Summer has arrived.
Finally a week of warm and pleasant weather. Nighttime sounds include the buzzing of June bugs on screens and whining mosquitoes singing songs of happiness at yet another takeout feast as one goes from the car to the house. There is the sound of the screen door slamming with the familiar admonition about slamming the door. Ice Cream is beginning to flow like honey and numerous yellow buses pull up to the Tasty Freeze for an ice cream cone or two for their denizens. Adventure awaits and school itches.
Thoughts turn back to times and teachers past. There is always the end-of-the-year program, and here the teachers strive to showcase some of what the students have learned. Awards are made. Pictures are snapped. Parents, grandparents, siblings and families gather to exchange words and wonder at how far they have come.
Usually all of this is underlined with some simple musical program. The bleats and blats of saxophones and clarinets counter the trebles and trills of trombones and trumpets in the schools that still have music programs.
Ms. Desmond comes to mind for those who went to Zippel so long ago. Fifth-graders had music two days a week and Ms. Desmond had the task of trying to teach a bit of music knowledge to a broad range of students. This was always a fun class because it was one of the few times that auditory chaos was tolerated. An upright piano was brought into the classroom and we learned the basics of treble clefs, bass clefs, half notes and and rests. Some would say there are reasons why a bagpipe scares the hare and frightens the rabbits.
Choral capabilities sorted and organized, Ms. Desmond would have the fifth-graders warbling a few songs, much to the delight of parents at the assembly. In a hot gymnasium turned into auditorium, students hit notes real and imagined. Parents beamed and one or two joined in as they remembered their own songs. How Ms. Desmond kept her temper spoke loudly to her skill. Pitch pipe in hand, notes sounded and the ceremonies concluded.
Now, enjoying the slower pace of life, it’s nice to remember those early years and how lucky students were. To memories of long ago, new memories will be joined. Somewhere there is a Ms. Desmond and others who made the year memorable. Enjoy it.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in The County who graduated from UMPI and earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After 20 years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea.
