Shop

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Bruce Abbott, Principal

Me and Mr. Abbott

  Bruce Abbott was my High School Principal. He let me drop high school Physics when I was a Senior. I was grateful for that but you don't get out of anything in this life. I signed up for Observational Astronomy later when I was in college thinking I could get to look through the big telescope on the roof of one the buildings on campus and there Physics was again and I was knee deep in it.

  I got to crown the new Homecoming Queen one year and Mr. Abbott was my escort. I got to crown her and he gave her the flowers or I gave her the flowers and he got to crown her. I don't remember which but I do remember Mr. Abbott spitting out a Rolaid before we went out onto the football field during the halftime activities on that crisp fall night.

  We were sweating it out, literally, on graduation night on "Old Winston's Eastern border, reared against the sky..."as the lyrics of our Alma Mater wafted through the open doors of our little High School gymnasium on that balmy Southern night in Northwest Alabama.  Mr. Abbott was about to hand us our diplomas and we would shake his hand, one by one, all 29 of us.

  I remember the words he spoke to us that night. " Don't ever be ashamed to say that you graduated from Meek School".  He knew what lay ahead of us, our parents and teachers loved us and were proud. We were barely one generation off of a dirt floor in a poor white county and had no idea that the rest of the world was about to cut our okra and see how tough we were.

  Our class had the highest percentage of college graduates in the history of the school to that date.

  Thanks Mr. Abbott, you did good. I heard that you won't be needing those Rolaids any more. God Bless you.

No comments:

Post a Comment