No matter where you roam, there is no place as special as home! I’m not sure that Clara is on the map, but it’s sure mapped in the hearts of many. Before consolidation, the school educated many young minds and was a base line for many of our lives. The likes of Mrs. Hardee, Coach & Mrs. Hutto, Mrs. Flanagan, Mrs. Irma, Coach Gray, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Bivins, Mrs. Henderson, Miss Jones and my own sister who was my biology teacher, spent their time mentoring us and preparing us for the future. That night in May when I marched across the football field, I didn’t realize the importance of my foundational years at Clara. Little did I know that God would take a kid like me and send me literally around the world and into almost 30 countries to carry the good news to the suffering and to comfort the broken hearted.
This past weekend, in the mix of a busy life, I took a few minutes to step back in time to revisit “downtown” Clara. As we sat eating a delicious chicken on a stick at The Whippet Stop, enjoying the ambiance of the memorabilia from those years spent at Clara, my mind drifted back to the time that I gave Mrs. Hardee a Zero candy bar. With math being my weak subject, I kept making zeros on her Algebra pop quiz. When CHRISTmas rolled around, I bought a Zero candy bar and wrapped and gave it to Mrs. Hardee with a note that said, “Now you see what it’s like to get a zero.” Even after I married, she would remind me that I was the kid that had given her a zero!
Even though our paths have taken us different ways, I am thankful for my small town rural education that was the forerunner to the future that God saw within me. However, I wish that I had paid a little more attention in some of my classes, especially in English. Short hand would have been useful had I been a little more attentive, but chapter 48 in Biology held my attention quite well!
Many of us attended college; some even went to medical school and became doctors as well as other medical professionals while others continued their education in different fields. Some stayed on the home front to be a part of politics, some became proprietor of their own businesses, some joined the military, became educators, airline pilots, Mommies & Daddy’s and good citizens of our rural small town. A few had their lives snuffed out at premature age. Clara with its one flashing stop light, a bank that was robbed by someone on a bicycle (when I was kid), holds a special place in the hearts of many!
So if you have a few minutes, take time to stop in and visit Alton and Brenda at The Whippet Stop. Enjoy a chicken on a stick and instead of purchasing your gasoline in the big city, fill up with a tank of gas and support the local boys. You won’t be disappointed to experience the warmth of our small rural Whippet Stop!
