First Day of School

By Ralphine Major

ralphine3@yahoo.com

It may not have had the flair or fanfare seen in many social posts today, but the picture shown here was taken on one of my first days of school in the early sixties.  Mother used her Kodak camera to capture the special moment on film as I stood near our rural road waiting on Herb Barker’s big, yellow school bus.  Our stop was near the end of the route, so the bus was nearly full when it arrived.

In those days, my world was mostly occupied with school, church, and our life on the dairy farm.  Summers were spent picking blackberries, helping with vegetable gardens and the animals, and riding Shetland ponies around the farm.  Getting ready for a new school year was special, and it required lots of new things.  Our mother made most of my school clothes and church clothes.  As years passed, and especially when I entered The University of Tennessee, my scope of everyday life broadened.  I often met students who attended larger schools and bigger churches, usually in the city.  Their upbringing had given them much more exposure and opportunities in many ways.  Looking back on those early days growing up on the dairy farm and living on the rural land; going to a small, rural school; and worshiping in a small, rural church—I wouldn’t change a thing.

Words of Faith: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” Ephesians 6:1 (KJV).