Comments from Huskies - Patricia Ann Moore Matthews, Class of 1968

Feedback from Classmate
Pat Moore Matthews, Class of 1968

Hi Danny, Your mention of Emma Carson in the latest alumni newsletter sparked memories of our beloved teacher. I had her in the 7th grade at Victory School and I will remember always in her deep Southern drawl, " Honey, sugar baby, darling, NOT is never a verb". I remember often and tell others of the wonderful Southern charm of this Charlestonian Southern Belle teacher who both impressed and empressed me with that gentle style and impeccable example of grace and dedication to her chosen career. My heart has many people attached to it and she certainly is one of the big ones. I remember also Nell Patton who taught English so thoroughly, it carried me all the way through to my high school graduation. Every year after her was a refresher course. I compare teachers that my children have had to the ones that I had. Some of them met the standard, but sadly many did not. I think that a truly dedicated teacher can improve the world by his or her influence on their students, and ones who aren't can send those students who are in danger, over the edge. I know I was changed for the better by most of my teachers; like Dorothy Baxter(HHHS), a great PE teacher whom I admired, Mrs Carson, Mrs Hall, Mrs Vaughn, and Mrs Patton (VES), Mr Spencer, Mr Parks, Mr Whitman, Mr Shook, Mr McCorkle, Mrs Glenn, Mrs Spencer, Mrs Parks (HHHS). I still think of all the great times I had in both those schools and the impressions of the teachers and principals that are etched permanently into my life. Mr McCorkle helped me pass Biology. I didn't care much for the dissections and he let me get by with some things and I moved on. I owe him. Mr Shook was my Spanish I and II teacher, as well as Democracy in Action. I was very shy about standing in front of the class and giving current event reports, so I never did and was failing his class. I needed it to graduate, so he allowed me to come to his class of juniors and give three current event reports to one of his students and himself, and I had to make 100% on each. I did it and I graduated. He was dedicated and compassionate and I owe him. Mrs Parks, 12th grade English, gave me a passion for reading and told our entire class that nothing would be handed to us in life and she taught us to stand on our own two feet and do our best, whatever that best might be. I thought she was so cool because she wore fishnet hose and go-go boots. Mr Lingerfelt was the principal at Victory School when my mother went to school there. Living across the street in the parsonage of South Gastonia COG placed most of the school aged Collins clan there for a few years. My Mother and Daddy moved into the same neighborhood when I was a young child and my siblings and I went to school there also. It was a great school and great friends were made there. Then when Huss opened up and we went there, it was like a whole new world. I loved going to school there and hardly missed a day. I relive in my mind the paths I took there for four years and the friends I had there. I cherish them always, like my best friends for life, Teresa Glance Greemon and Linda Roseberry Huffstetler and friends I haven't seen in many years, Jan Goodwin, Joretta Camp, Kay Whitesides, Cathy Griggs, Dru Fowler. Teresa and Linda and I were together the week after Christmas at Linda's looking through the Astrons of our years at Huss and took a stroll down memory lane. We were up till the early hours of the morning telling stories and sharing our memories of the mostly wonderful and a few not so wonderful times we spent there, together and apart. Bartley Robbins was the greatest principal. He knew how to handle crisis and without prejudice. An event that I found myself thrust into, unwillingly, occurred during the integration of Highland High School and Hunter Huss High. A group of the newly displaced Highland students were engaged in an argument with my friend, Linda and her sister and they called for my help. No physical violence occurred because we created such a loud commotion that Mr Jones and Mr Helms came out of their classrooms in C Hall right there at the cafeteria and escorted us all to the office, where others joined in and we ended up in Mr Robbins' office. He informed us that he would not tolerate in any form, any racial bigotry or any incident sparked by it to occur upon the campus of Hunter Huss High and that anyone guilty of it in the future would be expelled and that we better learn to get along with one another without further incident. I knew it to be a warning and not an idle threat because he was so consistent with his discipline. There were no more incidents and the frustrations of the displaced students began to wane as they all found their niche in their new school and we all began to build friendships with one another. It was history in the making and we survived, both sides. It was and is the right thing, because we are diverse in the United States and no one should be treated differently. He taught us through his leadership what the world would demand of us outside of the halls of our beloved school. He will always live on, because he placed a piece of himself into each of us and we pass it on to others. The times I spent in those halls are cherished and each one a lesson in how to live. Go Huskies, Go! Pat Moore Matthews, Class of 1968

[Pat and I have been friends almost forever. I hesitate to say “lifelong friends” because my niece Melanie Payne Davis says everyone of my friends are lifelong friends. I have know Pat since I was 15 years old and she was 12 or 13. We share a lot of the same teachers at Victory and Hunter Huss. They surely impacted our lives Pat. I agree that the teachers of today don’t measure up to the teachers of our day. That is my own opinion though. I am so grateful to have Pat, Linda Roseberry Huffstetler and Teresa Glance Greemon as friends. I can’t keep up with them. Lol. However, they are a couple of years younger than me. GO HUSKIES. Danny A. McBee, Class of 1966].

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