"Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students." --- Charles Kuralt
Part 1
The series that ran last fall featuring renowned local educator Neva Wood Foil was a natural segue to anecdotes on education in Washington Parish. Those which follow were recorded by prominent Franklinton dentist and local landowner Dr. T. C. W. Magee (1902-1979) in his mesmerizing memoir "Recollections of T.C.W. Magee, D.D.S. Tulane University Dental School 1922-1927."
Dr. T. C. W., also known as Willie, was my mother's first cousin; their mothers were sisters. He and wife Mary Gilmer Magee (1901-1995) had two daughters. Their daughter Margaret Magee Joffrion, of Asheville, North Carolina, and I are close cousins. Their daughter Mary Elizabeth Magee Macias passed away in 1990.
While Dr. T. C. W.'s account of schooling is perhaps the most entertaining I have read to date, I rarely encounter anyone who doesn't have fond memories of his or her upbringing and education in Washington Parish. My friend and Bowling Green classmate Marsha Carter Miller and I were conversing recently, when she mentioned our Mayberry-like youth. It seems that all are in agreement - it was a good life, growing up in Franklinton.
It is true that I made reference in January of 2021 to Dr. T. C. W.'s remembrance of his education at Franklinton Elementary and High School, but his unvarnished memory is best relayed in his own words:
(Entry made 1-5-1971 in Franklinton, Louisiana)
"My early education was secured in Franklinton Elementary and high schools. Some of my earliest teachers were Misses Lettie Ensign, Natalie Varnado, Beulah Carter, Jennie Bell Van Hook and a Mr. Richardson in the lower grades.
Several incidents in connection with some of these teachers stand out clearly in my memory. Miss Ensign taught me in first or second grade and I remember singing 'I washed my hands this morning. So very clean and white and then lent them both to Jesus, to work for him til night.' Then, 'little feet be careful, where you take me to, etc.' And the first school play or show I was in about then had a whole row of us standing behind a curtain about three or three and a half feet high stretched above the floor by the stage edge behind the footlights of kerosene lamps with tin reflectors.
As we sang and came to the verse, 'and topsy-turvy here we go,' we would duck down behind the curtain and wave our hands and arms above showing a group supposed to be standing on our heads because we had shoes and long heavy ribbed knitted stockings (worn by both boys and girls at the time) on our arms and hands. I recall how clever I thought I was to be supposedly fooling all that audience of fathers and mothers.
Miss Carter (later married my cousin, T.J. Magee, an attorney) taught me in third grade, which I failed in. I remember one switching she gave me with a long hardwood sprout cut from the bushes adjoining school grounds (not called campus then). She laid it on my lower limbs and brought whelps.
Miss Van Hook taught me in fourth or fifth. She and Irene Julia Dillon boarded at our house and that really put me on the spot as she would report any school news at the dinner table.
Living directly across the street in front of our house was a Wadsworth family. I liked one of the girls, Sarah, about my age. One day for our spelling lesson, we had proper names. On coming to the name Sarah, the teacher said, 'I'll bet there is one in the class that can spell the next name. Of course the class all chimed in 'Willie Magee.' I flushed and retorted back that if I could spell Sarah, Miss Van Hook could spell 'Bates'. Mr. Bates was the agricultural teacher and I knew he dated her. I in turn was punished and when news reached home I got another licking. That was the rule --- a licking at school called for a second one when the news reached home. My parents believed in backing the teachers.
I thought I had been wronged so I decided to retaliate or get even some way and took it out on her poor innocent date and her. They did not have cars to go courting in then and the men had to walk unless they rented a buggy at a livery stable. So I tied a piece of hay baling wire around a post near the ground out to the end of a plank on a bridge near our house, when I knew he had a date. The streets and sidewalks were poorly lighted with lights on some corners but not all and then with bulbs that I feel did not exceed 150 or 200 watts. Anyway this was in the middle of the block and I am sure not conspicuous. I never knew the results of my scheme but did not dare ask any questions either. So with all the principals passed on as far as I know, I acknowledge my trick.
Mr. Richardson as I think back now must have been a nice fellow but a young teacher without much and possible no experience. He must have had a hard year because I am sure that our average age group at that time was bad enough. However, that year several students came to our school from outlying communities. Some of them were from three to seven or eight years older than the rest of us.
Boys then wore knee length stockings until they were about fifteen years of age. Their trousers usually were gathered with an elastic band or buckle and strap above and sometimes below knee. The stockings were held up with ¾" or 1" black elastic homemade garters."
•Stay tuned as Dr. T. C. W. Magee unspools the rest of the story, next week.
