My friends - Today, I am bringing another of the delightful essays written by Dr. Gordon Wilson in his little book, "Passing Institutions". Dr. Wilson, as our tenured subscribers are aware, was born and raised in New Concord in Calloway County. He was, for 32 years, the Head of the Department of English at Western Kentucky University. He was a well known ornithologist and folklorist. Born in 1888, he was 81 at the time of his death in 1970. Those who would like to see a photograph of Dr. Wilson can find one here: http://www.wku.edu/news/images/300/wilson.jpg Although people's appearances are usually not what I imagine them to be, somehow Dr. Wilson looks exactly as I thought he might, with his twinkling eyes and imaginative facial features - the face of a great story-teller. As is now customary, there will be no data posts tomorrow or on the weekend, although, if time permits, I will drop by with a miscellaneous file offering. -B ========================================================================== TREATS -Dr. Gordon Wilson "Passing Institutions" Some of the institutions that have passed have left adequate successors, but no successor has yet been found for the old-time treat. Boys and girls of our time, who are used to having ''apples, oranges, and candy” whenever they wish, can never know the rare and wonderful joy we experienced when the last day of school came and the teacher gave a treat. There were a few indications, even in those remote days, that the institution was passing, for some teachers in districts adjoining ours were said to be failing in their duty toward their pupils. We of our school frankly suggested that such teachers should not be allowed to keep school any longer. No matter how bad the weather, every child appeared on the last day of school and was fully able to eat, though he may have been kept at home for a week or two previously on account of illness. Sometimes the parents and younger brothers and sisters appeared on the last day. Usually there was a sort of closing exercise, such as the saying of pieces, but nobody paid any attention to pieces, for the whole school was consumed with hunger. While some of the Friday afternoon classics were being given, the teacher gave a knowing wink to two of the larger boys, who forthwith disappeared out the door, while children and visitors craned their necks after them and left the poor little boy who was saying his piece to butcher Mary's little lamb or take some of the twinkling out of the equally famous little star. By the time the last piece was said, the boys returned with a candy bucket or a box or a sack or two. Wiggling youngsters could hardly wait until the packages were unwrapped. As I remember it now, there were three time honored things in a treat: stick candy, candy in small bits, and apples. Not all appeared at any one time, but one of these had to be present to keep up the tradition. The candy was passed around by two boys, who had previously been instructed how many sticks or pieces each pupil might have. Peppermint was the commonest flavor of the stick candy. The small bits were of many varieties: gum drops, mint hearts with sayings and verses stamped in red on them, peppermint chunks, caramels, and kisses wrapped up in oiled paper and containing a small slip of paper with a very exquisite verse on it. Candy kisses deserve a whole essay or even a whole volume, for they were remembered long after the treat was eaten up; the little verses were kept in the front room and often helped in the Sunday afternoon entertainment of Sister's beau. The sentiments were as sweet as the kisses themselves, the very best one being, of course: The rose is red, The violet blue, Sugar's sweet, And so are you. The apples, to come back once more to the treat, were small and knotty, judged by present standards, but no ambrosial food served on Mount Olympus to grace a gathering of Greek gods ever tasted as they did to us. My, how those gum­drops stuck to a fellow's teeth! And how easily the candy was crunched! And how I wanted to murder the rowdy boys who took more than their share of the treat! The happiest faces present were those of small children who were not old enough to come to school. No doubt many of these youngsters right then and there resolve on a life of learning if its course were to be punctuated with treats like this. After the treat had been served, and while belated ones were munching their last apple cores, it was the conventional thing for the teacher to make a brief speech of goodbye, telling how much she hated to give up the children, how good they had been, and how it was highly probable that some of them might become President or Governor. We pupils, still smacking our mouths over the treat and also still as starved as when we came to school, believed every word and forgot the whippings and the stayings-in and the standings-up, which had all been so poignant the day or even the hour before, However, though we shed a few furtive tears when the teacher's voice trembled, probably because it seldom did in the regular days at school, that did not keep us from yelling like Indians the minute the school was dismissed, for we all pretended that we were glad the school was over. Since those days I have tasted all sorts of candy: home-made, store-bought, and other sorts, but nothing has ever had the flavor of stick candy, and kisses, and gumdrops. Other candy melts in the mouth; good old gumdrops, or "tooth­pullers," as we called them, had a way of staying put for a long time. And I have eaten bushels of Grimes' Golden and Stark's Delicious apples, but apples of all sorts are tasteless beside those knotty ones we used to get on that last day of school. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++