess who added up all those receipts....it was thousands of dollars...and we obtained one for each "branch" of which there were two. A few years later, we moved into a brand new elementary building, where I designed the computer room/office for effective learning. The networking wiring was installed and I had the room wired with 2 circuits which I could control. When I left there 13 years from when I started...we had terrific networked software, there was a budget for technology, there was a curriculum in place and I left with a lab full of new Dell computers hooked to a network printer, puters in every elementary classroom...in fact there were over 100 puters that I was responsible for teching...in addition to the lab and a full schedule of classes. A "tech corp" was established. We also established a "yearbook club" of 6th grade students who learned the art of effective photography and worked to put the school yearbook together.

Cathy...oh my, she will have many stars in her heavenly crown. She was a nurse and insisted that she donate her services to the school K-12 in 3 locations. There was no pay budgeted for such a position. She worked tirelessly and considered this her "mission". Now....there is a full time paid nurse at the elementary level and another for the high school level.

Sharon....what a saint...She set up the extended care program for before school and after school. She was totally invested in each child in the program and hired a terrific giving staff and was a treasure trove of ideas to keep the children busy. The endless early and late hours....no one really knew. She also set up the Camp Winsome program from scratch...which is a flourishing activing every summer now. I can remember when she was "throwing" around names for the Camp.
Sharon's mother, Rosemary, started the Art program after teaching Kindergarten for several years. She could do anything. All the students, young and older...loved her.

What a legacy....

When I walk into the school now...there are computers everywhere and they are just taken for granted....and I think...if they only knew...but in today's society...who cares.... The nurses office is well equipped. There is art everywhere.....and extended care flourishes as well as Camp Winsome.

Way to go Sharon and Cathy...your legacy lives on....and you can be so proud!! I am so glad I have found both of you as we were a "team".....and "remember when".

LIVING CHRISTMAS......

At one point in our lives, we were very active in a church near where we live.....and another lady "M" and I were in charge of the church's Christmas Gift to the area. It was a "Living Christmas". The entire Christmas story was told from prophecy to the birth. Visitors were led by a host to various locations within the church building where people dressed in clothing appropriate to the Christmas story told their part in the story using the Bible as their text. There was Gabriel the angel, the Shepherds, the Wise Men, Mary sang "Mary's Song" which was so awesome. After her song, visitors left the building and followed luminaries to the stable scene with live animals. M and I wrote the script, cast the characters, arranged for costuming and directed the production. It was attended by hundreds. Everyone who attended was very moved by what they had witnessed. When I think back on it, it was quite an undertaking, but I loved challenges. After I "departed", this event ceased to exist......................... It was a ministry which I was proud to have been a "part of".

HOW DID SHE/WE DO IT

Elementary School...we've all been there. For grades 2-6, I went to a 4 room school. 1 room was for 1st grade, 1 room was for 2nd grade, 1 room was grades 3 and 4 and the 4th room was for grades 5 and 6. In the double grade rooms, there were about 50 students. We shared an inkwell desk. There was 1 teacher...no teacher aides, no parents helping.....1 teacher/50 students/ 2 grade levels. The advantage for the students was ...when in the lower of the 2 grades, you got to learn alot of what you were to learn the next year.
The teacher concerned for the welfare of her students, did a math project, calculating how much "air" each student had in the classroom. I think she was trying to prove her point that there were too many students for her to teach. Can you even imagine the paperwork? and report cards??? Oh, the board asked her if she liked her job......she decided to stay....and breathe recycled air.
My sister went to grades 1-6 in the same school. In grade 7-12, we were taken by yellow school bus about 10 miles.
Yes, I still talk to classmates from that elementary school. It's great how we have bridged the years...and the most amazing thing is that we all turned out ok. I had a very successful high school education and graduated 21st in a class a little over 200. Why, I even went to college.....and my basic education was in a little country school that didn't even have indoor plumbing the first year I was there....... Amazing isn't it.
In today's society, we hear, class size...class size...class size. I believe, it's the teacher...teacher...teacher...and how much they love their jobs. If you don't love what you teach...how CAN you teach???

