with ... Clyde H. Davis Over the course of her 40 year teaching career, Clyde Davis of Rutledge influenced countless Morgan County students. Now retired at the age of 97, Davis sat down with News Editor Jennifer Jeakle to discuss her life-long dedication to teaching and to the students of Mor- gan County. Madisonian: What originally led you to teach in Morgan County? Clyde Davis: I came to Rutledge in August of 1925 where I began to teach. It was here that I met and married my late husband Day Davis. We were married for 50 years. After I married in April 1926, | took time off from teaching, but resumed a 10 years later when, during war times, there was a shortage of tendhers, available in local schools. M: What were the highlights of your teaching career? > C.D. : Everyday was a highlight for me. I loved the children; I loved teach- ing. Everyday there was something new and was a new day. Some students were so eager to learn. It was a delight to see their progress every day, then every month. I just don’t know how to expressit. . M: What motivated you to remain a teacher for all of those years? C.D. Loved it. I guess you could say it was born in me that I was going to be ateacher. It was always a surprise. When you are teaching, you wonder if you have made any impression at all. Now I see it when adult students of mine come up to me and thank me. They remember. M: Did you have any special teaching techniques to help your studentsDAVIS = afrom page I C.D. : Rocks, matches, toothpicks, apples...anything T could use 1o teach “numbers” - now called mathematics. Iwould use anything to help the stu- dents learn, M: Do you find that you remem- ber a favorite student or story on occasion? C.D. Lhave been told that I should have written down all of the stories that Lhave. Now there are so many couldn't possibly remember them all, But I wish I had written them down in a journal - kids say the funniest things. I remember that [ was cel- cbrating a birthday when T had just began teaching a new class. On the second day of school, we discussed my birthday and the class asked how old I was. In an effort to get them to think about the answer, I said I was forty- “plus” - meaning plus-|, ee, 2 and so-on. Not yet knowi fe Sieg ea, tiny deiac uae stand where I was leading them. A student’s mother later told me that her daughtér was in the bathtub and said to her that she had a secret, The stu- dent said to her mother, ‘Mrs. Clyde says she’s forty-plus, Mama, She's awfully old to be so young!". Oh, 1 loved teaching school. M: Many Morgan County resi- dents have walked through your classroom door. Do you ever wish you could still be teaching? ©.Dz I would still be teaching to- day if T wasn’t so old. (laughter). 1 love everybody, everybody has been good to me. I didn't have children 0 everybody else's children have al- ways been mine, God’s been so good tome. Idon'thave any family here, blessed with friends and I oF be of use somehow to others around me. i