{"id":4413,"date":"2018-03-27T13:58:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T16:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?p=4413"},"modified":"2018-08-27T18:34:16","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T21:34:16","slug":"virginia-slim-no-not-that-kind-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?p=4413","title":{"rendered":"Virginia & Slim NO Not THAT Kind (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Two more mismatched people could not be imagined.<\/p>\n

It was 1970, I was in my second year of teaching at Varina HS and assigned, for the second year, to be yearbook co-sponsor. Sponsoring extra-curricular activities was part of our teacher duties. I suppose you could request an area of interest but since I was on the yearbook staff in high school, it was an okay assignment. Or so I thought until I walked into the room and saw a beautiful but well beyond my age teacher assigned as my partner. This did not look good. The year before I had been paired with a guy teacher that had a pretty set opinion of how the book should be put together and as I jumped in mid-year I went with the flow. It was a pretty dreary book but the kids were fun. I was glad to not be with him again. But this teacher looked like trouble. She probably thought the same about me.<\/p>\n

It only took about three sentences before Virginia and I discovered that contrary to both our beliefs we were no mismatch at all but a match made for each other. Neither of us would settle for anything less than perfect and that was the way it would be. We took the staff to workshop weekends, taught them how to take pictures, crop pictures, write copy and layout a decent book. The staff spent countless hours and days at the Mistr farm, where Slim & Virginia fed us and put up with us, getting everything right. Class time was just not enough.<\/p>\n

It worked. Our book went from uninspired to trophy winning in just one year. We were elated. But never one to rest on our laurels, the next year we let the staff go for the big kahuna. They really wanted a tie-dye cover. We checked with our publisher, the American Yearbook Company. Yes, they could build the book with tie-dyed cloth we provided. That’s all any of us needed. Nothing was impossible, not even hand tie-dying individual pieces for 500+ yearbooks. Everyone looked to me to figure out the logistics, after all I was the art teacher.<\/p>\n

We took a weekend field trip to the mountain corduroy fabric outlet where we bought bolts of cheap uncut non-dyed corduroy. Back home in Varina, we cut the cloth into rectangles. Then the dying began. Not to be satisfied with just one color, we had to have two. And so first we gathered by hand one at a time, several spot areas of each of those 500+ rectangles, dipped a spoonful of green dye into the middle and bound the spot with a rubber band. Then we applied more rubber bands creating a ball of sorts all the while making sure to protect the middle of the cloth where the name would go on the book spine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Next the balls of cloth were dropped into huge vats of blue dye. All of this was done on the Mistr’s farm using their big kettles set up in the yard. No other way could we have accomplished such a huge task. After the balls were dyed and removed from the hot dye the rubber bands were removed and each piece ironed flat, boxed and shipped to AYC where they worked their magic and made our yearbook into yet another winner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Got to interject an aside here, years later when Emily and fellow yearbook staff members at Manteo High School were having a discussion about their cover the book company representative, who happened to be from American Yearbook Company, told them about this high school that had hand tie-dyed cloth for their cover. It so impressed the company that they put a copy of our book in their display case. We were legendary!<\/p>\n

Of course, even with the tie-dye cover the book only became a winner with someone like Virginia keeping her sharp pencil at the ready to fix any bad or wrong copy. We were fortunate to have Jim Mahone write most of our copy. His quick wit and way of saying much with just a few words was a dream for any yearbook to have on board. He went so far as to write his copy and captions on graph paper so that he could instantly know how many letters and spaces he had used. His own form of personal computer (his brain) letter count.<\/p>\n

Virginia and I remained friends long after I quit teaching to have Emily, which was actually during the great tie-dye experience. I had to quit teaching at four months. I got an extension to stay until six months which coincided with Easter but after that I had to leave. Of course everyone knew I was pregnant but policy was policy. I could have come back the following year but Donny & I were fortunate enough to be able to let me stay home with the kids as they came along.<\/p>\n

Donny & I moved into Slim & Virginia’s tenant house a few months after Emily was born and there we lived until we bought our first house, just around the corner at 54 Oakland Road, when Emily was 5 and Donald 3.<\/p>\n

