Mrs. Locke

    I remember one very precious teacher, Mrs. Locke.  She was only my teacher for a short time, only a couple of months, or so.  Then, our one-room country school unified with a larger one in 1949; but I will never forget her.  She smelled like powder, every day.  And, she was always a sweet, kind, powdery-gentle woman.  I remember, too that she always let me read as much as I wanted and even let me go to the older kid's section of the library to read the more interesting books.   I got a certificate that year for reading 40 books. 

    And her birthday was on May Day, the first of May.  I always think of her every year at this time.  I remember that she introduced our class to the world of classical music.  She brought a wind-up phonograph to school and brought it out to the playground where she would play her precious classical music recordings for us and let us dance to the music.  I recall the film she had us view, "Tales of Hoffman", and I'll never forget those images. 

    God Bless this woman who taught me so much. Wherever she is in the universe, I wish her a very "Happy Birthday" on this May Day and every year! 

Maureen S. Christopher
May 1, 2004