I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: The Way Life Was

  • schoolteachers in the house

    schoolteachers in the house


    my mother has a graduate degree from an HBCU

    courtesy of Texas taxpayers to support motivated public school teachers

    Both my parents were Texas schoolteachers in what I consider to be transitional times in the mid twentieth century when teachers in public schools were respected members of their communities, paid less than other professions but valued for their contributions to the greater good. As their daughter I often attended the schools where they were employed, but only once was I ever a student in one of their classes. That was my mother’s music class when I was in the seventh grade in our home town of Richards, and I was totally humiliated by her teaching techniques and interaction with me and my friends. My first year as a teenager and my mom’s first teaching position didn’t mix well. Dinnertime at our house was colder than the sweet iced tea.

    Both my parents worked on different college degrees for as long as I was in school. My mom and dad did their undergraduate work at Sam Houston State Teachers College (now Sam Houston State University) in Huntsville; Dad also completed his master’s degree there. Mom commuted the twenty-five miles from Richards to Huntsville for classes when I started the third grade – Dad did the same commute when he finished his undergraduate degree at Sam, then master’s. When I was in college at the University of Texas in Austin, Dad finally got his doctorate at the University of Houston after five years of commuting to the campus from Brazoria and three years commuting from Rosenberg, Texas. The GI bill he earned in WWII allowed him to pursue his dreams of higher education, and the Texas taxpayers helped with his costs, too.

    does this topic seem boring to you?

    As the person who typed each excruciating word on an old Royal manual typewriter, I can testify it was less than an entertaining read. Learning the appropriate format for footnotes, credits, blah blah blah wasn’t fun, either. I must have used hundreds of bottles of white out that summer I devoted to my dad’s dissertation and while my dad thanked his advisor profusely in the acknowledgements, be aware I didn’t have any gratitude for the man responsible for the many rewrites he made to the manuscript that required typing the same material over and over again. And then over again.

    Two teachers in the house made education a must for the daughter who vowed to choose any career over teaching but never say never. I taught at a community college here in South Carolina for five years from 1982-87 and was grateful to the taxpayers of the state for paying for my master’s degree at the University of South Carolina. Apples for the teacher don’t roll far from the tree.

    *****************************

    Slava Ukraini. For the children.

  • the sundowners starring someone you love (part 1)

    the sundowners starring someone you love (part 1)


    Turner Classic Movie fans and/or folks who are old enough to remember the year JFK was elected President might think of The Sundowners as a 1960 movie starring Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr.

    Those folks would be right about the movie, but for many others the sundowners are not actors in a movie – they are people characterized by real life problems. The Mayo Clinic offers the following definition of the word.

    The term “sundowning” refers to a state of confusion occurring in the late afternoon and lasting into the night. Sundowning can cause different behaviors, such as confusion, anxiety, aggression or ignoring directions. Sundowning can also lead to pacing or wandering. Sundowning isn’t a disease. It’s a group of symptoms that occur at a specific time of the day. These symptoms may affect people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. The exact cause of this behavior is unknown.

    My first personal experience with sundowning was with my mother who began strange behavior before I attributed her late afternoon anxiety to a specific cause. Full disclosure I lived a thousand miles away from her Richmond, Texas home in South Carolina in the 1990s, visited twice a year, out of touch with her daily life. We maintained our long distance fragile mother-daughter relationship via weekly telephone calls once upon a time before cell phones. When my mom was in her early 70s, I went home to help her make arrangements for her brother Toby’s funeral in 1997. While I was there for a few days, I noticed she went through her house closing shutters every afternoon before supper. She also became very agitated until her best friend Willie Flora (who spent every night with her) arrived at suppertime. I dismissed this as having to do with a death of someone close to her.

    Years passed, a new century brought changes to both my mother and me, but on my Texas visits I saw my mother’s early evening behaviors grew stranger. Her anxiety levels manifested paranoid issues I could no longer explain away. Sundowning was one of the first indications of the demon called dementia that robbed my aging mother of not only her memories but also her physical well-being.

    When Pretty and I began to notice changes in Carl’s behavior in late afternoons this year, we talked about the sundowning syndrome.

    Stay tuned for sundowning in dogs – it’s not just a human problem.

  • Dump Old Joe Movement? Not Me

    Dump Old Joe Movement? Not Me


    I flirted with the Dump Old Joe Movement for a hot minute, why?

    because Joe is old, white and old.

    Would I prefer young, not quite so white, and young?

