Ramblings III: School's Out !!!

School is out...the 2007-08 school year has officially ended in Henry County...WHEW !!! For almost 50 years, my life has been scheduled around the school calendar. I started school in what I think must have been one of the first public kindergarten programs in the U.S. It was 1959 in the state of New York. After elementary, junior high and high school, I graduated with the Headland High School Class of 1972 and began my college career immediately. My sister was three years behind me...so I went straight through college..summers and all !!! I graduated Auburn in August , 1975 and began my high school teaching career, back at my Alma mater in August, 1976. There I stayed for 30 years...no years off...in the same classroom ( there must be a record in that !) When I retired in 2006, I was offered a part time job for the next school year. I am still a part-timer, hence the exhilarating news..SCHOOL'S OUT !!!
As we ended the year yesterday, it was a bittersweet ending. Our long time principal ( once classroom teacher, basketball coach, and guidance counselor) retired as did my high school history teacher. I looked around and realized the old guard is gone and it is a new day for HHS....I think change is often good ( the two new retirees will realize that quickly ) . I know that the imprint that Coach Williams and Rosalyn Trammell have left on HHS and 30 plus years of her graduates can never be erased. I also know that both of them taught us much more than the academics, they also taught us much about "growing up" and becoming adults.

Left to Right: Cathy Henderson Ray, Susan Brannon Owens, Stephanie Douglas Randolph,Tanya Trammell Smith, Rosalyn Trammell, Steve Williams, Tony Wilkerson, Danny Odom, and Chris Padgett.

The retirees with their former students...all of whom are current members of the Headland High School Faculty.

An impressive legacy !!