By Gayle Sessions
I started first grade in 1948 at Center Grove Elementary in Tullahoma, Tennessee when I was only 5 years old. My brother, Billy, was 2 years older than me and we did everything together. The year he started school in 1947 I was lost and very unhappy. So my mother talked to the first grade teacher, Mrs. Tubbs, and she thought it would be ok for me to start the next year even though I was really young. So mother let me start school.
We lived on a farm about 7 miles from Tullahoma, but we had to attend school in the county where we lived. The elementary school was close but the high school was in another town, Winchester, which was about 20 miles away.
In 1948 we were fortunate to have a vehicle, but it was for all family activities, so we had to ride the county school bus to school. The elementary I attended was only three miles away, but the bus picked up all students in our area and dropped us off at our elementary and continued on to Franklin County High School in Winchester. We caught the bus at 6:30 each morning and were dropped off early at the elementary 15 minutes or so later.
Then the bus continued the route on to the high school. Our school started at 8:00 am. So we had over an hour to wait before the bell. I don’t remember what I did in my early years during that time, but as I got in the fourth grade, I thought I was just one of the boys and I played every game they did while we waited for school to start. My brother, Billy, made sure no one picked on me and being a tomboy, I usually held my own. We played tag games, softball, dodge ball, red rover-red rover, marbles, skated in the winter on the 3 to 4 inches of rain water that did not drain but collected and turned to ice. In my 8th grade year I played basketball when we finally got an outside basketball goal.
Our school building was fairly long and only one story. One of my favorite games to play was a type of dodge ball where we divided up into two teams. One team was on one side of the school building and the other team was on the opposite side. Then a person would throw a ball over the roof of the school, and if someone on the other side caught the ball in the air, they would run around the building and throw the ball at someone on the other team. If they hit a person with their throw, that person had to change teams. If no one caught the ball in the air, then that team had to throw the ball back over the school building. So you had to keep watching both for a ball coming back over the school building at you or watch for someone coming around the building with the ball trying to throw it at you. We played this game for hours during warm and cold days.
We got out of school at 3:00 and had to wait about 45 minutes for the bus to arrive from the high school. As you can imagine, I also played the same type games again during that time. I loved school. I was with my brother and we had lots of time before school, after school, and recess to play.
Center Grove Elementary was located in the country. But there was a small store a short distance away where you could buy a snack if you had any money. We could get a candy bar and coke for about 10 cents or maybe 15. But you had to return the coke bottle. However, it was hard to come up with 10 to 15 cents in those days for each of us, and even harder to get permission from our parents and teachers to walk to the store.
The school was for grades 1 through 8. There were four teachers and a principal, who, during some of those years, was also one of the teachers. Each teacher taught two grades, first and second, third and fourth, fifth and sixth, or seventh and eighth. When the teacher was teaching one grade, the other grade could do homework, read, or just be quiet. Imagine in today’s world of difficulty with discipline tying to keep one grade quiet and occupied while you taught the other. Probably today students would just put their phones on silent and use them during that time.
We had to take our lunches because there was no cafeteria; there were no indoor bathrooms; the rooms were heated by a big pot bellied wood stove; and of course the air conditioning was from open windows. We made quick trips to the outside toilets in the winter, and those who sat in the front of the room were kept warm to hot by the wood stove, and those in the back were often cold. We sat in those wonderful desks that were shared. The front of the desk was a seat for one student and the back of the desk was the writing table and storage area for another student. The person right in front of you was easy to harass, so the teacher usually assigned seats to keep down the mischief.
My first grade teacher, Mrs. Tubbs, was wonderful. She was very patient with me since she knew how young I was. But she was great with all the students. I will always be grateful she made me learn to write correctly. I am left-handed, and there was no way she was going to let me hold my pencil any way but the right way. Some left-handed people hold their hand above the pencil, but she stressed holding it beside and behind the pencil.
I do remember I got in trouble in the fourth grade and had to stay in at recess. The door was open where I was, and all the teachers who walked by knew that I was in trouble. I was so upset. I don’t know if it was because I was embarrassed for being disciplined or because I had to miss playing outside with everyone else.
Our competitive sports program in elementary was taking an afternoon off in the spring and going to play another school in both a girls’ and boys’ softball game. We did start playing competitive basketball during my 8th grade. But we had no gym, so we practiced outside on the dirt. We traveled to other schools to play in their gyms and only played about 6 or 8 games and of course lost every game. In Tennessee, the basketball season ends by playing in a district tournament. Course we were not very good but in that final loss we did manage to score 13 points, the most we had scored all season.
