the "other" Mrs. Gentry

My childhood was surrounded by a lot of really good people. Mrs. Bundy was my art teacher from Kindergarten to 8th grade. I took 4H starting in the 3rd grade and the "other" Mrs. Gentry was my craft leader.

Alice Gentry. She was wonderful! She had kilns! She taught us how to paint ceramics. I picked a square box with roses on the lid and I painted it turquoise. I was fascinated with the whole process...yet absolutely scared to death of the kilns!!! I thought for sure I was going to fall inside one and I was going to burn "in hell" forever!

OK....just tie a little of the preacher's Sunday morning sermon into my vivid imagination and take it from there!!!

Now, Karla is not my only childhood chum that I love to go visit when I go "home". Alice Gentry's daughter, Nola, was in my class from K - 8. This is her way back then:


and this is me....
Again, I don't think either one of us has changed much at all!!!

And this is Gregg Byers on the left. We got together at the little community center and spent a few hours just having the best time ever talking about our childhood days. Of course, the school has been town down.....

but I swear, when I'm with my friends...I can still see us running up the stairs, down the halls, out to play ball, into the gym, up on the stage, in our band uniforms......

isn't memory just a wonderful thing?

I am so blessed to have so many friends from my childhood still a huge part of my life today. And even though we live a thousand miles apart, with skype, facebook, blogging and the internet....it seems like all of them are just down the hall from me!

And while Nola's mom, the "other" Mrs. Gentry, has been gone for awhile.....I can still see all the wonderful painted ceramics that would come out of her kilns when we were kids. I think it's just amazing that I'm now taking classes in glass slumping and fusing, working with dichroic glass and firing metal clay in a kiln. I know that she would love it all!

So "thank you" to Mrs Alice Gentry and Mrs Mildred Gentry - for everything you taught me as a child. And thank you for your daughter and your daughter-in-law.....that 40 some years later we are all still great friends!!!

Mrs.Gentry

I really do get a lot of my inspiration from my childhood memories. This trip home was wonderful for so many reasons.....but going to Perkinsville was just beyond special!

I wrote last night about one of my Sunday School teachers, Mrs. Gentry. Mildred Gentry. I remember she made great pies! She lived in a farmhouse on the bend on the river.



Had a huge red barn with a silo.



and look mom, they still hang the tack in the barn!!!



When I went to church in Perkinsville, we put on the play "Mountain gal" one summer. My dear friend, Karla and I got to dress up as hillbillie girls and put mud all over our legs. We thought it was quite fun! I had the lead role and I remember I had to memorize 110 lines for the play. I think there's a reason why my stage career ended there! (That's me on the right and Karla on the left in the early 60s).

My Grandma Moore (on the left) and Karla's mom, Emma Lou, worked together to help us put the play on.


Emma Lou came to church on Sunday morning to see me after all these years. I swear....she has not changed a single bit!!! She was our youth group leader and I can still hear her say, "Now Jennifer, you be a good girl! You come see me often!"



And here's the coolest part of the story....Karla married Steve....Mrs. Gentry's son. She now lives in the house on the bend in the river with the red barn and the silo. And the best part.....I get to call her "Mrs. Gentry"!!!

Yes, some things just never change!!!

Fourty some years later...I don't think we have changed much at all. We can still talk non-stop, pass notes in Sunday School, forget that anyone else is in the room and listen when our mom's say, "be good....visit often!"

It really is true that your first friends are your forever friends!!!