Well, one more time with “ding-dong bells” as our very last grand starts her first year of school — kindergarten. I’m still amazed at how time hurries by so fast. I can remember my children at this time in their lives and it seems like such a short time ago.
Our boys began their first days with few tears but our girl, no. The first day I let her out, actually pulled her out, she was protesting loudly and as I drove off and looked in my review mirror, she was chasing me down the road. As time went on through the years, she got better, but not much.
I remember how hot it was the day I carried her to third grade. It was miserably hot in the rooms. I got back in my car and went and bought two fans and set them up in her classroom. It was still stifling. It was if I had a light bulb go off and I declared right then and there I would “cool the schools.”
I called some of the town leaders — doctors, lawyers, newspaper publisher, the head man of the city electricity, and several businessmen — and had a meeting at my house within two days. We had a workable plan laid out to cool our kids.
I had about 15 of these men sign a promissory note to cover the cost of window air conditioner units for each of our schools. An electrician friend of mine and I ordered the units, had them delivered to us and stored them in a vacant warehouse. We began to raise money. The whole community was behind our quest and the parents were so willing to do all they could to help raise thousands of dollars.
We did bake sales, organized the first field day celebration and a good way of making money, our grocery store had us save our receipts and we were given a percentage of the money to hit our goal. We tried everything to make money — even an illegal raffle. I did not know it was illegal at the time we bought a car and raffled it off in the schools. One morning about 7 o’clock I got a call from the Mississippi attorney general, and he explained we could not raffle a car within the school. We gave the car away that day!
It took us a full year to pay for the air conditioners, but it was worth every work hour we spent. I was given a plaque from our town that called me “Cool the Schools Lady.” This is one of my most treasured gifts. It would never have come to fruition without the entire town getting behind us. All the parents wanted this for their children and they worked tirelessly. It was my idea, but it was all of us.
Here’s a recipe using succotash from my garden:
Take three pieces of bacon cut into pieces and fried crispy, remove from pan and save. Dice one onion and sauté in bacon fat until translucent. Add to the onion 1 up of niblet corn, 1 cup of green butterbeans, 1 cup of cut up okra, and 1 quart of canned tomatoes. Add back the cooked bacon. Salt and pepper. Cook on low on stove until tender, about 30 minutes.