During my 7th or 8th grade years, someone came to the school and spoke to us about the Bible. They challenged us by saying any student who would memorize John 3:16 would get a New Testament with our name engraved on it. I still have mine. I saw it in Tennessee this summer. It’s a little worn but still a precious memory.
My best friend and I tied for the valedictorian my 8th grade year. There was only one medal, and we flipped to see who would get the medal. I lost but I got to give the valedictorian speech. Yuck!! My mother was really upset about me not getting a medal. I guess that’s what parents are supposed to do and I will have to say I was disappointed also. But about five years ago when I was visiting this friend, she gave me that medal. How about that! I tried not to take it but she insisted. She said she had had it for over 60 years and it was now my time to have it for the next 60 years??? I guess that’s what great friends do.
There were 13 of us that graduated from Center Grove and off we went to Franklin County High School. From my house, the bus trip each morning took almost an hour and half with all the routes and stops. The afternoon trip home usually took an hour. We were home by 4:00. It was hot or cold on the bus but usually a fun trip.
However, one scary event did happen. We had to cross the river on a fairly long one-lane bridge. Usually when someone met the bus there they stopped on the other side and waited to allow the bus to cross first. But one morning a car refused to stop. We were already on the bridge and the car kept coming. The bridge had 2 raised up wooden lanes for the bus tires to be driven on. But that day the bus driver had to pull over so far he was off the raised up lanes and we were almost scraping the metal frame on the side of the bridge. We didn’t know if we were going to make it but we did!
My brother, Billy, tried out for baseball his junior year. He made the team as the starting short stop. Since his baseball practice was after school, he had to drive to school in the spring. So in the spring of his junior and senior years, I did not have to ride the bus in the mornings. This was now 1958 and we finally had a car plus dad’s pickup.
Franklin County is about the same size as Medina County, and there were two schools total in the county. Compare that to Medina County where we have five schools. As you can imagine, the school was huge for those days and definitely in my mind. There were over 3000 students. I really was barely 13 and very insecure. I soon learned I was behind academically, especially in math and English. But thankfully I had two great teachers in both those subjects my freshmen year. I realized years later that these high school teachers were probably used to incoming freshmen from these small county schools being behind. There were many other small elementary schools in the county like Center Grove that had graduated and sent hundreds of students like us to the high school. Many were probably behind academically just like me.
The school seemed massive to me and so was the gymnasium. The school building was two stories, and there were even indoor bathrooms and a cafeteria. I had my own locker. My first!! Being so insecure, I hardly ever held my hand up to answer a question and I always hated to read out loud in the classroom. It took a while, but soon my high school days became very normal. I loved high school even though I still remained somewhat timid in certain situations.
Everyone knew I loved to play sports, so they encouraged me to go out for the basketball team. So I did! This was the only competitive sport offered for girls in Tennessee in 1956. I remember my first day in the athletic class. My last name was Tipps, and we lined up against the wall in alphabetical order in front of a number. I was number 52. I was thinking there are more than 52 girls trying out for one basketball team. I was so nervous. But it turned out to be a physical education class also, and when basketball practice began, they separated us. There were about 15 girls trying out for the varsity basketball team. We did not have junior varsity or freshmen teams.
When basketball practices began, I found out I had NO SKILLS. But I was so competitive the coach was willing to give me a chance. He would line up some of the older players about 20 feet in front of me when we ran laps around the gym, and he would tell me that they better not beat me to the finish. And they seldom ever did!
Our basketball practices were held only during this physical education class time, last period from 2:00 till 3:00. This really worked out well for me since I rode the bus to school every day. I would not have been able to practice after school because I did not have any transportation to get home. Remember we lived 20 away from the high school.
The coach always had us condition the last 5 minutes of practice. This was a really big high school gym and he made us run five laps around the entire gym. We would start out running across one end of the gym playing floor, up the bleacher to the very top, run across the back of the bleachers, then down the steps, across the other end of the gym floor, back up the bleacher steps, and across the back of the bleachers on that side, and finally back down to the gym floor where we began. This was one lap, and we had to run five every day.
This gym was almost the size of the Paul Taylor gym if you are familiar with it in San Antonio. It was big!! My bus left at 3:10-ish, so I had about 15 minutes to run those 5 laps and get dressed back in a skirt or dress because we could not wear pants to school in those days. It did not take me long to get in shape. There was no going slow for me if I wanted to catch the bus home. I never worried about how hard this conditioning was; I was more worried about missing the bus home. Thankfully, I never did.
