High School Junior

I was both scared and excited to start school.  When I was 5 years old, I had 2 friends who lived across the street from me that started to 1st grade a year ahead of me.  Despite some of the "horror stories" they told me about how "hard" school was,  I still had an intense desire to go to school with Cathy and Patty that year, but my mother continued to remind me that I was too young, but would get to go the next year. 

All year I would pretend to write, making marks on pieces of paper and continually annoyed my mother asking her what letters I had made.  I loved my nursery rhyme book, and pretended to read the rhymes as I looked at the pictures and recited them.  I longed to read by myself, but savored every moment my mother, or anyone else, read to me.  I loved to visit my cousin, Donna, because she had a big collection of "Little Golden Books" that we begged her to read to us over and over, and she did! 

My father was the story teller.  He would tell Barbara, Terry, and me stories about a little airplane or a little helicopter that he had personified.  He made up wonderful stories!  As hard as we begged for "that little airplane story" that he had told us, he claimed that he couldn't remember the story and made up a new one.  He seldom told the same story twice, but always had a new one to tell that he made up as he went along. 

September 1958 finally arrived.  I was very proud to be carrying my new green plaid book satchel that held my Big Chief tablet, 2 fat pencils, a pink pearl eraser, a box of 8 Crayola crayons, a pair of scissors, one of my daddy's old shirts for when we painted, a towel for nap time, and my nickle for milk money and 30-cents for lunch money.  My brother and sister were excited that they were able to go along and have their picture taken with me in front of the school.  On the first day, I learned to stay between the lines when I wrote my name.  (I still have that paper I so proudly took home that first day which my mother dated and carefully kept tucked away for many years.  What fun it was when she took it out at the end of the school year and showed me how much I had improved.)

Reading was both my favorite and worst subject.  I always enjoyed the stories we read about Dick and Jane and Sally, and their dog and cat, Spot and Puff.  The "Think-and-Do" books, on the other hand, kept me in tears.  I had a teacher, Mrs. Cummings, who taught us to square dance.  Whenever it was too cold or rainy to go outside, we would square dance.  I loved square dancing, but I can remember wondering why the books never said anything about Dick and Jane square dancing in school.  I also wondered why they didn't have an Aunt Noo Noo and Uncle J.T.  I did, didn't everyone?  But I also thought the teacher lived at school and wondered where she kept her bed.  My parents actually had to take the teacher home one night after a PTA meeting before they could convince me otherwise.

Reading took on a whole new meaning for me when I discovered that I could actually read the words in my nursery rhyme book at home.  I thought that if I could read those words, then maybe I could read the words in my "Little Golden Books."  I read those stories and poems over and over, for my world had opened up and taken on a whole new meaning.

Second grade was a most eventful year.  I was a Brownie Girl Scout in Troop 323.  I really felt important on the days I got to wear my brown uniform to school and matched all of the other girls who were in my troop.  When summer arrived, I went to the hospital to have my tonsils and adenoids taken out.  I liked the idea of eating all the ice cream and jello I wanted but was very disappointed when my parents wouldn't let me take the nurse home with me.

In the 3rd grade, I was hooked on Carolyn Haywood's Betsy Books, starting with "'B' is for Betsy."  Music became a favorite subject when learned I could actually read the words to the songs of all of those wonderful melodies.  My curiosity got the best of me and I just had to figure out what those things called notes meant that were above those words.  I started watching them as we sang and discovered that when the melody went up, the notes climbed on the staff;  and, when the tune went lower, the notes went down.  The notes would step when the melody stepped; and, they skipped when the melody skipped tones.

Although I was an average student and struggled in some areas, especially math, I always looked forward to the beginning of each new school year.  It was exciting to go back and find out who was in my class, see my old friends, and meet the new kids even though I was somewhat shy and bashful.

