Chadwick 1
Susan Chadwick
Dr. Thomas
ENC 1101
31 May 2015
A Rose Without Thorns
My first impression of this little old lady who called herself Mrs. Rose was not favorable.
Her gray hair wrapped tightly on the back of her head in a bun and her glasses falling down to
the tip of her nose seemed odd to me. I begged my mother not to leave me. Mrs. Rose took my
hand and gently peeled my fingers one by one until the tight grip I had on my mother was
released. Mrs. Rose assured me that day everything was going to be fine and that someday I
would learn to love school.
My first day of school began very similar to what many children experience. There was a
lot of tears and pleading with my mother not to make me go. I got dressed in my new blue satin
dress and my penny loafers complete with brand new shiny pennies. I looked great but my heart
was just not in it. I begged, I pleaded, I cried: “Don’t make me go!” nothing worked. With the
tears still pouring from my eyes, I walked to the 1962 Peagreen Falcon with the bright orange
ping pong ball on the antennae. Most days that ping pong ball made me laugh, but I barely
noticed it through the tears. I felt nothing would brighten my spirits that morning. Nothing, that
is, until I met the rose.
The drive to school seemed to take forever. I had no idea back then what the term” dead
man walking” meant, but I surely felt it. Still crying as we arrived at Pine Ridge Elementary, I
remember thinking how pretty and peaceful it looked. The school was nestled in a forest of pine
Chadwick 2
trees that were so tall they seemed to be touching the sky and it had a playground like I had never
seen before. There was an old rock pit that had been converted into a ball field with a community
building just in front of the school and activity abounded there day and night. The school
building was a pale green color and the door to my classroom was a dark hunter green. On the
door was a really pretty sign with an old fashioned school house, flowers, and a big yellow sun,
that said Welcome to 1st Grade on the top and Mrs. Rose/Room 3 at the bottom.
My first impression of this little old lady who called herself Mrs. Rose was not
favorable. Her gray hair wrapped tightly on the top of her head in a bun and her glasses falling
down to the tip of her nose seemed odd to me. I begged my mother not to leave me. Mrs. Rose
took my hand and gently peeled my fingers one by one until the tight grip I had on my mother
was released. Mrs. Rose assured me that day everything was going to be fine and that someday I
would learn to love school.
My mother and father read books to me every night at bed time. I was intrigued by the
way Mrs. Rose read to us. The books seemed to come alive. Her voice would get very loud as the
story climaxed, and then soften to a mere whisper and I had to lean in to hear what words she
would say next. I loved how she read us our stories. Then the day came when we got our first
book to read. Its title was Fun with Dick and Jane. At first Mrs. Rose read it aloud and asked us
to follow along. Spot. See Spot. See Spot run. Run Spot Run! Dick. See Dick. See Dick run. Run
Dick Run! Jane. See Jane. See Jane run. Run Jane Run! I thought this was a funny book. But
then, things turned to be not so funny when Mrs. Rose put us all in a circle she called our reading
circle. One by one she called on each child the circle to read their line in the story. I was
extremely shy and feared Mrs. Rose calling my name. There was a little boy named Roger who
sat right next to me in the circle. I think his last name started with a” C” also that’s why he was
Chadwick 3
near me. When it was Roger’s turn to read his sentence, a really strange thing happened. He said,
“See see see Ssss Ssss Ssss Spot rrr rrr rrr run!” I breathed a sigh of relief when he got through
his sentence and thought to myself, I can’t be that bad. I didn’t understand speech impediments. I
just knew I didn’t talk like that!
When Mrs. Rose called on me to read about Dick, I couldn’t wait. I aced it. “Dick. See
Dick. See Dick run. Run Dick run!” I kept going proudly. Jane. See Jane, See Jane run. Run Jane
run!”
Mrs. Rose stopped me and thanked me and told me what a great job I had done. All the
kids clapped for me. It was that day I started to come out of my “shy shell.”
Mrs. Rose asked me one day if my mother ever took me to the city library in downtown
Fort Lauderdale. I replied, “No, we only have one car and my dad needs it for work.”
“Well,” Mrs. Rose replied, “We have a library here and I think you would really enjoy
checking out some books to take home and read to your mother after school.”
“I would. I really would. I love to read Mrs. Rose. Can we go? Can we go today?” I
asked almost begging.
“When your mother comes to pick you up from school today, I’ll ask her if we can go
and check out a couple of books,” Mrs. Rose told me. And we did. The first books I ever
checked out in my school library were Dr. Seuss’ Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. The
library allowed us to check them out for one week and I must have read those books one hundred
times before I had to return them. My mother was so sick of Dr. Seuss by the time I graduated
first grade she was thrilled when I moved on to Good Night Moon.
This little old lady with the gray haired bun did so much more for me than whet my
appetite for reading and writing. She cultivated in me, an inquisitive mind. She instilled
Chadwick 2
confidence in a shy little girl in her shiny blue satin dress with her penny loafers. She was right
that very first day she peeled my hand from my mother’s, I did learn to love school, but better
yet she taught me the beauty of learning something new every day in life! Mrs. Rose was a
beautiful rose and truly had no thorns.