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Thornton Academy
438 Main St.
Saco, Maine, 04072
(207) 282-3361
STORY BY LOREN BABIRAK & DANIELLE GOSS
DESIGN BY JOHN MORRELL
Collect memories and tie them up in ribbon to be taken out and read like love letters containing the story of your life.
Late Wednesday night, Agnes sits at her table in her room alone. Exhausted from the day's demands, Ms. Cunningham corrects her students' assignments. As she finishes grading one pile of papers, she starts on another. After she is done grading her students' work, she takes out a piece of blank paper and begins noting ideas for this year's Christmas pageant. Suddenly, she is surprised as she looks out the window to see the delicate, intricate snowflakes falling from Maine's once clear star-filled sky. Agnes continues looking out the window. Her attention wanders away from her work as she thinks of the day's events. She recalls how earlier that day her eighth grade class had another " air-raid safety" drill. As she had walked around her small classroom making sure every one of her pupils was under their desks, Ms. Cunningham had wondered what it would be like in the actual event of an enemy air raid. She dreaded to ponder long on the subject. Within a few minutes, Cunningham had explained that the alarm was a practice emergency drill, and that the students could come out from under their classroom desks.
Gazing out the window behind her desk, once again she thinks of what it would be like if there was an enemy air raid in Saco. Suddenly, Agnes perceives an image of her students, frightened under their small, unprotected desks. She shakes her head as she tries to throw from her mind this horrible image. Trying to get her attention off the unwanted subject, Ms. Cunningham takes a deep breathe and continues writing down ideas for the upcoming pageant.
It is the same breath she takes sixty years later. It was a remembrance of those and many other unwanted images of those life-changing moments of drills, family, friends, and wars of the past. Now, at the age of ninety years old, Ms. Cunningham heads gingerly back to her desk where she spent so many nights grading papers during her teaching career. As she reaches her desk, she pulls open a drawer and takes out some old pictures and papers. She looks through the photographs of family and friends, the pageant pamphlets, and some other memorable treasures. The pictures and papers bring back many happy and sad memories, which sweep forgotten emotions over her.
Agnes Cunningham was born in Saco, Maine in 1911 into a Scottish family. Growing-up in a family of three brothers, her life was filled with childhood adventures, secrets, and household responsibilities. Agnes's Scottish parents and her siblings celebrated many traditions and rituals throughout the years. For Christmas, Ms. Cunningham's mother would cook pork pie and short bread for the family holiday. At New Years, Agnes and her siblings would race each other to see who would be the first person over the threshold to win and gain the "good luck" for the New Year in what they called "The First Footing". Only when Agnes and her siblings were older were they fully aware of this custom.
Cunningham attended Thornton Academy were she graduated in 1930 with Honors. She was a competitive student who excelled in school and who always expected herself to do her very best. After high school, Ms. Cunningham attended Farmington State Normal School where she graduated in 1932. Then, she went to work at York Mills. She worked from seven in the morning until five in the early evening for only $9.00 a week. Before becoming an employee, Agnes had to sign a contract that contained the following clause, "Any teacher who marries while teaching or intending to teach is dropped from the position and the payroll immediately."
In the fall of 1933, Agnes got a job as a substitute at Sweetser School. It was at this point in her life that she decided to become a teacher as a lifelong career. She became a teacher for the main reason that there were not many job opportunities at that time for women. As Ms. Cunningham explained, "One could be a secretary or a nurse or a teacher. So, I became a teacher! Although, if I had had the opportunity, I would have liked to do something in drama."
Ms. Cunningham worked at Sweetser School for four years. Afterwards, she received a teaching position at Burns Middle School were she worked as an eighth grade teacher until she retired in 1973. At the beginning of her teaching career, Agnes was only making $900 a year working her way up to $10,000 a year towards her retirement. At Burns Middle School, Cunningham not only taught English and Reading courses, but also volunteered her time by writing yearly school pageants programs that were held at the Saco City Hall. Additionally, she was active in the PTA and a variety of other educational teaching programs and meetings.
Being a teacher during World War II was not so easy. After the bombing and attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor in 1941, teachers were required to take First Aid courses. During classes, teachers had to prepare their students for possible enemy air raid attacks by having them get under their desks. Once, Ms. Cunningham had to lead her students out to the ball field behind the Burns Middle School. They had to stay in the field until they received the "okay" to go back to their classes in the school building. During World War II, being a teacher was hard. Yet, Ms. Cunningham never gave up.
Not only was being a teacher hard during World War II, but being an ordinary American citizen was equally trying. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and along with the rest of the citizens of Saco, Ms. Agnes Cunningham had to register for books of food and gasoline stamps. Although Agnes led a busy, and at times stressful life as a teacher, she inspected parts at an ammunition plant for the war effort during the summer.
As life changed after the war, Ms. Cunningham began to notice changes in the classroom. In the 1960's, she had to begun to accept new types of student behaviors. These new student behaviors included a less disciplinary educational environment in which students expressed their opinions more openly. Finally in 1972, Agnes had had enough with compromising to these new behaviors and just could not accept "certain things". As a result, she retired.
Ms. Cunningham did not regret becoming a teacher. In reflecting on the past, she comments that she does not know of any other field that "gives you more satisfaction than teaching." She explains that there is a lot to being a teacher " because, although, a person may have the ability, there would be no doctors, lawyers, musicians, or scientists without teachers."
Ms. Agnes Cunningham has been retired for 30 years. As a result, her life has seen tremendous change. She states that when she was a teacher, her days, nights, and weekends were always full. On Sunday, you could even find her at her desk grading papers. Her life was full of many activities. However now, " It's slow," Agnes states. Ms. Cunningham can be found going out with her friends, attending bible study, or having guests to her house, including her students she had in the past.
Ms. Agnes Cunningham slowly sighs as she puts the old pictures and papers of her past back in the desk drawer. She sits in silence, recollecting her thoughts. After a minute, Agnes slowly gets up from her chair to go get ready to meet some friends. As she heads toward her bedroom, she passes the table, which holds her teaching award and the window with pictures of her family decorating its ledge. Ms. Cunningham quickly smiles.
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