Today's story comes from Gale Lynn from Easton.
Gale Lynn came into this world in December of 1947, the younger of two daughters of May and Willis Jones, a struggling young couple from the coal regions of Luzerne County, PA. Willis, a WWII Navy veteran who served in the Pacific, and May, a former department store piece goods clerk, moved to Easton shortly before their youngest, Gale, was born.
After the war, Willis landed a job as an optician for the well-known Bausch and Lomb optical company. Although the company was large, his salary was not. And with May having to care for the baby and four-year-old Barbara, they were limited in finding an affordable place to live in Easton. Willis finally found a third-floor, one-bedroom walk-up on South Third Street in Easton for the family of four.
Despite the young couple's financial troubles, May didn't allow the girls to realize they were poor, making sure they always had food, at least one good pair of shoes, a Sunday school dress, one baby doll, a winter coat, and a crocheted hat she made herself. She also gave them a library card and a weekly trip there.
The trips to the library became Gale's entire world. May taught the girls to read, and by the time Gale entered first grade, she could read very well. One day, she ran home after school to tell her mom what she wanted to be when she grew up. "I want to be a teacher. But a nice one, not like the one I have now."
As it turned out, Gale's first grade teacher tied her to her seat every day. The teacher was teaching the alphabet, so being so bored, Gale kept getting out of her seat and sneaking into the cloak room. In that room, she discovered a whole new world. Many of the kids' jackets, coats, sweaters, and caps became costumes in her imaginary plays. She pictured herself dancing on stage. But the teacher burst into the cloak room and dragged her back to her desk.
The rope tying continued every day until May noticed brush burns on Gale's arms and legs. An immediate impromptu meeting with the school principal ensued with an edict made to the teacher that Gale will now be the teacher's helper, aiding students who needed help with their reading. Gale didn't know it, but this was the beginning of her teaching career.
As the years flew by, the teaching bug kept creeping into her mind. In high school, she approached her dad with the idea of going to college. The answer was a resounding, "No! Girls don't go to college. They get married, they get a job, they have children." Willis couldn't be swayed an inch and he made a decision for Gale to move to the business track at school to become a secretary.
Her senior year of high school, Gale was given an opportunity to become a telephone operator at Bell Telephone, learning to operate the long distance cord board. She took her dad's advice, got married at 18, and a few years later had two little boys. When the marriage crumbled, she was alone to pick up the pieces.
All throughout this crisis, there was a gnawing in the back of her mind to go to college and become a teacher. At the age of 36, Gale walked into her first post-high school class at the community college. From community college to Moravian University, she reached her first grade goal, graduating cum laude with a B.A. in English, and eventually an M.S. in Education at the age of 41.
Teaching thousands of high school students for years, Gale instilled in them that goals are reachable if you work hard and believe you can do it. The little girl from South Third Street in Easton is now retired and remains in touch through the modern technology with a number of former students.
