One of my all-time favorite people passed away this weekend. She had been sick for awhile and I’m mad at myself for not taking the time to go visit her -- to hear her laugh just one more time and to let her know just how much she meant to me through many different phases of my life! I’ve thought about her all weekend and with those thoughts came flooding back many memories of my elementary and high school days, old school buildings, old friends --- precious memories!
Cindy Perry was 59 years old. She was my music teacher, my cheerleading sponsor, many times my second mom and mostly, my friend! The first thing I thought of when I heard that she had passed away was all the times she would tightly wrap me in her arms and say “come cry into my bosom!” She had a well-endowed “bosom” and I cried many teenage tears as she listened to my drama and told me “that everything will be okay.”
I’ve thought a lot about where her classroom sat in the old Camp Dick Robinson school building. If you walked through the side entrance, stepped up onto the main floor, took a left into the main hallway, her class was the last room on the right. The piano was at the front of the room on the right hand side, next to the windows. I also remember the new high backed yellow plastic chairs that brightened her room at some point during my 8 years at CDR.
Her classroom was right next door to the door that led to the creepy basement. The basement was not as creepy as the coal room, but still, it was dark and damp and had steep open stairs. When you got to the bottom of the stairs, sitting on the wall to the left, was a COKE machine. It held 10 oz. bottles and it also contained Miss Perry’s favorite drink, TAB Cola. I’m wondering how many times she gave me change to go down into the basement with a friend to retrieve a TAB for her. It was the type of machine where you lifted the top like a cooler and the colas hung from their neck down into the bottom. You would insert your money and have to maneuver the cola out of its row and up through the gadget that would free it. If you didn’t get it freed on the first attempt, you lost your money and that was NOT a good thing! The best part of the COKE, SPRITE, TAB was that they were ALWAYS so cold, that there was ice floating inside. If I could, I would drink an icy TAB Cola in memory of Miss Perry, right now!
Miss Perry had lots of other favorite things. Among them were Cheetos, bells, Garfield the cat and Penguins. She also always had a fish tank, either in her classroom at school or at her house, and she almost always had a house cat. When I was in school she had Garfield paraphernalia everywhere! Her love of Garfield came AFTER her love of bells. I remember at Christmas time, everyone would give her a bell and then everyone started giving her Garfield themed stuff. By the time my kids went to school, she had developed an affinity for penguins. Her room was full of penguins and she shared lots of knowledge about them with her students. Anytime my daughters see a penguin, they say “Miss Perry would like that!”
She had the best bulletin boards and I have spent many an hour, tracing pictures with the overhead projector, cutting them out and then coloring them in with “magic markers” or crayons. My favorite bulletin board was her birthday bulletin board! It was on the wall across from her class room. It contained a big birthday cake and each student and teacher had a candle with their name and birthdate written sideways in cursive. The candles were switched out each month and a flame appeared over your candle on your BIG DAY. It was a way that made each of us feel special. Because of this bulletin board, I always remember that Stacy Grow and I share the same birthdate. Ours said December 10 and Miss Perry’s was a few candles down and said December 14.
Lots of people have recalled all of the good times we had in her music class. Anyone who ever attended Camp Dick Robinson Elementary School knows ALL 50 states in alphabetical order and some even know the Presidents in order of service. I still recite the Fifty Nifty United States song on occasion and have impressed numerous people with this knowledge through the years. She taught us all how to Square Dance and I still remember that my square dance partner, Jason Hensley, got sick on performance night and Shane Baker had to fill in for him. She taught us lots of memorable songs: A Man Who Had a Goat, There’s a Hole in the Bucket, Billy Boy, Let’s Go Fly a Kite, Grand Ol’ Flag, she taught us how to sing AND spell Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious, and who could ever forget the sad tale of Don Gato? Ask any child who recently had Ms. Perry as a teacher and I bet they will all want to climb aboard the Happy Train, know a song about Chocolate and can do the Reindeer Twist!
