Miss Sherrod – A new perspective on myself!

 It is odd looking back at the things that stick in memory.  Small things that happened that shaped who I am today.  Miss Sherrod had me for English.  One of our assignments was to write a theme paper.  Now I was happy to be in Miss Sherrod’s class as it was said she loved football players.  Therefore with a little effort like staying awake most of the class, I was sure to pass.

  I knew I had to turn in something but writing was never very interesting to me.  It was always hard for me to put one word after another and producing a coherent paragraph was difficult.  However, I wrote a paper on “Frigidaire Soup” describing how my mom saved leftovers from meals till the Frigidaire was full, then dumping it all in a pot, adding water, she cooked it over low heat. We would then eat the soup until it was gone and the cycle would begin all over again.  I filled up the required length of the paper with the various vegetables, meats, and spices that went into the pot.

Miss Sherrod was so impressed by my effort that she had me read the essay to the class.  This totally blew me away.  No teacher had ever suggested that I had any talent or potential up to that point.

Did this have anything to do with playing football?  I don’t know, but I do know that she gave me a totally new way of looking at myself.  Perhaps there could be more to life than being a “dumb jock”.

Ed. Note:  Most of us remember Miss Sherrod as our Latin teacher and don't think of her as having taught English.  However, Jimmy is right, she was listed as Latin and English teacher in our annual.  Does anyone remember what level English class she taught?