Taking Down Memories

Today I took the ornaments off of my Christmas tree, and packed them back in the box, to store until next year. I enjoyed looking again at each ornament, remembering that many of them came from my former elementary school students. Some I remembered; others had names on them. You may think an ornament is an insignificant gift, but mine have hung on my tree every year since 1970.

Gifts bring back mem’ries

Each one was a warm spot in my heart

Winter of my life

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

The Magic Oak

Story #1

A giant oak tree stood in the middle of the School parking lot! Rumor has it the center was hollow, and inside lived the souls of teachers from the past.
They called it the Feel-Good Tree, because anyone who stood under it lost the stress of their day. Its magical qualities had been shared for almost a hundred years. Children played around the tree while waiting for their buses. Teachers stood by in the shade and shared the day’s gossip.
The School board decided to build a new building that would be located right where the oak tree stood. Sadly. Taking Down the Tree occurred in the summer when almost everyone was gone. As the roar of the chain saws marked the end of the magical tree, no one heard the mournful cries of the souls of the teachers who resided there for generations.

Today at d’Verse Victoria asked us to write Flash Fiction prose of not more than 144 words. She gave us a line from one of Jane Kenyon poems. Jane Kenyon was born in 1947 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was once the Poet Lauriat of New Hampshire. The line we had to include in our story was: Taking Down the Tree.
I took a photo of our giant oak tree from my former teaching days and created my story.

I realized after the fact that I got the wrong line in my story. It was supposed to be:  If it’s darkness we’re having, let it be extravagant.

I edited the ending to my story and inserted the correct line. Below is the revised version.

Story #2   The Magic Oak 

A giant oak tree stood in the middle of the School parking lot! Rumor has it the center was hollow, and inside lived the souls of teachers from the past.
They called it the Feel-Good Tree, because anyone who stood under it lost the stress of their day. Its magical qualities had been shared for almost a hundred years. Children played around the tree while waiting for their buses. Teachers stood by in the shade and shared the day’s gossip.
The School board decided to build a new building that would be located right where the oak tree stood. As the roar of the chain saws marked the end of the magical tree, no one heard the mournful cries of the souls of the teachers who resided there for generations. As they disappeared, they said, “If it’s darkness we’re having, let it be extravagant.”

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

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Goat School

Once upon a time this goat shed held children;
A place for learning where my father taught.
Filled with desks, chairs, and cute Amish youngins’
All eight grades in one room was quite a lot.

King School //a microcosm of learning
Shaped teachers, preachers, and cute farmers’ wives.
For some, eight grades met their need for farming;
Where they worked the land the rest of their lives.

Time moved on and so have all the students;
Who never imagined what was in store.
For their little one room school house wouldn’t
Last forever // in time // would be no more

A shed for goats in the shell that is left;
Sheds no more light on America’s best.

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Lillian at d’Verse, asked us to think about the many meanings of the word shed;  and write a poem of our choice. It is sad to see the school where my father started his teaching career turn into a goat shed. I attempted to write a sonnet expressing some of those feelings.

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Teachers Change the World

Autumn leaves change colors

Students begin new school year

Retired teachers smile

Parents  take a long deep breath

New challenges await all

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Teachers Change the World

Photos of my students: Dwight L. Roth

This flashback is for Frank Tassone’s Haikai challenge. He asked us to write a poem that included autumn/Labor Day/ School. This is a project I had my students do many years ago. They had to make a bird nest and put a real egg in it. Then they had to find a spot on the school ground where they thought it would be safe. At the end of the week we checked to see how many survived. Fun times before “teaching the test days!”

Join us at:  https://frankjtassone.com/2018/09/01/haikai-challenge-49-9-1-18-labor-day-coming-of-autumn-risshuu-haiku-senryu-haibun-tanka-haiga-renga/

 

You can read more of my stories on Amazon Kindle.

 

Crickets’ Last Song

One fall, in my early years of teaching Elementary School, I built a terrarium creating a closed ecosystem for my classroom. We included dirt,  gravel, chunks of grass, rocks and sticks. We found a large preying mantis on the schoolyard and put it in the tank, along with a toad, earthworms, moths, pill bugs, and crickets. The students really enjoyed watching all the activity in the tank.

The crickets in the tank made their chirping sounds as we went about our school day. Little did they know the mantis sitting silently  up on the dead branch was waiting patiently  for her chance to grab one of them for lunch. When the mantis caught one, the children watched in awe as she systematically devoured the cricket. She was preparing to create her egg sac!

Cricket’s soulful sound

Chirping last mating song __

Fall mantis waiting

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Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Victoria at d’Verse gave us crickets as our prompt for Haibun Monday.  Crickets are an indication that fall is on the way once more. I decided to share how crickets contribute to my classroom during my teaching day back in the 1970’s

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