When this edition of The TIMES comes out today, I can be found at Mercy Hospital spending at least some of my day rehabbing my new hip which replaced my old one yesterday in a surgical operation. I have been looking forward to this for several years and with this event, I have a brighter outlook for what I can get done in my professional as well as private life in the year to come.
Having been a morning person all my life, I told the doc that I preferred a morning operation, the earlier the better. He complied, scheduling me to come in at 5:15 a.m. Tuesday, with the actual surgery kicking off at 7 a.m. The past school year has been a challenge with the escalating pain level I had to deal and the dwindling energy I had to deal with it. I got tjhrough it, though.
For the school itself, this past year has been one of new challenges and new victories. If you ask me, Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" mantra has been preceded by the Blackhawk's mantra "Make Pea Ridge Great." The boys' and girls' athletic teams have brought in more awards and honors in the past few years than most all of the years preceding it combined. Not only are record number of students involved in athletics, the athletic program itself has expanded to be more inclusive.
In the past couple of years, the Pea Ridge band program has come from nowhere, relatively speaking, to be one of the best programs in this part of the country. The various schools have racked up many academic awards and have gotten a lot of notice for their arts programs.
When I say Blackhawks, I mean the community as much as the school. The Bright Futures program here is one that has brought a lot of help and solace to a lot of people, with the work and the support coming from every facet of the Pea Ridge community. The community activities (Mule Jump, Fourth of July, etc.) have an effect of binding people together and bringing folks together for common goals. Blackhawks are our students, our teachers, our administrators, our city officials, our parents, our residents and our supporters.
The elementary grades implemented Stephen Covey's Seven Habits program and it has done unimaginable things to improve character and self-responsibility among our students. I've seen students do things and volunteer for things that I haven't witnessed before in my more than 40-year career as a educator.
One of the biggest changes that has come to Pea Ridge, at least to me, is the way the town and school are perceived by those in neighboring communities. When I first came to work at Pea Ridge in the late 1990s, when folks from other areas asked me where I taught, and I told them, the usual response was "oh." Now folks reply with statements like "Pea Ridge? Now that's a good school," or "I have heard that Pea Ridge is a great school" and things of that nature.
Being in my 60s, I have seen the way the American society has changed and evolved over the years and it has not been for the better. I grew up in a town a lot like Pea Ridge is today. While I grew up in the 1960s, the social turbulence that racked a lot of schools in that time wasn't a problem for my alma mater. We were patriotic even though that feeling fell out of favor with popular culture. I'm proud that Pea Ridge is one of the few American schools that still does the pledge of allegiance as well as honoring members of our armed forces.
With success comes challenges. There's a housing boom right now in the city, and a lot of parents are choosing to transfer their children to Pea Ridge from other places for the better opportunities that await them here. This all means that Pea Ridge is growing. Pea Ridge schools are growing and growing fast.
When I first came here, Pea Ridge wasn't much bigger that Decatur and things were kind of limited. With the growth came opportunity and the past few years has seen that opportunity turned into positive outcomes. Challenges always lead to forks in the road, and to choices to think about. With growth comes change, and change is new. New is always a bit scary, but new can be a great thing.
Hip surgery
Now, to those who asked me how I hurt my hip in the first place. Believe it or not, I hurt it several years ago, even before Dr. Smith was here as superintendent. I drove a bus then, and one winter's morning, it began to freeze rain. We had to wait until 1 p.m. to let out school and by the time I got out to my route on Gann Ridge Road, the road was totally iced over. After I went half way up a hill, I lost traction, sliding backwards to end up in the ditch.
To make a long story short, I slipped on the hill falling backwards and knocking myself out in the process. I also came down hard on my hip and spine, but having a rather bad headache, I didn't think about my back much at the time. A year later I developed some back pain and I found out I had crushed a disc and would need back fusion and a new hip. Meanwhile the Affordable Care Act passed, which meant that I had to wait on both operations for several years. I had the fusion done three years ago and the new hip today will hopefully get me back on track.
While I have challenges in my life as does everyone, the the school and community will be challenged as well. With the past record as an indicator, things will be looking good for the Blackhawk Nation for the foreseeable future.
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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 06/08/2016