My Beautiful Sister on her 7th Birthday

1957

 Another fabulous cake made by Mimi (Ava Ella McNair Jones.) 

I love the way children would dress up for special occasions. 
Mother always let us have a birthday party.

Growing Up In Small Town America Part 17

                                 STRUCTURED ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL

Ready for the Recital

one last practice

My big brother, Bryan, watches over me.

Piano Lessons

Taking piano lessons was another cultural experience. I gained way more than I realized at the time. Learning to play the piano takes a lot of discipline and I was actually pretty good at it.  My piano teacher, Mrs. Connor, would eventually become one of my greatest mentors. She was a no nonsense person, but she had a definite passion to teach us well about how to read music and play to the best of our abilities. She made us attend Music Theory Lessons once a week during our first couple of years, along with our once a week private lesson.  She expected us to practice and could definitely tell when we had not done so. We brought our spiral notebook each week with our practice log and she would document our progress and write down the goals for the next week. It was a little scary when she became frustrated as she would take out her red pencil and begin to mark heavily on our music sheet of what we should be noticing. It was a tremendous learning experience and also a test of true discipline as we prepared each year for a public recital at the auditorium and also for National Auditions where ten pieces were played by memory for scrutiny in front of a judge.  We would be dismissed from school in order to participate in auditions. It was always a relief to have that behind me. In high school, I grew interested in other activities, though I still loved piano, I was not keeping up with practice. Mrs. Connor finally approached Mother about how it was wasting everyone’s time to continue. I was a little sad to not be around Mrs. Connor any longer, but it was for the best. I look back at her fondly as someone who enriched my life, helping me to set better standards.

Growing Up In Small Town America Part 16

STRUCTURED ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL

I am dressed in my Bluebird outfit. Paula was a cheerleader in Junior High.

 Camp Fire Girls and Horizon Club

Mother and Daddy made sure that I was involved in the community outside of the school setting. They wanted us to be raised with etiquette and culture and became members of the Community Concerts which was a cultural show of some kind each month at the auditorium. We would dress in our Sunday best and attend these monthly concerts.

 Mother also placed me in Camp Fire Girls. I started in Blue Birds, with 10 other hand chosen girls since my mother knew their mothers. We moved our way up to Camp Fire Girls, staying with the organization until we graduated high school. The top rank was Horizon Club. These girls became my core base of friends, forming my closest connections within its boundaries. We participated in monthly meetings, earning beads with our service to community and learning to do crafts, etc. We sewed our beads onto a vest in our own chosen patterns. I attended Day Camp every summer at the beautiful rustic Camp Fire Property on the outskirts of town. I started as a camper, and eventually became a camp counselor leading a group of younger kids.  I loved the Camp Fire director, Norma Jean Nowlin, and she obviously respected me, as she eventually made me and another friend, her main assistant helpers during the summer Day Camp. Being a part of Camp Fire was definitely important during my formative years.

My Study Place

We moved from Texas Street to our home at 4105 Bismark Street in 1962. It was a 3-bedroom home so that meant Paula and I shared a room. And you know how that goes! She was 6 years older than me and pretty much took precedence over the bedroom. I had started school, and Mother wanted me to have my own space to study, do homework and color or whatever else I needed. She set me up a corner in the den. I loved to color. Here I am busy at work :)

I still have the Dr. Seuss books and the dog bookends. The square table is a family heirloom. It belonged to my great grandparents, Mama and Papa McNair. (Ella Vermell King McNair, Charles Franklin McNair)

First Day of School for Bryan Quillin -1954

 It has been the same throughout the ages. The first-time mother having her first born child leave the nest and go to school for the first time. I had a loving family, and Mother and Daddy cared so very much for me, my brother and my sister. In 1954, Mother sent Brayn to school for the first time, and she found this news article that fit so perfectly for sending him out into the world. I had the BEST mother in the whole world. There was SUCH quality in all that she taught her children. This is indicative of her love and compassion.