By Marianne Wood

Someday I hope to write more about growing up with Dick and Jane in the 1960s and ’70s. Aren’t they characters in a young readers’ series back in the “duck and cover” age? Why, yes, they are.

Our mother taught primary-age children, so my siblings are aptly named. She also studied French and naturally liked one of their national symbols: Marianne. Moreover, Mother loved reading, language, and science and taught these subjects and more at every chance. A photo she took of me with my two children observing an eclipse hangs in our hallway. She passed along her love of the natural world with projects like that and through field trips to Tadpole Creek. Thanks, Grandmarjorie. We miss you!

Here, she teaches during “Story Time” at the new library downtown. In this Abilene Reporter-News file photograph circa 1961, I’m the one biting my nails. Mom loved stories, and we caught her love for them, too.

A new chapter began last week with the historic groundbreaking of Abilene Heritage Square in the former Abilene High School building (later Lincoln Middle School) on South First Street. This grand structure with an eagle’s nest, a great stone owl, and two lion grotesques atop stands at the midpoint of the Bankhead Highway. I understand that early Abilene leaders chose to make a strong statement for education by placing it squarely there. So Abilene Heritage Square will continue to share that philosophy–that hope–for our collective future. Read more about the many
benefits coming our way here: https://www.abileneheritagesquare.org/about/

I give thanks for my mother’s impact on my education and for all the teachers, moms and dads, siblings, friends and civic leaders who care to teach us to “preserve the past’’ and “educate the future.” We are a richly blessed city.

Marianne Wood works as an editorial assistant and researcher for Bill Wright