If you know what FACE and Every Good Boy Does Fine means, they you probably learned to read a little bit of music in her class. Many of us can still play a tune on a Recorder/Flute-a-phone. I can’t play the piano, but I know where to find middle C on a keyboard. I love to doodle, and many times you will find on my page my own renderings of musical staffs and notes, because I had to learn how to draw them in Miss Perry’s class.
Students who attended Camp Dick Robinson Elementary can all remember school plays. Each year, a very large production was held in the spring and at Christmas, complete with elaborate scenery, great costumes, helpful stagehands, lots of actors and actresses and a chorus! Who can remember the butterflies as you stood behind the curtain waiting for your turn to perform? One thing many of us recall is that even with the changing times, she continued to find ways to make sure CHRIST remained in Christmas at our school.
One thing I have to mention is her temper! We all know she had one and we all had a respectful fear of her. When she was mad, she would slam her music books down, her face would turn blood red and she could YELL --- LOUD! What was worse is when she would get quiet, sit at her piano bench and not say anything at all. No, I take that back, what was worse was when she would go to the chalkboard and write “I will not be disrespectful during music class”, turn around and quietly say, “Get a piece of paper, a pencil and write this 100 times without talking.” I would rather take the yelling because that would soon be over and everyone would be happy again than to have to write those darn sentences! I have to admit it made me happy when she would send me on an errand right before the whole class got in trouble to make sure I wouldn’t be and I remember many times when she would apologize for losing her temper in front of us. Hey, we all lose our temper sometimes and I’m a lot like her when I lose mine!
Miss Perry took over as CDR Cheerleading sponsor the first year I became a cheerleader. In fact, she was my cheerleading sponsor 6th, 7th and 8th grade and again when I was in the 11th grade at Garrard County High School. She continued to be the cheerleading coach for many, many years after that. Myself and so many young girls have wonderful memories of our time together and the love that she showed each of us. She was truly like a 2nd mom many times. Always listening to our teenage friend and boy drama and putting up with our testy attitudes and mood changes. I quit cheerleading my 11th grade year, mostly because she made me run one too many laps and caught me on a day when I had an attitude. I ended up finishing the season but did not cheer my senior year. Actually, we kind of “fell out” and didn’t talk to one another much, but something happened that soon changed that. The summer before my senior year, I got Bell’s Palsy. I was scared because I woke up one morning and the right side of my face was numb. I couldn’t blink my right eye, I couldn’t wrinkle my forehead, and I couldn’t smile on that side. My neck and ear ached and I was in severe pain. I remembered that Miss Perry had had Bell’s Palsy, so I called her and cried on the phone to her. I apologized for being a brat and told her that I regretted not cheering that year. She said she missed me and she had no hard feelings. From then on, everything was back to normal between me and her. In fact, I asked her to sing and play the piano when I got married. She was special to both Wasband and I as he was in first grade when she began teaching her very first year. Wasband and I used to laugh and say she knew something that we didn’t years before as she had both of us sing the Donkey solo at the Christmas play on our respective years of being in the class that sang that song. “I, said the Donkey, shaggy and brown, carried his mother, up hill and down, I carried his mother to Bethlehem town, I, said the donkey, shaggy and brown.” After Wasband left, she pulled me aside one day and said she hated to hear what was going on, told me how surprised she was to hear of our split, once again took me in her arms and gave me a big hug. I said, “yeah, I thought for sure that since we were both the Donkey, we were destined to be together.” She laughed and said, “yes, I nailed him a long time ago, he was a donkey, I should have had you sing something else.” Loved her sense of humor and will NEVER forget her laugh!
I know without a doubt that Cindy Perry loved me and my children and tons of other children who came before and after me. She was a wonderful friend to a lot of people and was especially fond of her only niece, Lydia. I am sure there is a new angel singing in heaven’s choir now that Cindy Perry has arrived. I am comforted knowing that she is now pain free in a glorified body living eternity in heaven. May you rest in peace Miss Perry, I love you!
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