A new girl named Sherry Steeley came to Redwood School. Sherry at the time could not read, write, or anything else. In fact, I don't even think at the time Sherry could even talk. Sherry did not even know what a table or a chair was. Sherry had to wear two hearing aids, for she could not hear without them. Sherry had a special teacher just for her. This teacher would take different colors of chalk, and write the word chair like this on the black board, c-h-a-i-r. Then she would teach Sherry every sound and taught Sherry how to sound out the word and put the whole word together. After Sherry learned all of these things, then she joined the rest of us in Mrs. White's classroom. Sherry did not know what snow or a sleigh was. When it snowed enough Mrs. White took Sherry out in the snow and took Sherry for her first sleigh ride.
I was always interested in Sherry for some reason. Sherry has Aphasia. And she cannot talk like most people do. Sherry's words are not in a sentence form. The words are jumbled around. But once you do learn how to understand Sherry, it's very "REWARDING".
Mrs. Horney was moving to Florida when school was out and Sister Charles was going somewhere else. There were more new children coming to Redwood School and the building was too small, so after summer vacation was over, and school started up again in 1969, the new Redwood School would be on Orphanage Rd. in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. And as for Mrs. Horney, we never heard from her again. Sister Charles did visit the new school, but now she works in Villa Madonna Nursing Home.
In the summer of 1969 Mrs. Woods and Mrs. White let Dad, Mom and me come to look at the new school while it was being built. They showed me where the classroom would be with Mrs. White. I do remember walking through the empty building with just empty rooms and boards. But the new Redwood School was finished when school resumed again. Now I had to ride the bus to school and back home, which I hated. Once again, I was afraid and scared but I don't really think that anybody really understood my fears. I cried every afternoon on the way home, because every time that the bus driver got so close to (my street) he would turn and go in another direction just to drop somebody else off. I was the last one on the bus, and I was always afraid that the bus driver would forget me, or the way to my house. In fact, one day he did forget to turn down my street and I had to yell and yell at him until he finally looked in the mirror and saw me. He said, "Oh I almost forgot about you". That really helped my fears a lot! But as time went on, I got used to riding the bus. It was hot and noisy.
We had a very good cook named Mrs. Williams, she made the best lunches. She would put a whole stick of butter in the spinach and was it ever good. When we were in the old Redwood School Mom had to pack my lunch every day, there was not a cook until we moved to the new Redwood School. Mrs. Williams quit, and another woman took over and she was never the cook that Mrs. Williams was. Some days I couldn't eat the lunch because the food really made me sick, and I would come home sick with a awful headache. But Mrs. Woods would not listen to Mom or Dad. She wouldn't even let Mom pack my lunch, so I could eat right. When we were in the old Redwood School it was like one great big family, but now everything had changed for the beginning of the worse.
There was a boy named Bobby Boothby that started at Redwood School. He was a slow learner. Bobby was very good and nice to me, and I guess we became boy and girl friend. One day they forced me to eat a lunch. I told them that the food was making me sick, but they did not care. So on the way home on the bus that afternoon I started to get sick and throwing up. Bobby never left my side, he helped me with what ever I needed. When the bus driver got to Bobby Boothby's house, his Mother came down and picked me up and brought me home. But Mrs. Woods and the rest of them, still forced the food on me. Bobby and I went together for a while. He gave me a friendship ring with the letter "B" on the top. I wore it for a while, then he got wild like the rest of the boys, and this ended our relationship. I did not like how the other boys were acting.
I was with Mrs. White six years, and after summer vacation was over I would be in a new classroom with a new teacher named Miss Candy Button. Redwood School didn't have grades like the regular schools did. Everybody went at their own pace. It didn't matter if you had to read a reading book the whole school year, then finish the book up when school started again after summer vacation was over and everybody went back to school. (Now that I am grown up and think about it, maybe Mrs. White somehow knew that after I left her classroom, that I wouldn't be taught the right way again.
After summer vacation was over and school started up again, Miss Candy Button came on the school bus and got me off. She was young with short light hair. Everybody seemed to like Miss Button including me. But as the school year went on, nobody liked her. She would bring her personal problems with her, and would take it out on all of us. We were afraid to ask her a question, for she would make everybody cry including me, by yelling at us. Miss Button should have been a teacher at some other school.
Mom brought a birthday cake to school on my birthday, I didn't even know about it. I think it was blue and white on the outside, and chocolate on the inside. Mom said that I threw up when I got home, but I don't remember it.
Mrs. White asked me when I first started Miss Button's classroom if I liked her. I naturally said, "No". For after six years with Mrs. White, and all that we went through together it really didn't seem right to be with another teacher in a new classroom. I just wished that Mrs. White would have let me stay just another year with her. I thought that I was ready for a new classroom and teacher, but oh how did I ever regert that move.
When school started up again, Miss Button would not be back, we would have a new teacher named Mr. James Burkhart.
... Chapter Four