August 13th is a special date. Not only is it my Mother’s 99th birthday today, but it’s also International Left-Hander’s Day. Quite appropriate as my Mother started out life as a left-hander. But, of course, there are stories to tell as it had to be my Mother!
Yes. It’s true. 99 years ago my Mother started out life as a left-hander. But school was not about to let her stay one. Today, someone would probably end up in court for this, but not in the 1920’s. Since left-handers were far and few between teachers didn’t know how to teach them to write. Instead of trying to figure it out, her teacher just tied a pencil onto my Mother’s hand and forced her to write right.
It was at that moment that school became torture for her. From that moment forward, she was just there for the social aspect of it. The rest of her school career was just something to be endured by her. In high school, she was such a chatterbox that one time she failed to hear the teacher call attention and got slapped for it. (Because they could do those things back then, too.) But don’t ever slap my Mother because she slaps back. And that’s exactly what she did to her teacher. My Mother also managed to talk her way out of trouble by explaining that it was just an automatic response after the teacher slapped her with no warning.
In tribute to her outstanding school years, I thought I’d share some interesting pictures from her High School Year Book.
My mother’s picture. I also thought it was interesting that back then, 95 degrees on July 11th, 1935 was considered notable enough to make it as a drawing in their yearbook.
This was with her picture. The “Whalen” mentioned was her friend Billy. They never dated but were best friends. After high school, he married one of my mother’s friends but then died in the war. (And when I say one of my Mother’s friend’s, please note, I mean one that she played cards with. Unfortunately, the woman died a couple of years ago but was part of the gang of friends from high school that all made it into their 90’s. And that’s what my Mother calls them, her gang.)
I’m not sure who their artist was, but along the sides of the pages were all these different drawings of the history that happened or was happening while they were in school. Amelia took off on her last flight in June of 1937. She was reported missing on July 2nd.
And finally, I couldn’t let this picture go by without sharing it. The NRA mentioned is the National Recovery Administration which came about during the New Deal during the Great Depression.
My dad is left-handed and got his knuckles wrapped with a wooden ruler until he wrote with his right hand. Thank goodness that isn’t allowed now!
Wooden ruler…did he go to a Catholic School? If I had to choose one, I guess I’d pick having the pencil tied into my hand! I did teach myself to write lefty though, out of necessity. I broke my right elbow and I had to wear it in a sling close to my chest. Made it hard to write performance appraisals. This was back in the early 90’s when our only computer was the billing system. Appraisals were handwritten, personnel files were hard copies. You know, the olden days.
Wow, times sure were different then. Thankfully it’s ok to be left handed now! Your mom was beautiful and I think it is awesome you wrote about her:)
Thanks for stopping by Kristina. My mother is a hoot and I’ve written about her before in several Mommyism posts. I should probably link them at the bottom.
Jennifer – Happy Birthday to your mother! My mother (who recently passed away at 86) was born a left-hander and had a wonderful teacher in her one-room schoolhouse who taught her how to write without even twisting her hand around. My mother then taught me and several siblings! We left-handers are the only ones in our right minds! (LOL)
I’m sorry to hear about your mother’s passing. My oldest sister is ten years younger than your mom and she also learned the correct way…without circling her hand around. I’m not sure whether she learned that at school or at home.
Enjoyed this look back … sounds like your mother was quite a woman!
Thanks, Tom. She is quite a woman.
Ty for sharing your stories and your mom’s too! Happy 99th to her<3 AMAZING!!
Thanks, Kellie.
Beautiful, Jennifer. I like the Amelia Earhart drawing. I remember Aunti Dorris telling me about her “solo” flight where she almost ran thru the power lines at Meriden Airport when she saw your Dad standing there watching her. Memories are great!
Thanks, Cathy. She is a never-ending source of stories.
What a lovely post and tribute to your mom. Happy Day!
Thanks for stopping by Rebecca. I really appreciate it.
This post was great Jennifer–so personal. Wishing a VERY Happy Birthday to Dorrie!
Thank you!
My mother’s name is Doris – with one ‘r.’ We celebrated her birthdays for 87 years and she’s been gone 11 long years – I miss her so. Happy you are celebrating your mother’s birthday with her – 99 years! Wow! Love her yearbook pictures and the drawings are terrific.
