It was late in the fall of 1962. My family and I lived in Skokie, Illinois. I was in third grade, and struggling mightily to comprehend English grammar.
My teacher, Miss Lewis, was a young, very attractive woman, and very nice. Patient. All of us kids loved her.
I just couldn't seem to understand breaking the English language down. Among many of the vicissitudes, the participles were too much for this simpleton, and I was falling apart with self-doubt. Moreover, I was very shy, and had a speech impediment. My mother and father even hired Miss Lewis to tutor me one evening a week.
Well, early one afternoon she called me up to her desk. She showed me the back of a box of Post Cereal. There before me were 7 beautiful Post football cards, of players I had never seen. She said something to the effect that if I was able to complete the current challenging English assignment, I could have the panel!
You better believe I worked hard and got the assignment done. True to her word, she presented me with the panel. I don't remember any of the other boys saying anything to me about the matter, and I sure didn't want to incur their wrath or jealousy. We were a close bunch though, and they knew I was having great difficulty with English grammar.
I was so touched she thought that much of me to give me a whole panel of Post Cereal football cards---none of them familiar to me! In retrospect, I imagine she took good care of herself and ate a healthier cereal, such as a large box of Post Grape Nuts Flakes. No kid with good taste wanted THAT! Which, of course, explains why I had never seen those Post football stars. Grape Nuts Flakes was an adult variety of breakfast cereal consumed by the geriatric set, and the few health nuts of the time. Being a low percentage of their cereal-consuming population, Post did not print very many boxes of the larger size Grape Nuts Flakes.
Throughout the Post baseball and football trading card promotions, a decent number of the short prints could be found on the Grape Nuts Flakes boxes. When I went cereal hunting while my Mom grocery shopped, I never thought to look at the back of those boxes. It never occurred to me as my mind was on Alpha-Bits, Sugar Crisp, and a couple others. Besides, on top of that, grocers stocked them on the top shelf, where I could not as yet reach.
I still wound up having to repeat third grade, which really was good for me. Most of my Post football cards were tossed during the move our family made in '64. Fortunately, my Post baseball cards were saved.
I have a very tender and special place in my heart for Miss Lewis. Never will I forget her kindness and thoughtfulness to me. The cards I may not have, but the memory, this time, is even more precious. A famous quote of Maya Angelou comes to my mind when I remember dear Miss Lewis:
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
Here is a case where I cherish what she did, how that made me feel, and the smile and genuine look of kindness on her face.
---Brian Powell