The Domino Effect

The domino effect was in place this week. I love to line my dominoes up in a pattern and topple the first one and then watch them connect with the next one and on and on. The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on. It typically refers to a linked sequence of events where the time between successive events is relatively small.

It all began with an email from my childhood friend Butch. He sent an email to me and a few other classmates letting us know that our favorite English and Drama teacher from high school was going to be passing through Bruce and she wanted to try and see her favorite students.

Doris Ann Schmidt had a special connection to the class of 1971. We had her for our Junior and Senior years studying Drama and Speech and English. She taught us how to deliver every conceivable kind of speech and do it convincingly. When it came to writing papers, she held our feet to the fire when we had to do research papers. There were many little confrontations with Mrs. Willis in the library. We needed to use the reference materials and she guarded those like they were gold. Eventually Mrs. Schmidt reached a truce with Mrs. Willis and we were able to do our work. The training we received in those classes would probably be called AP now. Back in 1970 and 71 it was just hard work! We studied Literature and learned it well. When I went off to the W, I was well versed in Shakespeare, English and American Literature, and it worked to my advantage during my college years.

The Class of 1971 was full of people that tended to push the envelope. If Mr. Hamblin was still alive he would whole heartedly agree that we were a royal pain! We were very vocal about many things; the draft, the Viet Nam War, Nixon, and closer to home, the fact that our class was not allowed to carry out our school Traditions. Bruce School and North Calhoun school were fully consolidated our senior year. There was a loss of many things for all the blended students. No longer was there a May Day parade. The Junior/Senior Banquet was not allowed. There was no Homecoming, no after the football game dances at the Community Building, no field trips, no Senior Play. We only went to school and that was that.

If it had not been for the ingenuity of Mrs. Schmidt, the seniors would have probably really gone crazy. She helped most of us channel our energies and creativity into becoming better speakers and writers. None of us were true ‘long haired hippie freaks’. Yet! We were just coming of age at a turbulent time in our nation and world and state.

Graduation from high school and then college was scary for those of us that left the safe confines of Calhoun County to go off to the hallowed halls of higher learning. We saw the world through the eyes of liberal professors. We saw doors open to us that would not have been possible if we had not been taught by a visionary teacher. Mrs. Schmidt wrote something personal in each of our annuals when we graduated. I don’t know what she wrote in anyone else’s but in mine she praised my creative writing ability. I now get a chance to write a weekly column for this newspaper. I have always tried to live up to the words she wrote to me.

Mrs. Schmidt arrived in Bruce Sunday and stopped for a visit with my neighbor, Nell Logan. Nell was on the phone Sunday afternoon calling everyone she could find. She called my Mom and Mom called me at work and told me Doris Ann was in town. Earlier in the day, Sarah Quillen and I had talked about trying to get in touch with her not knowing she was already in town trying to find all of us. A few of us managed to make it to Vera Cruz and it was good to sit down for a quick meal and rapid conversation with the few classmates that were able to come together Sunday evening on short notice.

We missed having a 35 year reunion and I wonder if having a 38 year reunion is viable. It would certainly not be tradition and Lord knows there is absolutely nothing traditional about the BHS Class of 1971. So to all you graduates of BHS in 1971, send me your address and email and phone numbers. We are going to have a reunion some time next year and Doris Ann Schmidt Stanton will be there.

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Others stay awhile, make footprints on our hearts and we are never, ever the same. Mrs. Schmidt, you made a lasting impression on our class. You worked us hard for the two years you were here in Bruce. You taught us what we needed to know in order to survive in college. I suppose you could say that you were the domino that unleashed the creativity of the Class of 1971 and I think you should be proud.