"What ever happened to the nickle soda pop and a candy bar? I hope time doesn't change what they are and whatever happened to Dick and Spot and Jane? It's a shame they didn't make it this far." (Taken from "Divided Highways" a song by Jim Stewart c 1971.
Everyone knows who Dick and Spot and Jane are. They got to spend about two years of their life with them. I was a little luckier and got to spend about three. One day my Third Grade teacher came over to me and asked, "Do you have a problem?" I said, "I ain't got no problem." The teacher looked at me and I looked at her and then she said, "Well you have the lowest reading grades in the class." I said, "That's no problem." Well she looked at me and I looked at her and then she said, "What can we do to rectify this situation?" I looked at her and she looked at me and before I knew what conotations meant, which is a four syllable word, I said, "Change the plot. I'm tired of watching Jane chase Dick." Well I ended up in the hoosegow, Mr. Campbell's Office (The Principle). I sat there and waited for my parents to come bail me out. When my Dad got there he said, "What did you do now?" I said,"I can't read!" He looked at me and said, "They don't get me out of work to tell me that you can't read. They usually just send a note home." I soon found out that it was not about my reading skills. Well it was twenty years after the fact when I started telling this story, beleiving that Mrs Runnels was dead I thought I could tell my story. I told this story for twenty years beleiving that she was dead when I went to a funeral at my Dad's Methodist Church. I walked in and all of the older lady's of the church were there. I was talking to them and told them that I could start tell all the stories now that all my Sunday School Teachers were dead. That is when one of them said, "No we're not and look over at the organ." Oh my God, it was the Baptist Mrs Runnels playing the organ in the Methodist Church. The lady's then told me, "She's waiting to see you." remembering that day in the third grade I became nervous. I was telling everyone that she was dead. I walked on over to her and said," Hello Mrs Runnells. Do you remember me?" She said, "Yeah, you're that kid that can't read!" Well feeling a little dejected I left the funeral and went to visit my mother's grave. That is when I noticed that the Runnells' Head Stone was a couple of rows over. It showed when Mr Runnels had died and showed Mrs Runnels' name there with no expiration date. So now whenever I visit my mother's grave I look over to the Runnells headstone for an expiration date.
The other day Mrs Runnells turned 96 years old. God Bless you Mrs Runnels.
