The Paris News

The school bell rings for the last time in June. Students scatter, hoping they don’t even have to look at the building for a couple of months. But what about the teachers? Do they hang out in the classroom all summer, teaching empty desks?

Actually, we’re a busy lot and get up to all kinds of things between spring and fall.

Just because school is out, Michael and Sally Cosgrove see no reason to stop learning. Summer vacation for the couple and their children – Madeline, Samuel, CarolAnne and Hannah – was educational.

“Our education does not stop in summer. It just changes gears,” said Sally, pre-calculus teacher at North Lamar High School. “We live education in the summer. We read, and we try to experience it.”

It started with a trip in early June to Pensacola Beach, Fla., to celebrate the graduation of son Samuel. They were there in time for the Festival of Five Flags, an annual celebration of Pensacola’s founding. This year marked the 450th anniversary. It’s a family tradition to combine a senior trip with family vacation.

A month later, the Cosgroves were on the road again. This time, to Annapolis, Md., to see Samuel off to school. He had been appointed and accepted into the United States Naval Academy. His induction and swearing in were held in early July. All the new “plebes” are sequestered together away from everyone else for the summer in a sort of mini-boot camp.

“We gave him lots of love and support and said goodbye,” Sally said. “That was hard, but I know where he is, and he’s where he wants to be.”

The Cosgroves then traveled about 40 miles to Washington, D.C., and stayed in a hotel just a few blocks from the National Mall. School may have been out, but Sally’s family never wastes an educational moment. They spent three days in the nation’s capital, much of it in the various Smithsonian institutes. The first museum stop was to the National Museum of Natural History. Madeline is a pre-medical student at Texas A&M. She wanted to see the museum’s bones exhibit.

“We saw bones of every living creature in that exhibit,” Sally said. “It was fascinating.”

The family also visited the National Museum of American History, where they saw a wide range of exhibits ranging from the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key’s “Star Spangled Banner” to Kermit the Frog to Thomas Jefferson’s desk to the ruby slippers from the “Wizard of Oz.” Another trip took them to the National Air and Space Museum, where they saw items such as the Wright brothers’ plane, a Soviet MiG and one of Amelia Earhart’s planes.

Sally said what most impressed her about the Smithsonian was the size and the fact that patrons are encouraged to interact with many of the exhibits.

“There are about 12 museums. It’s huge,” she said. “You can take pictures, and they want you to touch stuff. I have never been to a museum like that.”

Not that the entire trip was spent indoors. They visited places such as the Vietnam Memorial, Washington Monument and a new World War II memorial. Hannah, their youngest daughter, also asked they go see the Lincoln Memorial.

“She was totally devastated she could not get in his lap,” Sally said.

The Cosgroves spent Independence Day in Washington. Before the big fireworks display over the National Mall, they took a trip to the National Archives to see some of this nation’s founding blocks, such as the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

“It was kind of like we were in church,” she said. “It was very quiet, and you could sense the power and the reverence and the awe.”

Marc Whitney, a North Lamar High math teacher, spent his summer vacation trying to wrap up what he called the “third and final” renovation of his house on 10th S.E. Street.

He and wife, Linda, a third grade math teacher at Justiss Elementary School, have lived in the house for 35 years. In that time, they’ve done work to install new air conditioning, new wiring, new plumbing, new roof and a new porch – just to name a few fix up items.

This round has included new trim and other woodwork, new paint, a floor and cabinets in the kitchen and a new bathroom. They had planned on getting it done fairly quickly, back when they started in the summer of 2007.

“We figured, ‘OK, school’s starting. We’ll just work after school.’ You can’t do that,” Marc recalled with a laugh. “It’s just so hard to do. This last winter, we didn’t do much at all, we were so sick of it.”

The red two-story was built in the 1880s, and any home that old always has more surprises in store for the renovator. Part of the painting included the ceiling, which had been covered with wallpaper. The Whitneys took that down, and then had to remove the cheesecloth it was attached to. Removing the wallpaper showed a new problem with the cloth backing – it had been nailed to the ceiling with small tacks, which left thousands of tiny holes that had to be filled in once they were removed.

