I gain so much joy working with the younger generation and this past week, I decided to share my office with a young man whose Dad I have known over 40 years. To make room for the son’s things, I needed to go through file drawers and shelves of over 10 years of files, photos, legislative analyses, insurance company information, news articles – you name it. Most of the documents were not dated past 2015 when I started turning more toward electronic files versus paper, thank goodness. In one folder though I found the October 2014 Plant City Edition of Focus Magazine. My lifelong friend (I grew up in Plant City, Florida) had a regular column called Candy’s Corner. In this particular edition, she wrote about our times in nursery school at Eastside Baptist Church and what we learned (what we now call learning curves), our friends (we now call them relationships), and how to pay attention (we now call it leaning in). I invite you to read the entire column but here is an excerpt that I think many of you can relate to from your past:
Eastside Baptist Church kindergarten class (you can see me on the front row to the right)
“I can remember that on the days (we arrived early), all the early children would meet in the old building which held the lunchroom, the kitchen, the offices, the nap area, and a great room where kids played with toys, watched Captain Kangaroo, and sang songs before classes began. I can remember that every once in a while, one of the teachers would play the piano and all the children would gather round and sing along. When it was time for classes to begin, we marched to our classrooms and started our busy day. I remember how Mrs. Rayburn and Mrs. Howard would have us sit in our seats around the table and call the roll. We would then bow our heads in prayer and Mrs. Rayburn would tell everyone to make sure and close their eyes. We would have lessons, crafts, chapel, play time out on the playground, potty time, nap time, story time, lunch time, and my favorite of them all…juice and cookie time.”
As I was working on this week’s newsletter and read Candy’s Column, I couldn’t help but wonder if the shooters in Buffalo, NY; Uvalde, TX; or Highland Park, IL went to kindergarten. Did they have a Mrs. Rayburn or Mrs. Howard who taught them the order of how things work in life from love, respect, and gratitude and that it’s never about us but about others? Did they learn, have friends, and pay attention to others? So much to think about. I invite you to share with me your ideas on how we can engage the younger generation to know the great lessons of us older Americans. Some who read this may disagree – that we older Americans have it all wrong. I hope you will contact me to tell me your thoughts and why that might be the case. For now, please take a few minutes to read what’s in store for the rest of this edition and thank you for letting me share a piece of my life with you. I hope you will return the favor!
LMA Newsletter of 7-11-22
