9. Clarinda Mustangs and Shenandoah Cardinals

Reason #9 - SHS Teacher? CHS Mom?

The infamous $70 Banana Hammock
purchased by H.C. O'Hara
at the Clarinda Alumni Event
Auction raising money for my mom.

It began while I was in middle school. You began buying those -- no, not just buying, you began having specially made sweatshirts created advertising that you were a Clarinda teacher, but your children went to arch rival Shenandoah. Each fall brought a brand new mutant hybrid, boasting a new confusing play on Clarinda Cardinals and Shenandoah Mustangs gear. These mash-ups were worn to every Clarinda Cardinals vs. Shenandoah Mustangs game until after I graduated. 

Thankfully, except for silly moments during adolescence, I was never embarrassed by them or even threatened by the notion of sharing your affections with your students. You were always a doting mother, and I was always blessed with the ability to understand and accept your eccentric ways. As I have grown older, I realize that I, too, am a hopeless romantic. I love the big gestures -- the cheesy gifts with a story behind them, like the $70 banana hammock purchased at the Clarinda fundraiser in your honor. I was merely mentioning in passing that I had been wanting one -- I didn't mean that one specifically. See! I'm even attracted to other people who communicate through figurative language speaking the language of love. 

And as a teacher now myself, I've come to realize how significant those gestures were to your students. In fact, that simple act may have given a handful of your students reassurance that at least one person was there to support them, and that was well worth it.

The Banana Hammock Culprits
(From L to R standing behind my Momma, Patsy Martin):
Emily Josephson, H.C. O'Hara, Chuck D. Martin, and
my father, Ed Martin.