Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Anne of Green Gables Dates

The Bug and I have a weekly date this summer. She is coming to my house once a week for an Anne of Green Gables date. Her momma and Aunt LeLe were big fans of the series when they were little girls.

I never read Anne of Green Gables when I was a kid. I'm not sure how I missed it in my childhood reading. I didn't know it existed until the Tiny Town Librarian recorded the series for the girls. It was probably my second year of teaching in this district.

Mr. Flippo, our librarian, was quite a character. There are still quite a few things that I remember about him:

*Mr. Flippo always believed the old days were better. He used to reminisce about the bathroom floors being clean enough to eat off in the old days. Another teacher reminded him that no bathroom floors were ever that clean.

*He had a connection to Madison, Wisconsin. I have no idea why, but he used to preface quite a few statements with "back in Madison."

*He was so upset when Mom was diagnosed with cancer. He never could bring himself to say cancer. He always called it the "C" word.

*He recorded every episode of Anne of Green Gables on PBS that year and gave the girls a copy of it. We almost wore it out. I still can't watch the show without thinking of him.

*He was a Louis L'Amour nut. I think he had almost every book in our library--and a signed letter from L'Amour framed and hanging on the wall right beside his desk.

*I used to play tricks on him. When my classes went to the library for research, he always gave a presentation on the first day. He asked the same questions every hour, so by the end of the day I would feed my class the correct answers to his questions before we went down to the library. He would be so thrilled at how smart my afternoon classes were. I would confess that I was playing a trick on him, and he would respond with "Oh, you...!"

*He gave me our State's application to apply for the Teacher in Space program. The Mr. and I talked about it, but decided with two little girls it would be too much of a risk. When the Challenger blew up, he was at my classroom door in tears. He said, "I can't believe it. That ship blew up. I am just sick. I gave you that application. That could have been you." Quite doubtful that I would have been chosen, but bless his heart for believing that I was of that quality.

*Mr. Flippo always wanted to enclose the "round" in the old school and make it the library. "The library should be the center of the school." When I first saw the library in our new school after the tornado, I knew Mr. Flippo would have been so pleased. It is the center of the school--and pretty darn close to the location of the old school's open air courtyard--or round.

Oh, and if any of you are worried, that old pirated copy of Anne of Green Gables is long gone. The girls bought me the DVD set for Mother's Day or my birthday a few years ago.

So, I am training a whole new generation to love Anne as much as the girls did. Mr. Flippo would be so pleased.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Flippo went to Madison, WI for his masters and lacked a paper for his next degree after attending KWU in Salina. He came to Chapman before he finished. They looked a little bit like the Beverly Hill Billies! They took a bus camper, pigs, feed, etc..... His wife liked Anne of Green Gables and might be part of the reason you received a copy, because his daughter's and daughter-in-law's families also have copies! Thanks for your story!