Friday, March 29, 2024

Those familiar school smells: The good, the bad and the ugly

Posted

CRESSON  MAYOR

 

Cresson Mayor Teena Putteet Conway, a native of Cresson, attended school for two years in the historic Cresson school. She is a Granbury High School graduate and earned a BBA from Baylor University. After marrying, then raising her family in the Metroplex, she returned to Cresson after 40 years.

 

Am I the only one who loved getting new school supplies at the first of the school year? I would arrange the brand-new crayons, pencils, glue, and paper very carefully in my tote and may have rearranged it several times to ensure I had it all just right.

The lists for school supplies were much simpler in past days compared to today’s expansive, detailed list that includes glittered glue sticks and fancy folders with cartoon characters. Not to mention the required Kleenex tissues the kiddos now must supply.

The lunch box situation has been the biggest changing point, I think. I was told to be fine with a brown paper bag on the rare days that I took a lunch to Cresson Elementary School. We had the best lunches ever made, by Mrs. Shipps. She would provide homemade cornbread with the tastiest pinto beans you can imagine.  Here was Mrs. Shipps’ trick to getting us to eat the cornbread — she would mix honey with peanut butter and that was our butter for the hot cornbread fresh out of the black iron stove.

Once I left second grade and we were bussed over to Granbury Elementary School, I was of course spoiled to fancy lunch trays with either vanilla or chocolate milk and never took my lunch. It was much “cooler” to get in the line with all my friends and receive my food all spiffy on my tray with compartments!

There was also the smell of new shoes that I fondly remember. There was typically one pair of new shoes, and we were thrilled to get them. We took them off once we got home to ensure they were not exposed to the rigorous treatment of us playing outside of riding our bicycles on our not-so-smooth gravel roads. If there was a need for “tenny” shoes as we got older, again there was only one pair. That fresh leather or canvas material only lasted for a short while as we quickly would get them wet, dirty, and truly broken in!

There was also the smell of children who had just returned from recess of P.E. class. This was not so pleasant, and only got worse as the students got older. The rush of all the children back into the small classrooms with all that built up sweat and dirt was a not-so-good smell that teachers across the United States have had to tolerate for years. God bless all our educators!

As we went on to attend junior high and high school, again the smells changed. We had the new smell of a new high school, which was wonderful. The locker rooms were brand spanking new but still had to deal with the over-powering smell of that hearty workout.

The band hall was, too, another smell of instrument oil and new carpet and the smell of our instruments. What a glorious smell to recall that makes me think of our beloved Band Director Kyle Bagby!

What a season of fun smells we welcome in as all the children are now in their classrooms, and some at their homeschooling desks at home. Our hopes are that they are equipped with all the needed school supplies and much love from their teachers!

 

teenac@cressontx.org