    Probably, but I think Joe’s doing a good job so why punish him

    for two things he can’t control: his age and the color of his skin.

    I am, however, a card carrying member of the Anybody But Trump Movement, why?

    because Trump is old, white, and has been indicted on 91 criminal charges.

    I never even glanced at the Kick Kamala to the Curb Movement, why?

    Because Kamala is much younger at 58, a female person of color, outspoken champion of women’s rights to control our own bodies, brilliant, fights injustices and…

    because people of color will determine the outcome of the 2024 election.

    ***************************

    Slava Ukraini. For the adults in the room.

  • All Aboard the Summer of Coco Express Unlimited!

    All Aboard the Summer of Coco Express Unlimited!


    Coco Gauff is now the youngest American to win the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999 and the fourth teenage American in the Open era to win the home Slam. And she did so on the anniversary of both Arthur Ashe’s breakthrough US Open victory in 1968 and Venus Williams‘ maiden title at the event in 2000. (D’Arcy Maine, ESPN.com)

    Gauff won her final on the Arthur Ashe Stadium Court of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the same court where she watched Venus and Serena Williams play ten years earlier in 2013 at the age of nine when her father took her to see her first US Open tennis tournament. The Williams sisters inspired a new generation of American tennis players for more than two decades – their legacy will be as powerful as their play was on the Ashe Stadium Court.

    Serena won her fifth US Open women’s singles championship in 2013

    Pretty and I watched Coco overcome losing the first set of the championship match to Aryna Sabalenka who will be the number 1 player in the world tomorrow when the rankings come out by winning the next two sets with power, placement, and perseverance. When I finally could breathe, I told Pretty I was thankful to have lived long enough to witness a new generation of American tennis players who have the potential to fulfill the legacy the Williams sisters created.

    Coco wins her first US Open title in 2023

    When Gauff was handed her $3 million check during the presentation, she turned to find tennis legend and social justice activist King standing a few feet away from her on the podium and said thank you Billie, for fighting for this.

    Congratulations to Coco Gauff not only for her incredible victory on the courts but also for her remarkable understanding of what this victory will mean off the courts as well. I believe the Summer of Coco Express in 2023 is unlimited.

  • soups, broths, jellies and Jell-o (from Deep in the Heart)

    soups, broths, jellies and Jell-o (from Deep in the Heart)


    “You’ll have to keep the room as dark as possible. Put sheets over these windows to keep the light out,” Dr. Sanders instructed Mama. “She should eat soups, broths, jellies and Jell-o. That’s all. She can’t strain her eyes, so no books to look at, and no excitement of any kind. I’ll come back again in a few days to see how she’s getting along. It’s just a bad case of the measles, so don’t worry. They’re going around this winter, and she was bound to catch them.”

    “How long will she be sick?” Mama asked.

    “Depends on how bad a case she has. Sometimes they miss two weeks of school. We’ll have to see. Sheila Rae’s only seven, and the young ones seem to get better quicker. The penicillin shot should help.”

    With that bit of cheeriness old Dr. Sanders got heavily to his feet and picked up his black bag. He was a large man with a balding head of white hair that was typically covered by a small brown weather-beaten hat. He peered over rimless glasses that teetered precariously on a nose that appeared lost between his rotund cheeks. He reminded me of Santa Claus in a frayed black suit instead of a shiny red one.

    That’s why I always liked him right up until he gave me the penicillin shot, which appeared to be his cure for everything including measles. He was cheery, but not above inflicting pain on defenseless children. And in their own house, too. Not fair.

    *****************

    My mother always followed the doctor’s orders which included his dietary recommendations for every illness as faithfully as the shot of penicillin he carried in his black bag. This past week I developed a bad case of the epizooti which is my medical term for illnesses I “catch” from Pretty’s allergies. I remembered the dietary advice Dr. Sanders gave when I was sick with any childhood malady so I thought I would follow it seven decades later. Forgive me for skipping the soups, broths and Jell-o recommendations to go straight for the jellies. The Shipt shopper must have wondered why I needed three kinds of preserves: grape, strawberry and apricot. Yummy. The apricot on two pieces of toast for breakfast this morning made me feel better already.

    As for the doctor’s “no excitement of any kind” advice, too little too late. The US Open men’s semi-finals in singles were this weekend, and the women’s final is this afternoon. Coco Gauff is my pick to win it all, but Aryna Sabalenka is a tall order for the nineteen year old Gauff who is the first American teenager to be in a final at the US Open since, wait for it, Serena Williams in 2001. Go, Coco!