Sorry, Miss Daubenspeck, Wherever You Are!
By Sharon Gates
I saw in the Gazette where a Miss Daubenspeck (Sigmon) died and it got me to thinking about our Miss Daubenspeck, English teacher at CHS. I don't know if the late Ms. Daubenspeck is related, but it isn't exactly a common name.
I have always loved English classes, reading great literature and writing everything,
whether reports, term papers, creatively. However, I did not flourish
our senior year in Miss Daubenspeck's class. I believe she was very
tired of teaching and was at that point just putting in the time she needed
to put in until retirement. She may have been about our age now!
While Mrs. Newsome created lots of interest with Silas Marner and every English teacher and class I'd had for my first 11 years held my attention, I found my mind wandering in Miss Daubenspeck's class. My memory tells me she had us reading our textbooks for long periods of time in the classroom, something we could have done at home. I found it beneath a class of advanced students.
We were privileged to have Cathy Mullen, our Merit Scholarship student, in the class with us, and every single day, after the announcement of her august award, there came an assistant from the office, bringing in letters from college admissions officers addressed to Cathy.
One day, Nanette Moseley and I decided we would like to get some mail,
too, so, we began sending each other
silly greeting cards, so something would be delivered to us in Miss Daubenspeck's
classroom. We had a great amount of fun with that and were even able to
find some "racy" greetings cards in 1967, though I have no idea
where! Believe me, they'd be tame now, even in a Hallmark Gold Crown
Store, but, back then, they were enough to send us into guffaws at their
receipt!
One day, Miss Daubenspeck asked me to bring my mail to the front of the class
and read it to the rest of the students, since I had laughed aloud.
That evening she called my mother and told her that I was the ringleader of
hooligans in the classroom-so, my short career to enliven the boring English
class came to a quick end!
Ah, the innocence of those days, when nobody I knew of sought to relieve their boredom by cutting down surrounding trees, starting food fights, or bringing guns to class!
Sorry, Miss Daubenspeck, wherever you are!