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The Fifth Grade Katherine Heigl played Marty in the movie from the book, “Love Comes Softly” by Janette Oke. She said to the little girl that she was trying to teach to read, “Once you can read, you can have every adventure you ever dreamed of….there are no limits where you can go.” When I was in Mrs. Grable’s World Geography class in fifth grade, I decided that the most appealing place in the world for me was Brazil. Of course, my reasons for wanting to go there at that time were strictly selfish. I loved bananas and chocolate and Brazil had both. I had no idea at the time that I would ever go there, nor did I ever expect to go there. Many of you know that my family served in Brazil as missionaries with The Oriental Missionary Society from 1964 through most of 1972. On our mission campus, where we lived in Londrina, Parana’, Brazil, we had a banana grove under a rain spout that grew the biggest bananas that I ever saw. And cacao and coffee beans are grown everywhere with prolific Nestle chocolate companies and coffee bushes with companies to process them. We had a coffee processing factory just outside of Londrina. The scent of coffee hung in the air. The city of Londrina was actually built because of the need to transport coffee….black gold as the Brazilians call it. So you see, the things that teachers and books instill in their students are often life changing and lifelong. The photos in this blog were taken by the daughter of one of our Brazilian friends on July 14, 2020 on their farm just outside of Londrina. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does. ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography by Gisele/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck
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 The Wing Family When I was in grade school, I had a crush on Johnny Wing. Our families had lived near one another when we lived in the south end of town. My sisters and the Wings were good friends. I think Mildred was the oldest. Alma Lou and Kathleen were friends all of their lives, even unto death. My sister Jean, Judy and Phyllis Wing were about the same ages and Don Wing was probably my brother’s age, more or less. The youngest, Johnny Wing was the smartest boy in my class. I have always been attracted to smart people. Louise Clark was the smartest female. I was not even in their league, intellectually speaking. As I have already written, I spied on my sister Kathleen when she dated. However, there are always ways that sisters can get back at you. In high school, the business/typing class was responsible for putting out the school newspaper. I was chagrinned because my sisters and the Wing girls always put something in it about me liking their brother Johnny. When the school paper came out, all I could do was grin and bear it. They wrote things like, “The Sunday school teacher asked Marilyn Francis what her favorite hymn was. She replied, ‘Johnny Wing’”. Another time, they wrote that the teacher asked me if I was chewing gum and I replied, “No, I’m just soaking a prune for recess”. I never forgot those embarrassments. When I was in the fifth grade, my mother made sea foam candy for Valentine’s Day. She put some in a wax paper pouch and tied it with a ribbon. I took it to school and set it on Johnny’s desk. I don’t think it had a tag stating who it was from. I don’t know when the Wing family moved to Columbus but I suspect it was after our fifth grade. ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck  School Discipline Mrs. Winona Ramsey and Fourth Grade I saw a lot of Mrs. Ramsey in the fourth grade, mainly because I was sick and had to stay in at recess and lunch. She let me draw from an industrial flip art piece. That doesn’t sound interesting but it was. I think it may have come from someplace like Buckeye Steel and depicted drawings of the iron melting process which was entirely new to me. I have always said that I know a little about a lot of things….mainly because I’m interested in a lot of things. I am not a person who got in trouble but one day, Norma Jean Whaley and I were disciplined for talking to each other in class. We both had to stand in a corner for it. I was mostly mortified because it all happened in front of “my sweet babboo”, Johnny Wing, and I was embarrassed. Mrs. Metzger and the Eighth Grade I got in trouble again in the eighth grade. One day a couple of the girls, probably Edmona Self and Judy Anderson, spearheaded an effort to wear jeans to school. Alice Rigsby and I and the rest of us thought it was a good idea, so the next day all of us girls wore jeans. We thought we were getting away with it until recess. We were told that we had to go home and change our clothes. We did and we never tried that again. My daughter Michele asked, “What did your Mother and Dad think of that? I said, “I don’t remember but my Mother was very easy going and she and my Dad probably laughed.” ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck First Through Eighth Grade Teachers for the Class of 1956 Our teacher in the first grade was Mrs. Helen Counts. She was a pleasant person and a good teacher. I was extremely shy but I could cut well with the scissors, so she let me cut intricate things. I suppose she thought it would bolster my confidence. Miss Twila West was our second grade teacher. She had taught all of our sisters and brothers. She was extremely sweet, and her expertise was handwriting. My sister Kathleen learned well and always had beautiful handwriting. My handwriting has deteriorated over the years. Our third grade teacher was Miss Helen West. All I remember from her class was drawing a cardinal with very large legs. My hands just would not do what my brain told them. She was probably good at teaching science/biology. Mrs. Winona Ramsey was our fourth grade teacher. She must have been the disciplinarian since she was the only one to give me a time out. Our fifth grade teacher was Mrs. Grabile. She was a sweet, gray haired lady. For some reason, I remember her for Reading Circle Books that I had trouble reading though I have certificates for reading them. Mrs. Bernice Hulse was our jovial, sixth grade teacher who saw to it that we kept busy during recess by playing softball even if we didn’t want to. I think it was her way of keeping us out of trouble. Our seventh grade teacher was Mr. William Alspach. It was refreshing to have a male teacher who actually taught us how to conjugate verbs and play basketball. Mrs. Mary Metzger, our eighth grade teacher, was another sweet, older lady who read to us every morning. She and the Wests were natives of Williamsport. She vacationed out West the summer before I was in her class. She filled the back corner of her classroom with western souvenirs from her trip. She had Indian artifacts and headdresses pinned to a display board and a table full of interesting things. Then she read from the book “Crazy Horse” every morning before the beginning of class. Because of her, I always wanted to go out West. In 1995, I did. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the unfinished sculpture of Crazy Horse but was satisfied with everything I did see. I also have read a number of books about Indians and own the “Crazy Horse” book that I found on e-bay. ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck |
Marilyn Francis FergusonGrowing up in Williamsport, Ohio is a blog by Marilyn Francis Ferguson which describes small town life in the 1940s and 1950s. Blog Categories
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