We always had to emphasize the two R’s because there was another woman in town with the same name but only spelled with one R. They both shared the same doctor so we had to be especially careful with medical records because of my mother’s allergies.
What a wonderful tribute!! These are the best posts especially with the older photos like that!!
Thanks so much for sharing, and sending your mother the happiest of birthdays!
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Thanks for stopping by Jodie!
Happy 99th! Your mum shares a birthday with my son who has just turned 13! He is quite an artist too ?
Thanks, Linda. Happy Birthday to your Son! My mother also has a great-grandchild who was born on August 13th, he turned 14.
Jennifer, Your mom was so pretty. All the best to her on this special birthday.
Thanks, Laurie!
Lovely tribute!
Thank you.
My grandmother was a lefty forced to use her right hand for writing in school. She was basically illegible her whole life. My mom is a lefty and fortunately was allowed to use her left hand. Although trying to teaching me, a righty, to knit sure was interesting.
Learning to knit from a lefty must have been interesting. I had enough problems “not learning” to knit from a fellow righty.
A better NRA for sure!!!
Happy 99th birthday to your mom! How fun to look back at times from her youth. It is sad that enjoying learning was taken from her by that teacher. My left handed sister is certainly glad she was never forced to write right. She’s as coordinated with her right hand as I am with my left (not well coordinated at all).
I am a true right-hander, but I had to learn to write left and do a lot of other things leftie when I broke my right elbow. I was never able to write cursive because it was harder to figure out how to connect the letter, but I am able to block print legibly.
Our daughter is a leftie and now my 2yr old granddaughter (her niece) is too – much to our son’s bemusement and our daughter’s delight (lefties unite! has been her catchcry). I think the left handedness comes from my husband’s side (there’s a few cousins with it) and I’m so relieved that forcing kids to use their right hands had been stopped by the time our daughter went to school – it really is an awful thing to do to a young child. Happy birthday to your Mum! xx
#MLSTL 🙂
There seems to be at least one leftie in every generation.
What an inspiring post, Jennifer. Your mother has undoubtedly reached a grand old age, here’s to her reaching 100!! I love “stuff” from years ago. No left-handed people in our family. Most would have been made to use their right hand as left hand righting was not accepted in the school system even in my generation!
It is fun to go through her yearbook and see all the old pictures. I’m surprised that when you were in school they were still trying to force lefties to write right. My sister is 20 years older than I but she wasn’t forced to change the hand she wrote with.
Hi Jennifer! Happy birthday to your Mum and all the good people are born in August (I’m on the 23rd) LOL:) My mother, brother and my grandson were/is left-handed and it is so different these days to when my mother went to school. Left-handed people are supposed to be very intelligent! Thanks for sharing your mum’s story with us at #MLSTL and for being part of our community. xx
Happy upcoming Birthday Sue!
Times have certainly changed–in many cases for the better. Thank goodness left-handers are no longer tortured, but we do have to be careful where we place them at the table. 🙂 Your mother sounds like a delightful woman with a lot of spunk. Happy birthday to her!
The table was always a problem. While my mother turned righty for all things, my oldest sister and her daughter were lefties and I had another nephew who was a leftie. We had to make sure they had the ends or sit all three of them in a row.
My mother was a lefty also and it was amazing the things teachers did to try and make her change. She didn’t though but her handwriting was very hard to read. I tried to teach her how to crochet but I couldn’t get it done. lol
It’s too bad that they put her through that. I had a hard enough time “not learning” how to crochet from a fellow righty. I cannot image a lefty trying to teach me!
I can’t believe they tried to change lefties back in the day. Oh how we have progressed!
I know. It’s shocking to me. And shocking that public school environment allowed corporal punishment. My husband went to Catholic school in the 70’s and 80’s and had to put up with getting his knuckles wrapped by a ruler but that never happened in public school when I was growing up.
How lucky that you still have your mama at 99! And such a character – I loved all the old pictures! Imagining them tying the pencil to her hand is about as weird (to modern sensibilities) as half the stuff I come across in the Little House books, which my girls and I are currently reading through/I have to stop and explain to them…
She is a character. And at 99 still rules the roost. It is funny to see how different times were, but she started school in the roaring twenties and graduated during the Great Depression. A lot of things were different.