Slim & Virginia were unique people who crossed generation barriers with ease. They were simply a delightful couple who loved life. Virginia was a go to school and get your degree after the kids are grown mom. So actually she was as new to teaching as I was. We just came in through different doors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two more mismatched people could not be imagined. It was 1970, I was in my second year of teaching at Varina HS and assigned, for the second year, to be yearbook co-sponsor. Sponsoring extra-curricular activities was part of our teacher … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[575,586],"tags":[580,579,578,576,197,577,581],"class_list":["post-4413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-yearbooks","category-slim-virgina-mistr","tag-american-yearbook-company","tag-manteo-high-school","tag-slim-mistr","tag-varina-high-school","tag-varina-virginia","tag-virgina-mistr","tag-whitehall-yearling-high-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5CT4u-19b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4488,"url":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?p=4488","url_meta":{"origin":4413,"position":0},"title":"Virginia & Slim NO Not THAT Kind (Part 2)","author":"sandy jett ball","date":"October 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I get a random email recently that goes in part like this, \"Pete Mistr here. How are you and your family? Scott, Spud's oldest son, found your article \"Virginia & Slim NO Not THAT Kind (Part 1). What a great article. I loved it. Is there a Part 2 and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Slim Mistr"","block_context":{"text":"Slim Mistr","link":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?cat=631"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandybeachgirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_4815-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1120,"url":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?p=1120","url_meta":{"origin":4413,"position":1},"title":"A Flower by Any Other Name","author":"sandy jett ball","date":"April 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Pick it like so. Run your hand down the stem. Then snap. That gives you a long flower for your vase.\" My grandmother, Mother Leigh's, sage advise. And we all paid attention. Her love for jonquils, and us, was strong. She wanted every aspect to be as right as possible.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?cat=70"},"img":{"alt_text":"oakland road daffodils","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandybeachgirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/oakland-road-daffodils-300x203.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1609,"url":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?p=1609","url_meta":{"origin":4413,"position":2},"title":"Mom, We NEED A Swim Team!","author":"sandy jett ball","date":"June 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My heart sinks a little bit at Emily's request. I know just how much work all of it involves. But I know too that she misses the swim team activities that we engage in when we live in Richmond. There we're an east end team newly welcomed into the immense\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?cat=70"},"img":{"alt_text":"team on boat","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandybeachgirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/team-on-boat-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandybeachgirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/team-on-boat-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandybeachgirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/team-on-boat-300x225.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":138,"url":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?p=138","url_meta":{"origin":4413,"position":3},"title":"How I Got to Be in the Mother Of FIVE Club Part Four","author":"sandy jett ball","date":"February 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"You can't get pregnant while you're nursing. Ah, freedom for a few months. I bought it, hook, line & sinker. And then one day Stephen quit cold turkey on me. Ten months old, he was eating solids but nursing was still the major part of his diet. Our kids loved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?cat=70"},"img":{"alt_text":"sally","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandybeachgirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/sally-300x203.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1171,"url":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?p=1171","url_meta":{"origin":4413,"position":4},"title":"Hurry Up! We’re Going to Be HAVING SEX Late for Church","author":"sandy jett ball","date":"April 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"writing is fun but I really want to draw you here... The shock value of fuck is slipping slowly down the slope. F bombs are common from anyone. Any age. And are laughed off by all of us as fucking funny. Nothing shocking at all. Just an F bomb. Man\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?cat=70"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5198,"url":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?p=5198","url_meta":{"origin":4413,"position":5},"title":"Remember Santa Loves YOU!","author":"sandy jett ball","date":"December 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"For generations both my family and Donny's visit the real and only Santa at the Miller & Rhoads flagship store in downtown Richmond. I am lucky enough to visit Santa Bill Strother, who sells the store suits on spending money on an elaborate Santa set up. Fresh from a career\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christmas"","block_context":{"text":"Christmas","link":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandybeachgirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_2392-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4413"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4430,"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4413\/revisions\/4430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandybeachgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}