Mrs. Starr, my English teacher, listened to me reading a story that I wrote for class. She critiqued my story while I stood in front of my Sophomore English class, embarrassed and red-faced; I was our class president and was elected by popular student vote and I had used the word, "raised" instead of, "reared." My country-school education (we had to start there and go through the 8th Grade before we were promoted on to high school) had never prepared me for words like this. I would always say, "She raised me" and at that time didn't know words like "reared."
I quit school in my Sophomore year and went out into the world on my own. To hell with Mrs. Starr and her "reared" remarks. I would show her and the rest of the world that I could do more than people with college degrees. And, I am 82 now and I did all the things I wanted to do and a lot of things I never imagined doing when I was class president in 1952.
ReplyDeleteI had about 20 books published. One of them sold almost half a million copies. I did a 13-week TV program shown on national television, and I was an undercover agent for Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, worked at NCR in Research and Development, taught school in Greene County and had my own business for several years and sold it to promoters of my TV show. So, reared my A$$ Mrs. Starr.
Delete