Old School

Mother painted this still life in 1977 as a gift to Wanza Parks, a woman who was dear to our family’s heart. Mrs. Parks was my kindergarten teacher, as well as the kindergarten teacher for my three siblings.  She lived just two blocks down the street from us and Mom considered her a dear friend.

It is only fitting that the subject of this oil painting contains a teacher’s tools – an old chalk board, books and a hand bell.  I’m certain that the original painting had far more color in it than this old photo depicts, but even with the poor-quality photograph, you can still see how Mom captured the three colors of the chalk board – black, white and gray – with lots of white chalk residue in the middle, fading to gray and then to black along the edges where the chalk rarely touched the board.

I don’t recall a lot about kindergarten, but I do still remember that Mrs. Parks taught me the alphabet and the sound that each letter makes.  Even though I was only five years old at the time, I especially remember the day that Mrs. Parks taught us the sound that the two letters “ch” made when put together. To reinforce the lesson, she handed each of us a picture of a church to color with our crayons, pointing out that this word had not one, but two “ch”s in it! I was fastinated to learn this – and the word “church” remained the most exotic word I had ever learned to write for a long time.

All of the siblings of my family turned out to be avid readers, and we can give Mrs. Parks credit for providing us a great foundation to build upon. In fact, she provided a solid foundation of education for a whole generation of children who grew up in Comanche, Texas.

— Bonnie Sudderth