My first year of teaching, I was younger than spring and twice as green.
I was on an AEA trip to Birmingham with Sarah Robinson, Helen Jaggers and Pauline Reeves, fellow teachers at Emma Sansom. By the afternoon of the first day, the hospitality rooms were reduced to bites of chip-and-dip and popcorn, and watery punch; the teachers were dozing in the large overstuffed chairs waiting for the afternoon sessions to begin.
“I’ll never stay awake,” I thought. “Why did I come? I’m not going be asked to teach again. I haven’t done one thing right all year.”
Someone pinched my arm — hard. “Come on! Let’s blow this morgue!” Sarah had her “freebies” and looked like she was ready to go home. It had been a wasted trip, anyway. I wouldn’t need any of that education stuff. Education — not for me.
We “blew the place,” but I found that Sarah never just went home; we wound up at Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile! We bought tickets to see a movie: “The Sound of Music.”
“The hills are alive, with the sound of music.” Fresh and clean as the star, Julie Andrews, comes running, arms flung as if to embrace the whole world, joy literally oozing from the screen. My heart was completely captured.
“How do you solve a problem like Maria?” The nuns at the abbey where the girl named Maria was attempting to find a place sang about a song about her. I completely identified with Maria. Through one disaster and another, I knew Maria could never be a nun — just as I could never be a teacher. The other teachers talked about my poor discipline; my dresses were too short and my monthly reports were rubbed till holes appeared.
But then, the most remarkable thing happens: The nuns at the abbey decide to put Maria with a widowed naval captain’s family. The disasters continue, but it’s different. This time it fits. Mother Abbess tells Maria that she must follow every rainbow, till she finds her dream — a dream that will take all the love you can give, every day of your life for as long as you live.
By this time, the same realization had burst upon the “Maria” from Emma Sansom. I sat there, sobbing. God had moved people like pawns in a chess game for me to find my dream; it was up to me to follow the dream. To give it all the love I can give for as long as I live — and I have.
The only thing that has stood in my way has been me; at times I was afraid, and often didn’t have Maria’s spunk.
By the way, I met the real Maria von Trapp, when she came to the Gadsden Woman’s Club. I wore a navy outfit with white gloves. I took the day off from school and sat as close to Maria as I could.
I had my dream in my eyes. It has taken all the love I can give, every day of my life — ’round town.
Glenda Byars is a correspondent for The Gadsden Times. Send submissions to glendabyars@comcast.net.