CHRISTMAS IS.........

As a public school music teacher for 28 years, I used to look forward to December and the holiday songs. When I was aware that there were Jewish children in a class that I taught, I always made sure to include Menorah and Dreydl songs. I thought it was important for Christians to understand a little about how the Jewish children celebrated Hannukah and for the Jewish children to understand a little about the Christmas season. Unfortunately what is promoted for Christmas is Santa Claus...but for the Jewish folk...the Menorah is their symbol. However, in a more fair comparison, the Menorah would most relate to the Manger Scene as both have religious roots.
It got to the point that with the diversity of religions that I stopped teaching songs of the "season"....as legal issues began to creep in. HOWEVER, Jingle Bells is NOT a Christmas song. It is a song about riding in a sleigh through the country side. I loved to teach the "signing" for this song. The same goes for Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" and also "Frosty the Snowman". Old Frosty is just a snowman...and as far as I can intrepret it, these 3 songs can be sung all winter as no where in their lyrics does it even indicate the Christmas holiday.
Every year, when I was teaching grades K-3, I would have the 3rd graders put on a "talent" show. First the talent show was a "class" event. Everyone had to do something "musical"...it could be playing a song on glasses filled with water to playing the violin. From these "acts", I would select the very best and do a school wide concert.
One year, a boy chose to sing the Amy Grant song "Emmanuel"...he did a wonderful job. The lyrics from this song come from Isaiah 9:6. I agonized over whether or not I would post him to sing for the whole school. My rationalization was....he was good, very good. He was the only one singing...and those listening...could choose to think about something else, if they wished....but his talent and choice of song, should not be denied.
The next morning after the all school concert, I was called to the principal's office and told in very firm terms, not ever to do anything like that ever again as half the community was waiting for him to arrive at school that morning. As the scripture came from the Old Testament, I still, to this very day, don't understand the problem...however. the issue went from there, districtwide, committees were formed and rules cast in stone. Christmas Concerts became Winter Concerts, etc. and so on.
Basically, for all intensive purposes, any song relating to any religion was forbidden in grades K-6, however, each state has an ALL STATE CHORUS on the Junior High level and the Senior High Level and religious, classical, spirituals, are always in the repetoire. These grade levels can also include such music in their concerts. Is there a double standard?
And then I heard on the news the other day, that a music teacher was in trouble for having a class sing "Rudolph"......it never ends.

BECOMING A "BUTTERFLY"

I grew up the first daughter of a minister. I was expected to be the "example". It was made very clear that if I did anything unacceptable my dad could lose his job. I lived in a cocoon until I was about 20....when I broke out, I started to become "me". I was able to express myself.....I could fly. I must say living in an old frat house my sophomore year with 15 other girls was a great experience. Our house mother...lol...was a junior who loved to spend nights with her boyfriend and if we turned her in...she would have probably been kicked out of the college....so we were kinda free to do whatever...and some of the girls did.

I was in charge of the coke machine. It was really old at that time....rofl...but I made sure it was always filled with "bottles". Aluminum soda cans weren't around then. It was filled in a circular form which moved as the sodas were dispensed.

We had a mini kitchen as well as a "living room"...or entrance hall. It was a great year.

HOW FAR DO WALLEYES TRAVEL?????

In conjuction with the previous post, one of the things we loved about Wolfe Lake were the delicious walleye pike that we caught. They were sooo good.

For the past 30+ years, my husband and I have traveled to Pine Creek at the bottom end of the Grand Canyon Gorge in PA where my hubby loves to fly fish....however, when the trout quit "biting"....the walleye start. The walleye action has just been in the past couple years and they have pulled walleye out of that creek that rival most that we used to catch in Canada. We think fo the hours of travel to get to Canada to fish for walleye and we are catching the same thing, close to home. Interesting how times and environments change.