A long time ago, in Andrews, Texas, on a little street called Horseshoe Lane, lived a family of 5. The Barnes family. It was an old house that needed to be updated. Little by little, room by room, my mother's special touch was added to this old house. She was especially proud when we got to redo the master bathroom, after a little house fire. It became a beautiful oasis with a big white indoor gazebo, green carpet, and an enormous claw foot bathtub right in the middle. It was 1986 and two little kids (and one little girl on the way) would soon make this beautiful bathroom their personal waterpark.
This bathtub might not look like much to you, but it looked like hours of water fun to the 3 Barnes kids. Filled up, it quickly became a swimming pool. As soon as Mom walked out, the splashing would begin. With some extra soap suds, the back of the bathtub became the best slip 'n slide you could ever imagine. We'd kick-off of the front of the tub and zooooom back! The water would splash as high as a tidal wave. After shooting backward up the slide, you'd slide frontward with the shifting water. For 3 young kids, you cannot even imagine the fun!!! We eventually became very brave... when mom wasn't looking of course. This stunt required getting out of the tub. 1-2-3! We'd race toward the back of the tub, jump, and SLIDE in head first! Splash! We'd have to add water to the tub after a couple of these manuevers (that poor green carpet).
Needless to say after 3 kids bathing in that "oasis" for 10+ years, the carpet was ruined and the gazebo had seen it's better days. Mom and Dad decided to GUT that old bathroom in 1994 and transform it into the modern world. Sadly, our waterpark was removed. The memories in that tub would continue to be the topic of many stories told for lots of years, but Clawfoot had to go. Mom and Dad donated it to a close friend who was a teacher right there in Andrews. She transformed it into a reading center in her classroom which I have heard the kids loved through the years.
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| Mrs. Sherrill's classroom surrounding the ole tub with love "I watched kids read hours and hours in that tub. For many of them grew the love for reading. I would have to make them go to their seat. It was also used to comfort children when they didn't feel well, and those who needed a little extra shuteye. Bill would always tell me he wasn't moving that two ton thing again, but he always did. It was a wonderful gift I will always cherish. I passed it on to Shawna because of her love of reading. It makes me happy that it is still making kids happy." -Kathy Sherrill |
Fast forward! The reading tub moved with Mrs. Sherrill to Pampa, Texas and a new group of students were introduced to our bathtub. In 2008 she eventually found herself in Granbury, Texas. Her new teaching grounds were at Acton Elementary with Old Clawfoot and a whole new generation of kids to share some great reading in it.
I could have never imagined that I'd see that old bathtub again. I hadn't even thought of it in years. I assumed that because it was so BIG and heavy that Mrs. Sherrill had quit hauling it to her new classrooms (boy, I was wrong). This school year I began tutoring at Acton Elementary. I had worked there for several months before I spotted it. Still, I had no idea that it could have belonged to me. While in this teacher's room, I explained that we used to have a bathtub very much like that growing up in my hometown. THEN IT DAWNED ON ME...
"Where did you get your tub?"
"Oh, a retired teacher gave it to me."
Gasp. "Was her name Kathy Sherrill?"
"Yes! How do you know her?"
"Yes! She's like a mom to me. That's MY BATHTUB! THAT WAS IN MY HOUSE! We got it in 1986. That was our very own waterpark slide! My little sister pooped in that bathtub! Oh my gosh!"
I almost became emotional like that bathtub had feelings, emotions, and a memory of it's own. Surely Clawfoot remembered me. haha! I hadn't seen it in 30 years! It was crazy to see it again. I could almost see our little bare butts sliding all over it again.
That teacher's eyes were THIS big! She couldn't believe it! She thought she'd never know the full story behind her reading tub. It was just a fun place for students to read in. The end. But not anymore. There IS a STORY. It's traveled all over Texas. Now she knows where it originated, who bathed in it, and how they bathed in it! haha! I've even shown her our old pics so she could see Old Clawfoot back in it's prime.
Who would have ever thought, back in 1986, that our bathtub (of all things) would travel around Texas and find me again? And it's still entertaining kids just as it entertained us so many years ago in that big ole bathroom with (wet) green carpet. I bet my dad has no idea the investment he made and the impact it would have on so many children and classrooms. (But he knows now!!!)
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| 1986 |
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| 1986 |
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| 2016 |
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| 2016 |
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