The "Rollin' Along With Mabel" Story

Mabel Murray, educator extraordinaire.

It was an ordinary day.   Carol and I were having lunch with Jerry and Just Sue when the subject came back to, as usual, "remember when."  Tough for Carol to participate at times since many of the "remember when" discussions usually head towards the old high school memories department and since Jerry, Just Sue and myself graduated together in the same high school class, Carol has no memories at all of what the three of us did in high school.  Well, today the "remember when" moment was about one of our teachers when we were in high school.  Woman by the name of Mrs. Murray who was chairman of the English Department for years and when Jerry and I both returned to teaching in the same high school from where we graduated, she was still there teaching and heading the department.  I was the only one who had Mrs. Murray as a teacher in high school.  As a senior I had her during the last period of the day for English.  By that time I was all thought out and barely made it through her class.  I guess you already know that if you have been reading my prose for the past six years.  I remember her as a very strict teacher who loved writing and literature.  Neither were favorites of mine so I guess the "C" I got in her class was a blessing.  A few years after Jerry and I began teaching, Mrs. Murray (notice how I still can't call her by her last name) announced her retirement.  I never did get to know her as a colleague, since I feared she would remember how poor I did in class and would be embarrassed all over again.  Jerry and I got to talking about her parting faculty meeting and how she livened up the multi-tiered meeting room with her retirement speech.  She was introduced and called to the enclosed lectern where she pulled something from her bag she carried all the time and prepared for her comments.  As she began her final speech to the faculty she pulled out a roll of toilet paper which she had written her speech upon and began to fill the room with laughter and constant applause.  What a woman!  As she read from the roll of toilet paper she let it continue to unroll in front of the lectern until the entire roll had dropped in front of the lectern.  It was at that point that I realized how foolish I had been in not getting to know her better as a colleague. What a wonderful teacher she was during her stay at Manheim Township High School.  She departed to the applause of the entire faculty.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.