My basketball playing days were back in the day of 3 on 3 girls basketball. So you had 3 offensive players and 3 defensive players who always stayed and played on only their half of the basketball court. The coach wanted to make an offensive player out of me but when I went to shoot a layup I went so hard that I also threw the ball so hard against the backboard it might bounce back to the foul line. I was terrible! But for whatever reason, before the first game I made the team and got a uniform and my own pair of those old “All Star” high top basketball shoes. In our first game that year he put me in on offense late in the game because we were so far behind, and every time I touched the ball, I walked or had a turnover. It was so embarrassing and the coach knew he had made a mistake. The next day he took my uniform away and I missed the next two games. But he kept working with me and started practicing with me on defense. That was my nitch. After those 2 games I had to miss, I had my uniform back.
I never started a game, but I was substituted in fairly quickly in every game. I could play defense and could rebound, and I did not want to get beat. There were very few skills involved in playing defense, so my basketball playing days started, and I never looked back my freshman year. The defense at that time in Tennessee did not even have to dribble the ball up the floor after a made basket. Instead, one referee would grab the ball out of the net and throw it to the other referee who would pass it to the other team’s offensive player who was in a small circle at mid court. She would put the ball in play by passing to one of her other two offensive players on her end of the court. When I came to Texas in 1964, the defensive players had to advance the ball up the court after a made basket. That was definitely better for the game. It took me two years, but by my junior year I was playing on offense, where my coach wanted me to play.
On game days for away games I had to stay in Winchester with someone because there was never time to ride the bus home and then get back in time to leave for the game trip. But I always had a ride home because my parents never missed a game except one year when my dad had a terrible fall and was in the hospital for weeks. Dad was at all the games otherwise and when I started on offense he always kept a score card with how many points I scored. I guess that is not much different with many parents today. They keep up with their child’s statistics.
We won the district tournament my sophomore and senior years and advanced to the regional tournament where we lost our first game both years. My junior year we were seated the number one team in the district tournament and were playing the last place team. We should have beaten them easily. But mother wanted to honor the team by hosting a slumber party at our house on Tuesday night before we played on Thursday. We did all those things you do at a slumber party, slept on the floor, ate big, laughed and giggled, and of course, stayed up much later than usual. Then on Thursday we lost our first game in the district tournament. I learned a big lesson and got sternly talked to by my coaches. Going into the district tournament the next year I was told I better NOT have another slumber party that week!
Academically I was a good student. I made one “C” and it was in typing. By my junior year I was still insecure in some areas and when we had to take a test to see how many words you could type in a limited time, I would panic. I was terrible on those speed tests. In all my other classes I made mostly “A’s” with a few “B’s” mainly because I wanted good grades but also my parents demanded we do well. Neither of my parents finished high school and they were not going to let that happen to us. College was their plan for all their children. Like it or not!
Fortunately I graduated in the top 10 percent of my senior class.
I enjoyed my classes. Latin was tough but math and English were easy for me because I liked them and had great teachers. Learning how to sew in homemaking class, it is not called that any more, was not interesting for me. My mother was an excellent seamstress but gave up on teaching me because of my lack of interest and she struggled with me being left handed. So needless to say, I still wasn’t interested in learning to sew and the class was just before my PE class. So each day I wanted that class to end so I could get in the gym. I can’t remember but I probably made a “B” in home making.
My sophomore year Mrs. Betty Crouch came to FCHS as the new physical education teacher. When we were not in basketball practice, she was my teacher. She taught us tumbling, tennis, all kinds of fun games and volleyball. Our volleyball rules in those days were so different you could almost catch and throw the ball over the net; not really but close. Also a player could hit the ball twice. So you could set the ball to yourself and then spike it. I loved all the activities she taught us and I knew then I wanted to become a physical education teacher. Since elementary I knew I wanted to be a teacher but did not know what subject. Coaching had not yet entered my mind; just teaching.
Mrs. Crouch soon realized I needed to stay with someone on away basketball trips so I began to stay at her house till time to catch the athletic bus. She had two small children and her husband was a jokester and they became just like another family for me. We have remained very close friends through the years.
I played my last high school basketball game at 16 years old. I have often wondered how much better I could have been if I had been 17 or maybe 18 years old instead. As a coach now, I know 18-year-old senior athletes are much stronger, more mature, and skilled. I entered college at age 17 and was teaching school in Tennessee when I was 20 years old. I came to Devine when I was 21.
I have no regrets and have wonderful memories of my elementary and high school days but often wonder how different, if any, those days would have been had I been older. If I had graduated from college two years later, would there have been a job opening in Devine for me in 1966 instead of 1964??