“Old houses are strange,” he said. “As soon as you start something, you’re going to uncover even more. If you think it’s going to cost $20,000 to do a renovation, borrow $40,000.”

The Whitneys have rented a house next door to stay in while they work on their home. They tried living in the house during a major renovation in the 1990s, an experience Marc said strongly resembled the movie “The Money Pit.”

They hope to be moved back in to their home shortly after school starts. Even next door, they’ve started experiencing some homesickness.

“I was hoping I’d get it done quicker, and I could get the exterior done this summer,” he said. “I’ll probably get to that next summer.”

Even with what they’re calling the “last” renovation, Marc said there’s always work to be done. Next summer, he’ll probably tackle the exterior. And his next “major project” is to rebuild the garage — which he says a previous owner actually purchased at a garage sale to replace an old carriage house.

“You really have to want to do it to do it,” he said. “Normal people, when they get tired of a house, they buy a new one and hire someone else to do all the work – and work themselves to death trying to pay for it. We’ve just worked ourselves to death.”

Billie Pickerill, a special education teacher at Parker Elementary School, runs a snow-cone stand next to Wolf Tanz on U.S. 271 near Powderly. She and her husband bought the red trailer in the fall and spent most of the school year rebuilding it with new walls, floor and plumbing to meet health codes.

“There are several locations in town where I probably could have made more money,” Billie said. “But I live in Powderly, and I wanted to stay here.”

Even with an apparently out-of-the-way location, they do a steady business, especially on hot days. Saturdays are the busiest, but even weekdays see a fair number of customers.

“This is our weather,” Billie said with a laugh. “He got here today, and he had eight people waiting on him. We sell 100 to 150 on a slow day.”

Besides, it’s not like they’re tied down. It is a trailer, after all. Pick’s Shaved Ice travels around the region for fundraisers, festivals, vacation Bible schools and the like.

“It lets us give back,” Billie said. “People are so supportive.”

Summer hours are 1 to 8 p.m., but they’ll start opening around 5 p.m. when school starts.

“As long as the weather permits, we’ll keep it going,” she said.

Adults shouldn’t feel guilty about visiting. They keep it going for the grownups as much as the kids. At times, it’s hard to tell who enjoys it more.

“We put gummy bears at the bottom of every snow cone,” Billie said. “We stared doing it just for the kids, but then the adults started saying, ‘I didn’t get a gummy bear.’ It’s become a signature.”

And then there’s me. I teach senior English at North Lamar High School, and once that ended for the year, things got really busy.

Summer started with a move. The Parish family packed up the house in Fort Worth and dragged everything and everyone (sometimes kicking and screaming) to Paris. We’ve spent much of the summer unpacking and sorting. But that’s only part of it.

Like many teachers, I have a part-time job. In my case, it’s as a driver for Pizza Hut. It takes up most evenings during the week. You get an opportunity to meet all kinds of interesting people, even former students. It’s especially interesting when I’m getting the pizza out of the bag, and they noticed me first.

“Hey, Mr. Parish!”

I nearly drop the pizza as I look up and run through a list of a couple hundred names before one finally goes “bing!” “Oh, hi there, so-and-so!” It’s not a job that allows for a lot of time spent on witty conversation. In fact, when I’m not driving all over Paris, I spend a lot of time and putting food in a big refrigerator.

And that’s just my evenings.

Much of my days are consumed with freelance work. Obviously, there’s The Paris News. On top of that, a former employer asked me to work on e-mail newsletters — finding news; updating the Web site with stories, photos and video; creating the e-mails and sending them out.

My skills as an English teacher and former journalist have been put to the test, as well. Most of the remaining hours in the day have been spent reading several science fiction books, looking for mistakes in everything from grammar to punctuation to the story structure. It’s part of some editing work for small-press publisher Cyberwizard Productions.

And then there’s the work all teachers do during the summer: Preparing the classroom and ourselves for the new school year. After all, we have to have everything ready when we open our classroom doors and welcome a whole new group of students.

Share | Save | Mail | Print | Letter

Serving Northeast Texas and Southeast Oklahoma

A Southern Newspapers publication.