Ms. Brown

Throughout my 30 years of life there has been countless number of people who have sculpted me and had an impact on the man I am today. One of these courageous people to take on a project like myself was Ms. Brown. Ms. Brown has been in the education system for quite sometime. She worked at Sky View when my mom was in school there and later taught first grade at Lucy Elementary. Ms. Brown's husband Mr. Bill was a retired railroad man and both lived down the street from us in Lucy.

We became really good friends with the Browns. We would always go over to there house in the summer and play. Mr. Brown had a room in the house that had a pool table and pinball machines. The only other place that had pinball machines then was Mazzio's but we'll save that for a later article. Every Halloween we always made an effort to trick-or-treat at the Browns because we always received candied apples and caramel popcorn. They attended most of the community events we did as well as attended First Baptist with us every Sunday.

Up until my first grade year at Lucy Elementary I only associated Ms. Brown with pinball machines and caramel popcorn. Then I got to know her on a full term basis when she became my first grade teacher. First grade was a memorable year for me and this sweet lady got to experience every step of it with me. This was the year that I started to lose several of my baby teeth. Ms. Brown had a chart that showed what students had lost teeth as a mile marker into our childhood. This was the year when we were all gathered into the cafeteria to watch the space shuttle Challenger make its historic voyage on live TV but sadly exploded upon liftoff. I remember the class being full of questions of what we'd just seen and Ms. Brown calmly explaining to us how God allows things to happen to fulfill a greater plan. Now don't think that just because Ms. Brown and I were friends that she let me off when I acted up. I remember pulling the chair out from underneath my friend Justin and he fell to the floor. I was sent to the principle's office for that one. She was also one of the first to notice my A.D.D. kicking in around April and I would be in la la land until the last day of school. Of course back then we weren't administered medication for this we were administered the concept of "work harder or get left behind".

Six years later my little brother also had Ms. Brown as his first grade teacher. Will would always miss his family during school so mom gave him a picture of all of us to carry around. One day they were on a bathroom break and he was carrying that picture around with him, and Ms. Brown asked him "Will, do you want me to hold your picture for you while you go to the restroom". With typical Childress fashion Will responded "No maim' Ms. Brown I have an extra hand".

Later on when I was in high school and involved in choirs I had the pleasure of singing a duet with Ms. Brown in our churches Christmas play. We walked down the aisle singing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland". My most memorable memory of Ms. Brown wasn't at her house in the summer or any of my first grade experiences, but my senior year at Millington. I received a graduation present from her that made my heart skip a beat when I opened it. She had saved a letter I had written when I was in first grade on the old wide rule paper that read "I luv Ms. Brown. I luv to read and write. I like dogs to." It wasn't a master piece but the fact that she had saved that letter for twelve years and presented it to me at my graduation was one of the greatest gifts I've ever received. I am blessed to have people like Ms. Brown in my life, and I'm sure you have your Ms. Browns to. Let them know how much you love and appreciate everything they've ever done for you.

-Steve Childress