One thing about getting up there in age is the realization that many who have been a past or present member of my travels of life are literally passing on to the world beyond life as we know it here on this grand gift of earth.
I am one who for whatever reason, checks the obituaries of several communities in which I spent several memorable moments in those travels of life, and on more occasions that I am wanting to acknowledge, I am finding myself reading the life stories of people I knew.
One of those folks popped up in the obituaries from Lincoln, Nebraska where I spent a very large chunk of my childhood. The person that caught my attention was Anne Reisher, my third-grade teacher at Pershing Elementary.
My time with Mrs. Reisher is remembered by two important moments and many classmates, of whom a few have remained life-long friends.
I think my most humorous memory of my year with Mrs. Reisher is that of playing the part of the ‘Mayor of Munchkin land’ in our third-grade version of the ‘Wizard of Oz’. My Mom made me a pair of bright green knicker type pants for the part and last, I knew, those knickers were still packed away in a box in the basement store room at my Dad’s house.
While watching the movie version of Oz, I remembering my kids laughing at me as I would raise my voice to a high-pitch tone and running along singing and dancing with the many scenes of Dorothy’s time in Munchkin land, including the ‘Lollipop Kids Song’ and of course the famous speech “I am the Mayor of Munchkin land and I do declare….’. And on a couple of occasions with my older grandkids I have had the honor of getting a laugh or two with a repeat performance. Unfortunately, I do not remember exactly who played the other characters with the exception Ron Sinclair playing I think Zeke the farmhand and maybe Christy Sumption playing Dorothy. No matter what, it was a fun and memorable time.
The Mayflower, Mrs. Reisher had us spending the time leading up to our Thanksgiving break reading a story about a child our age as she traveled on the Mayflower and landed in America. The little girl’s name was Mary Allerton and the reason I remember so well is because of the surprise gift I received from Mary Allerton herself.
I remember coming home from school and my Mom asking what I did in school and excitingly I told about the interesting story about a child our age as they traveled on the Mayflower, telling her the little girl’s name was Mary Allerton. I remember vividly the look on my Mom’s face as she turned to me and asked, “Did you say Mary Allerton?”
Of course, I said yes, Mary Allerton and mentioned that it seemed her family was one of the prominent families arriving in America. With that my Mom looked at me with her loving smile and informed me that Mary Allerton was a distant cousin of mine, needless to say I looked at her with a bewildered look saying, “you’re kidding.”
Nope, she was not and the next day when I got home from school she shared with me a document that showed the line of a family tree that took me back through her father, William E. Hawkes, back to the Allerton family.
Boy, was I the hot stuff to be able to go back to my third-grade class and just happen to mention that I was related to this little gal we were reading about. Oh, and did I remember to mention to the class that I was also related to the first father and son presidents, John and John Quincy Adams – of course I did.
So, as I read the obituary for Anne Reisher, I thought long about the one year she made an impact on my life and the appreciation I did and still do have for making that travel through third-grade one to remember.
And there you have it, yapping in response to something he may have seen and liked or disliked, a memory remembered or forgotten, in the light of humor or the look of seriousness, no matter what ‘Grumpy Gramps’ has given you his opportunity to get his thoughts ‘off my chest’. So maybe you can enjoy, enlighten and think about what he may have said. And if you want, feel free to respond with a comment or two on his blog and ‘Grumpy Gramps’ promises to give you some type of response. Word of caution, ‘Grumpy Gramps’ has a line that shall not be crossed regarding name calling, racism, hatred or threats and more – and if that line gets crossed, well you’ll see at that point.
As for those wondering about why I call this ‘Grumpy Gramps’, it’s because I have been around the walk of life for a long while now and for those who know me, I have my thoughts and opinions which seem to spew out on occasion much to the chagrin of my wife and a few of my grandkids. When that happens, the grandkids look at me with squinted eyes and say, ‘being grumpy, gramps’.
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Prayers, blessings and happy thoughts – ‘Grumpy Gramps’.
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