N is for Newspapers

 

I am in the process of sorting through everything in my parents' home, and in so doing, I have been looking through all my childhood memorabilia, the majority of which I hadn't seen since my parents packed up my belongings and moved them from the home I grew up in to this house some 45 years ago. My 2024 A to Z Challenge theme is based on the treasures I have found in the boxes and the drawers and closets. Join me on my bittersweet journey back to my childhood.

There's an old Southern saying that a lady's name should only appear in the newspaper three times: when she is born, when she is married, and when she dies.

I found these newspaper articles from when I was young that either prove that statement is false or that I apparently am no lady.

My senior year in high school, I was cast in the play Arsenic and Old Lace. We had a good many talented girls who auditioned, so the director made the decision to have a split cast, meaning each female role was played by two different casts. Each cast of girls performed for two nights with the boys performing all four nights. I played Martha Brewster, one of the two elderly sisters who made elderberry wine that was laced with arsenic and a pinch of strychnine and served it to unsuspecting gentlemen callers.

Front page of the Ruskin Highlight, baby!

Close up: Mike, Kenna, and me

That no being enough, I qualified to go to the State forensics competition, along with three others from our school's tournament forensics program. I competed in an area called Prose (also known as Storytelling) with a story from a book of parables called The Way of the Wolf that I loved. I performed a story called "Barrington Bunny."

Becky (still in contact with her), Tim, Nancy, me

I made the school newspaper twice when I taught elementary school in a very small town in the Ozarks. Kindergarten all the way through high school was housed in different wings of the same building, and since we were so close in proximity (and didn't have a newspaper of our own), the monthly high school newspaper always included an item or two about the elementary school as well. When I was first hired, I was interviewed as one of three new teachers in the building. Another time, I was pictured in a group of female teachers doing a dance routine at a benefit basketball game.

Teaching 4th grade. They were a great group.

I'm always the tall one.

Last, I found a photo of me and my co-worker that was submitted to the local newspaper when we were officers for our school's MSTA (Missouri State Teachers Association) chapter.

I have no idea who these men were, although I think the one
on the right may have been the state president. My co-worker
Patty and me in back (see? always the tall one)

Contact my publicist for interviews....