I went through the 6th grade at Gullett Elementary, then attended the "Home of the Scotties," Lamar Junior High,  for my 7th, 8th and 9th grade years.  During my 7th grade year, I learned to enjoy Math.  In addition, I was very proud to have been one of only a few students to work in the library during Advisory Period.  There I discovered a love for biographies, but even more, for libraries.  There I learned how to shelve books in the proper sections and in the proper order by the Dewey Decimal System and Alphabetically, and to repair books.  I was very excited and proud when I found missing books that had been misshelved.

I spent many of my junior high and high school summer days walking to the Allendale Branch of the Austin Public Library (which was only 2 blocks from my house).  I would take my time browsing the shelves, reading as I searched, in the cool air-conditioned room.  I loved reading stories about other kids and their adventures and mishaps, to laugh with them and cry with them, and to experience that spark of young love and romance for which every teen's thirst is rarely quenched. 

During the next 3 years of High School as a McCallum Knight, I realized the value of the skills I had learned during my early library experience.  I remember the disappointment and feeling of rejection when I was turned down as a library aide by the librarian and placed as an office aide instead.  I continued to visit the public library, still a favorite retreat. 

Sandy, a friend who lived one block closer to the library than I did, was a couple of years older than I and worked at the public library where I so often visited.  I often thought about how lucky Sandy was and how much I would enjoy having a job in a library like she did.  I never dreamed that it would be possibility for me.  It was, however, a most disappointing day when I had read about half of the book I had checked out, "Anne of Green Gables," and discovered pages missing in the middle of the book.  The library didn't have another copy.  I suppose up until that point, I had always just taken book care for granted.

May 1970 marked a most victorious event!  Although I liked math, I liked to read, I liked to use the library and read the articles in the the encyclopedias which satisfied my overwhelming curiousity, I was a major under achiever.  For 12 years I had known much anxiety and frustration.  I always seemed to run out of time, had trouble getting organized, and  had difficulty understanding directions, but I managed to "keep my head above water" and at least pass.  Needless to say, high school graduation was, for me, something short of a miracle.

I decided to go to a small college where I would be a person and not just a number.  Blinn Junior College was truly a learning experience both socially, emotionally and academically.  There I met the man who was to become my husband.  Call it an omen if you like, but the fact that our first date, and many to follow, were centered around studying in the campus library, was probably due more to the fact that there there was little else worth doing in Brenham, Texas during the week.  Martin Mueck, then my fiance, and I graduated with Associate of Arts degrees in May of 1972.  The many study and organizational skills that I acquired during those 2 years have provided a foundation upon which I have built and relied for the rest of my life.

I will skip the boring timeline of the next few years of my college career.  Let it suffice to say that I was majoring in all level music, and later changed to elementary education with a specialization in music, but continued to frequent the college libraries.    I did my student teaching in 5th grade, earned my kindergarten endorsement at the graduate level, taught Pre-K and Kindergarten, substitute taught for many years from Pre-K to 12th grade, and was always an avid library user with my students.

At this time, I was still searching for a strong subject (like reading or math or even PE) that I enjoyed and would lend itself to job security.  My many interests, curiosities and fettish for accurate details, kept me hungrily searching for just that right nitch, not a small task, for by this time my husband, Martin, and  I were also in the middle of raising a family of 3 children. 

As I began to pursue another course of study, I continued to substitute teach and was called several times by the Patlan Elementary librarian, Rose McCawley, who had been very helpful and supportive when I was teaching Pre-K in Marion, Texas.  When she resigned her job at Patlan to move on to another position, the principal, Gretchen Ricker, called me to fill in as a long term sub for the librarian who was contracted to take the position until she could be released from her existing contract with another district.  I served in that position for about 5 1/2 months until February when she came and took over the library.  The following summer the principal returned from vacation to find the librarian's resignation on her desk.  She called and invited me, once again, to take the position, and encouraged me to consider taking courses in library science.  I accepted the offer and worked under an emergency certificate while attending graduate classes at Our Lady of the Lake University to earn my endorsement as a "Learning Resources Specialist."  I served as the librarian at Patlan for a total of 7-1/2 years, then five at Navarro Elementary. I am currently the high school librarian at Navarro where I began in August 2002.

                                                                                     by Vicki Byrd Mueck