It amazes me constantly about this hand washing business we read and hear so much about in the news. It's like this is something new to folks when they speak of washing hands after going to the bathroom or any other process that leaves germs on our fingers. I'm not sure if other schools did or not but Huntington Elementary teachers put heavy emphasis on personal hygiene. None of us knew what hygiene was but we knew those clean fingernails, clean teeth, hands and face charts meant we definitely needed to be on the ball or there would be no stick on stars by our names. Much emphasis was put on the clean campaign when we were in Delia Davis' first grade class and Stella Rose's second grade class. They were the teachers we spent our day with. We did not change classes during the day back then.

Each of us held our hands out for inspection as the teacher walked by to look. We were all poor, some worse than others, but only one or two, were really dirty at the start of the day.

Mrs. Rose certainly had nothing fancy to wear but neither did we. She was diligent about the cleanliness show and tell. Overalls and homemade dresses could be clean when we began our school day.

Had I been inclined to be dirty, Stella Rose put the fear of God into me for sure that year of second grade. One of the older girls had head lice and Mrs. Rose did nothing but take the girl out back of the building and douse her head with kerosene. That news reached all of us kids quicker than a bolt of lightning and the girl was older than we were! That one incident made me fear head lice as much as I would have feared a coiled rattlesnake. It simply would have been a disgrace to have lice today it is rather common place. The years Pat Conway and I taught fourth, fifth and sixth graders we were hell on head lice. Lice are not age selective; anybody can get them and especially those who have long straight hair.

It had to be such a chore for mothers to keep their kids clean when we were young since most folks had no running water in the house.- Well water was used or maybe cistern water but there was no such thing as "government" water like we have today outside city limits. I can well remember when we got running water and a bathroom was built in our house when we lived in "town."

Back in the winter when flu was catching folks off guard, any person quoted declared people should wash their hands often and do a thorough job of it. I'm not nearly a fanatic about cleanliness as I once was but my hands still get washed many, many times daily and especially so while I am in the kitchen or bathroom. Keys, money, cat door handles and grocery cart handles are some of the nastiest things around. Sometimes you will see handy wipes to use for wiping the handles. That is a haven of germs and of course, kids will always put their fingers in the mouths. I've seen mothers take kids to the store who would be dirtier than the carts.

I often wonder if I ever made an impression on any of the students who were in my classes. While in the gym for physical education classes when I first started teaching, we had the nastiest janitor. We had two of the cleanest after I began to stay in a classroom all day. My room never needed cleaning except to sweep the floor. That was part of our classwork: cleaning up behind oneself. More than likely that was the only place some of the kids learned to be clean. Surprisingly some of the dirtiest kids were the healthiest! Mother taught us to be clean and Stella Rose reemphasized that lesson when we got to school.

I stopped by McMullen Memorial Library one morning and it had been a while since I had been in there. When there's more time I plan to get back in there and learn what some of the modern stuff is. How backward I am all of a sudden. They had such neat looking books and if I had time to spend the day in there I would and read all day. I even like books for little kids and young people. Anybody who doesn't read misses so much; it is beyond my imagination to forget about reading.

The reason for the trip to the library was in search of annuals or yearbooks. They do have older and newer ones but I needed a 1951 from Huntington; that one they did not have. Looking at our pictures in elementary school brought back so many memories. That really made me wonder what happened to some of those kiss that came and went from my grade. Is anybody else s curious as I am about such?

If you have told your kids or left written instructions of what to do with your belongings such as annuals after you are dead and gone, tell them to donate them to McMullen Memorial Library. It is such a great way to preserve history. Or better yet if the books are in your way now at home, get someone to help you gather them up and take them to the library yourself. Debra Bashaw was so helpful and we had the building to ourselves so we caught up on years that have passed us by and lots of folks in our lifetime.