School starts this week. Boy, it is about time! News items and photo opportunities are in pretty short supply during the summer months. We are always glad to have our schools back in session. We hope every teacher will let us know when interesting and newsworthy events take place in their classrooms. Peabody and Burns communities want to know what is going on.
Warrior and Tomahawk volleyball and football teams have already begun competing, even though school has been on hold for USD 398 students. The past week’s edition of this newspaper included a copy of the End Zone for every reader. The End Zone offers coaches’ summaries of the season, the competition, and the faces to watch on the home team. However, you know how it is in a small town— every face on the home team is one to watch.
Janet Post and I have been reporting school activities and sports in the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin for eight years. The 2009-10 upper classmen were third- and fourth-graders when we started this gig. On Saturday afternoon, I saw one young man I remember from those days walking down a Peabody street holding hands with a pretty darn cute girl of about the same age. Holy moly. When did he get to be such a handsome and hunky young guy?
The PBHS kids of today are the offspring of friends and classmates of our married daughter and the youngest child. I am often tempted to call them into a huddle and share embarrassing stories about their parents. And I confess that I have done this on occasion. If the parents fuss about it, I mention that there could be an opinion column sharing their stories with the reading public. Usually that is all it takes to remind them that I am still Mean Mother Marshall — a moniker assigned to me by Preston and Casey Hodges back in the mid- to late-1970s when I was their day care provider. (I worked hard for that designation, by the way.)
A couple of years ago, I was assisting Janet Post with photos for a page in the newspaper that featured fall athletes. My job was to write the names of the players so we would be sure to get everyone correctly identified. When young “Jessica” told me who she was I was tempted to say, “Oh shoot, is your father the ‘Stone Fox’ of the class of xyz?” Yes, youngsters, the term “stone fox” was the height of hot in about 1985. I didn’t say anything to young Jessica because I thought I would probably embarrass her. But, I swear, her dad was straight-out-to-die-for according to most PHS females of the era. I doubt she knows that. She probably wouldn’t believe it anyway.
It amazes me that I know several generations of some families. After putting many of their names and faces in the newspaper for nearly a decade, I can probably recite the branches of their family tree without missing too many.
We look forward to sharing this group of students with Peabody and Burns communities. Welcome back, kids. Have a great year.
Susan Marshall