Not adieu, but au revoir

When I last posted, I ended it with "adieu."  When the members of the von Trapp family were singing their farewell song prior to leaving Austria, they sang "adieu, adieu to you and you and you."  They knew that they were not returning once they left the festival that evening.  When I went to Florida for the reunion of the school staff, I certainly did not go with the thought that I would never see any of my friends there again.

I flew down to Florida on Thursday prior to the celebration on Saturday. My friend, Lorette, has a lovely home and welcomed me to stay there.  It was so relaxing.  On Friday I spent some time with my father-in-law and enjoyed dinner with him and his lady friend that evening.  Earlier in the day I had lunch with Janice, my roommate from my trip to the Canadian Rockies last year about this time.

Saturday was the day of the reunion.  Around 150 people came...former teachers, aides, principals, office staff, custodial staff, lunchroom staff, and former students.  There were a few there who are actually older than I am.  Can you believe it!  The committee who organized the party had photos from different eras of the school displayed around the room.  It was fun to look through old yearbooks that were there.

Barbie and Skipper...grown a little older

Ana, on the left, was one of my aides when I had the ESOL children.  She had been a teacher in Mexico, but there was so much red tape involved to get her credentials here that she worked as an aide.  She is teaching now, though.  She was wonderful to work with in my classroom and added so much to our day.

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Sue Gore and her husband, Wendell.  Sue and I taught together for many years at Orange Ridge.

I was standing looking at pictures when this young lady said to me, "You were my teacher in first grade in 1991."  I was so glad she was wearing a name tag.  When she told me here first name and I saw her last name, I remembered her.  She's 31 now and is a buyer for a company out of St. Petersburg.

Jeanette Kelly, one of the best fifth grade teachers we had and one of the best singers around.  

Miss Viola was the cashier in the lunch line who always greeted the children and staff with a sweet smile whenever we came through the lunch line.

Fran Padgett, on the left, started out as principal of the Bullock school.  She later became principal of the combined Orange Ridge Bullock school.  It was she who got the reunion started. Behind her is my friend, Lorette.  We worked together with the ESOL children for four years until I retired, and she continued on for a while after that until she retired.  On the right is Rick, our music teacher.  We loved Friday afternoons because Rick had a singalong for the primary grades.  It was a perfect way to end our week.

Sharon, the lady on the right, used to come to my classroom to volunteer when her children attended our school.  She told her daughter that I showed her how to turn on a computer.  She later became a secretary at our school.

Orange Ridge Bullock School
1958-2016