"PAST PERFECT"...(A view of the YesterYears through Rose Colored Glasses) - Part 3

"PAST PERFECT", PART 3, narrated by fictitious
'One Room School House' teacher, Mr. D'Arcy McGee.

Year of Our Lord - 1922

Photo - Young lads on sleds...( WW2 Soldiers in their youth )

INTRO

"Country hills become toboggan slides
When the crimson blaze of Autumn dies.
Seasons ago were the days of my youth.
I still recall patching...
...that old school roof."

PART 3

Their quills were dipped into the ink wells
To busy themselves while the wee ones spelt
CAT on their slate boards with chalk in hand.
Medville? He snored and ignored...
...my "Wake up" command.

His mother dropped by one day at noon.
SMACKED his desk with a big wooden spoon.
He sat right up, straight as a stick
And quick as a lick...
...did 'Rithmetic.

In Reading and wRiting, he soon surpassed
Any kid taught in that one room class.
He took to learning like a moth to a flame.
A Prince of the Pun...
...A veritable BARD, he became.

Clad in his short pants to school he would trod
With his book, fresh fruit and a twig of a rod
For he loved to escape to the woods at lunch time.
To idle...To fish...
...To pencil words into rhyme."

Mabel, Gert, Fanny and Lizzie Lou
Winning his heart was the goal they pursued.
These girls did laugh at his antics and quips,
But Medville went alone...
...on his fish'n trips.

Treasured away was an old tattered book
Of poems he wrote down at Nellie's Brook.
Dig'n for worms, he laid the shovel down.
With a pencil he netted...
...MYSTIC BEAUTY, all 'round

A pot bellied stove, in the aisle, it stood.
Heated the school when packed fulla wood.
The embers that glowed caused a stir one time,
When Medville set fire...
...to his fishing line.

Amid the clamor he put the rod in his hand
To try to retrieve Mary's hair ribbon band.
Thrown into the fire by Tom Foolery.
The rod and the ribbon...
...were History.

To all ye young teachers, this is for you
Thru life we encounter, true Medvilles, 1 or 2.
Plain born & bred fellers, endowed innately.
Encourage their Genius...
...or SLOTHS, they'll be.
__________________

My love for this River has guided the way,
I've etched vivid scenes of the Good Ole Days.
Withered with age, nigh on 93.
ETERNALLY, I'll rest beside Bess...
...on my GRAND MIRAMICHI.


THE END

Photo - Young Medville, who died at age 42, showing Mr. McGee
the Path To Heaven...(and do'n a little fishing along the way)


____________

* Research for this Heritage Song was done
by simply talking to the stoic folk who lived it.
They loved telling me what life was like back in 1922.



~~~*~~~

Deanna More /© Copyright 2006