Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Thursday, June 24, 2021

First Romance

Grade Twelve English 30.
My favourite class of all time.
What could possibly be better than reading books and stories and then talking about them?
Or of writing your own?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Our teacher was a veteran of many, many years. She had taught each of my three elder siblings and survived.
And now it was my turn.
Most of the time, I was fairly quiet in her class - choosing mostly to listen as the conversations went on around me. Keeping my opinions to myself, except when they could be submitted in a written format.
My grades were good.
We were working our way through a thick volume of short stories. Some exciting. Some bizarre. Some sweet and romantic.
It was during this last that I came to grief.
Let me explain . . .
We were reading a story about a man who saw a beautiful hand-made doll in the window of a local shop. The doll affected him greatly. It seemed to 'speak' to him.
He purchased it and tried to find out more about it and the person who had made it.
He discovered that the doll and others like it were made locally and that a woman usually brought them in to the shop a few at a time.
He tracked down the woman.
She was not the artist.
Instead, she kept the real doll-maker a virtual prisoner, and forced her to keep making dolls, which were then sold.
The imprisoned doll-maker was justifiably sad and put all of the love she would have given her unborn children into her dolls. Which was why they were so beautiful.
The man fell in love with the captive doll-maker, stole her away and married her.
And they lived happily ever after.
Okay, I admit it, when I read this story, I discovered that I'm a romantic.
I loved it.
Loved the 'happily ever after' ending.
I was excited for the discussion to start . . .
“How many of you liked this story?” the teacher asked.
My hand shot up.
Then slowly lowered as I realized that I was the only person in the class who had raised one.
“This story was drivel!” the teacher said. “Absolute tripe!” She stomped around the front of the class. “Stupid romantic nonsense! Waste of good print! Waste of time!”
She added several more derisive comments, then stopped and stared at me.
My hand was back on my desk.
“Well, I thought it was romantic!” One of the other girls tried to come to my aid.
The teacher snorted. “Hmph! Don't know why it was included in this book! Maybe as an example of lousy writing!”
The class was silent.
“Asinine garbage! Should be torn out of the book!” She glared around. “Any other thoughts?”
Let me put it this way . . . the discussion following this story didn't take up much time.
The story was given a brief technical reckoning, then dismissed.
And the class moved on to the next story.
I moved with them, reading and responding to my assignments.
Suspense.
Mystery.
Humour.
But I never forgot my first romantic story.
I read and re-read it.
Loving it more each time.
Mmmm.
Romance.
I still think I was right.

7 comments:

  1. I am pretty sure you were.
    Reading is intensely subjective, and I am glad that you didn't let your teacher's opinion sway you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You actually made me want to read the story of the captive doll-maker ;) Why are teachers always so strange in their literary taste?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that teacher was out of line and I'm grateful that she didn't destroy your love of reading. (I did have to smile over the "survived your 3 older siblings" sentence). I rarely participated in English class discussions - I am a solitary reader who would rather read a story my way and form my own opinions...although, I've been known to sneak onto Goodreads now and then to check out what others think of a book before I read it. I, also, want to check out that story!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think you were right, too. And I don't think the teacher was being fair to a whole genre of books. Was she perhaps a person whose personal life hadn't turned out the way she wanted?

    English was my favourite subject all through school. The first day each year when we received our books, I'd start reading the anthology. Life was good for about three days until I finished it :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. That poor teacher, i wonder what happened to her to sour her on life and romance that way.

    You were right.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is something wonderful about words and writing. I remember when I first fell in love with writing and the smell of ink on paper. Now I write with klickety Klacks on a keyboard and the love of writing has grown.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think you were right too. Perhaps your teacher was speaking from a broken heart.

    ReplyDelete

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