If you are like many of us, the past year of “sheltering in place” provided many opportunities to reflect on past experiences– some pleasant, some we would like to forget! For others, it has been a time to remember old friends and classmates and maybe pick up the phone and give them a call.

This month, Doris Moody, with humor and chagrin, shares a teenage experience she recalls in vivid detail! She also tells of a project dear to the hearts of many Eatonton High School alumni.

The Common Bond of Memories

by Doris Moody

Not many of us can say that we went to the same school our mothers did, much less had some of the same teachers. I’m one of the lucky ones! My mother, Petrona Hawkins Clopton, and I both went to the old Eatonton High School, now The Plaza Arts Center. I attended school there from the first to the sixth grades, and then transferred over to the “new high school”, now Putnam County Elementary, and graduated with the Class of ’57. She attended high school there and graduated in the class of 1930.

The one teacher we had in common is a story worth telling. Her name was Mrs. Robert Rainey, and I still shudder to think about those typing tests. She was fully dedicated and fiercely committed to teaching us some typing, shorthand, and other business skills. If you were in her class, you would learn, or have to reckon with her wrath. She could make you feel awful if you gave less than your best, and she always seemed to know what “less than your best” was.

Following in your mother’s footsteps can be a significant liability when the teacher picks up on a parental trait and doesn’t hesitate to transfer it to you, given the slightest indication that you might carry the defective gene! It didn’t take Mrs. Rainey long to tag me! During my junior year at the “new high school”, a Clopton relative, Elizabeth Clopton Feaster, gave me a lovely opal ring. It was a family heirloom, and I was so proud to wear it. It was truly the most beautiful thing I had ever owned.

Unfortunately, I left the ring on the bathroom sink at school. When I realized that I didn’t have it and went back, it was gone. There were several announcements over the intercom, and the entire school knew that the ring was missing. When I entered Mrs. Rainey’s classroom the next day, she took one look at me, put her hands on her hips and pronounced that I was, “born careless and had a double relapse, just like my mother!” Needless to say, the ring was never found, but her words still echo every time I misplace something, and I’m still trying to prove her wrong!

Old School History Museum’s Memorial Book

The stories we tell and the memories we share of the Old School curl around our roots like tendrils and bind us together far below the surface of our conscious minds. It is this common bond that supports the Old School History Museum’s Memorial Book. If you attended the Old School at any time, whether you graduated or not, you have earned a place on a class page in this beautiful book. Many pages have already been created, each written in elegant calligraphy by former OSHM board member, Linda Elkins.

Each class donates $100.00 to the Memorial Book Project. At that time all the members of the class who have passed away, along with the year of their birth and death, are added to the page. Thereafter, if any member of the class dies, an individual or the class can donate $50 and that person’s name is placed on the class page.

What a wonderful way to remember a beloved classmate! A number of living graduates have already donated money to the museum to have their name and birthdate added to their class page. Although this is a fundraising project for the Museum, it is also a gift to the people who love the Old School and want to continue to be a part of its history. To learn more about this project or to have your name added to your class page, please contact Doris Clopton Moody via email at doriscmoody@bellsouth.net

Dr. Moody is a board member and volunteer docent at the Old School History Museum. A very active retiree, she taught microbiology for many years at Georgia College and State University.