SUNDAY STORY

Teetering along the school hallway in a red flowered kimono and Mrs. Dickson’s traditional Japanese shoes. Parading around with classmates to the sounds of music from far-off lands. Lingering scents of foreign foods from the Far East to the Southwest.

I remember the day well — she was that type of teacher. We were in second grade, but a dozen years later the memories of that cultural lesson and many others are still vivid.

Her name, by the way, is Eleanor Dickson, but to me she will always be Mrs. Dickson. We remember her because she is a teacher at heart and left a lasting impression on us. She adores us because we are her students, her pride and joy.

In June, she said goodbye to her final second-grade class, ending a 40-year career during which she taught an estimated 1,200 students at three schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

As much as I pride myself on how well I remember the day we celebrated foreign countries, Mrs. Dickson remembers infinitely more: countless classroom festivities, ever-changing lesson plans and so, so many kids. Now, 40 years after she started, she laughs as she reflects on her many years of teaching.

Mrs. Dickson said that when she taught her first class in 1966, education was a different business.

“When I started teaching, you were either a nurse or a teacher,” she says matter-of-factly. “There weren’t as many professions open then as there are now for women.”

Women couldn’t even wear pants in their classrooms. But looking at Mrs. Dickson today, it’s clear that the more outdated aspects of a teaching career haven’t worn on this timeless woman.

She still doesn’t like pants, jeans or anything with two legs, instead opting for dresses and long skirts. When we sat down to look through old photos and school mementos, she wore a long, brightly colored skirt, a royal purple top, classy gold jewelry and chic espadrilles.

She doesn’t dress like someone who has spent 40 years in a classroom. It’s remarkable to realize that she’s actually been in school continuously since age 5. As a child in Fresno, school was nearly all she thought about.

“When I was 5 years old, I knew I wanted to be a teacher,” she told me. “I just knew. I used to play school in the summers with all the kids on the block. My dad got two rows of old desks stuck together and a huge blackboard, and we had that in our backyard … and I just loved to play school. I always wanted to be a teacher.”

Mrs. Dickson earned a degree in elementary education from Cal State Fresno in 1966 and started teaching in the fall of that year at tiny Canyon School. When I asked her what she remembers about her first day as a teacher, her face lighted up.

“On my first day of my first year, I remember meeting this teacher, Bev Ronald, and I’ll never forget it. I asked her, ‘How long have you taught?’ and she said, ‘Ten years.’ I thought, oh my gosh. I will have five kids by then. I couldn’t even comprehend — and this is the truth — how anyone could teach 10 years. And here I am, 40 years later.”

And it seems Newport Heights Principal Kurt Suhr would have her back for 40 more in a heartbeat.

“Eleanor is an extraordinarily special lady and a great teacher. She had the type of attitude where every year was a new year — the same positive attitude as a first-year teacher. Her work ethic and her attention to each individual student was second to none. She’s very refined, very classy — a true professional in every way,” Suhr said.

In addition to her passion for teaching, Mrs. Dickson fell in love with travel. During the summer of 1967, she and her cousin took off for a 30-day trip to South America, just for fun. Travel quickly got the best of her, and she spent following summers jet-setting to South and East Africa, China, Korea, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand.

As a result, Mrs. Dickson grew famous for her geography lessons, which she taught with a giant map, authentic foreign clothes and old-fashioned slides of her travel photos. I recall sitting cross-legged on the floor, gazing at that great map and wondering what amazing new thing she would show or teach us.

Considering that we all knew her as a bona fide world traveler, I was more than a little bit surprised to recently learn that the first time she left California was at age 22, when she took a job as a cocktail waitress on Cape Cod — a “fun job” before college graduation.

When she wasn’t globe-trotting, Mrs. Dickson was in her classroom, decorating the walls with “smilies,” or happy faces, and otherwise gearing up for the time each morning when we would barge into her room. She has even made, by hand, each of her 1,200 students a personalized photo album; no two are alike.

Cherrie Covington, who taught first grade (I was among her pupils) at Newport Heights for 15 years, thinks this attention to detail defined Mrs. Dickson’s career. She recalled that Mrs. Dickson was “so creative. She had cats all over the classroom and smilie faces everywhere. She’s part of a bygone era now of teachers who bring a lot of themselves in to the room — a lot of her own creativity.”

Unfortunately, Mrs. Dickson said, public elementary schools are no longer able to allow as much free time for artistic expression. Today, state and federal testing and other factors take precedence over subjects such as art.

“Now, it’s come to more structure, more standards,” she laments. “One of the reasons I like teaching is because I like to be creative and to try new things, but the way it is now is so cut-and-dry; it’s really hard to be creative.”

The next sentence does not come so easily.

“This is one reason why this is a good time for me to go.”

But, as Mrs. Dickson will tell you, that’s not the only reason. She has no shortage of things to do: spend time with her energetic 93-year-old mother in Fresno, clean out her school-supply-packed garage, remodel her home, get involved with animals (especially cats), enjoy being with her husband and two stepchildren and start traveling again.

With mixed emotions, she says, “I know I will love retirement.”

She speaks with resolve, but I know her voice, and I hear uncertainty.

“I know I will. It just might be hard in the beginning. It’s going to be really different.”

To help ease the transition into her first school year without work in 40 years, on Sept. 5 — the first day of school — she’ll go out to breakfast with other retired teachers and spend the day with them “doing something fun.”

Most importantly, Mrs. Dickson looks forward to finally being in charge of her own schedule, rather than living by the ringing of a school bell. Putting a lighthearted spin on retirement life, she jokes, “I was going to bring a bell home because I told my husband, ‘You’re going to have to ring the bell so I can go to the bathroom!’ ”

This is a woman who has seen more than 1,000 kids come and go, and the biggest difference she notices between her first and last class is that kids today are very technology-savvy and worldly. That aside, she feels that “basically, kids are kids.”

And if there is one thing that all those 8-year-olds had in common, it was taking a whole day to celebrate foreign countries with costumes, food, games and their classmates.

The days preceding our international celebration back in 1995 had put us all a bit on edge; after all, our foreign country reports were due that day. I happily laid my Japan report to rest with the others on a desk in the middle of the room. We crowded excitedly around the reports, whispering about which one was best, never looking beyond the cover art.

For me, one of the most exciting things about that day was taking a picture in my costume with Mrs. Dickson.

When it was finally my turn for a photo, I stepped up, straightened my little red kimono, gave a big smile and a week later I saw it: the slightly blurred image of myself with the teacher I so adored.

The picture doesn’t have high artistic value, but I’ve been careful to hold onto it for the last 12 years because it’s one of my favorites. I keep it tucked in the cover of my Japan report, of course.

MEMORIES OF MRS. DICKSON

“My favorite thing was making terra-cotta warriors because we got to learn about them and she showed us pictures [from China]. Also I liked learning about other countries and the diagrams we made to show how kids in other countries and kids at Newport Heights are the same and different.”

— Ryan Standt, Newport Beach, Mrs. Dickson’s second grade, 2005-06

“I think the one thing I remember is she was happy, positive and outgoing. I remember in her room the ‘student of the day,’ a big old smiley face, and her library was really cool, and it was so fun to go in there and read. She had a love for her job, and you could really tell. She made learning fun.”

— Megan Fleener, Costa Mesa, Mrs. Dickson’s second grade, 1983-84, now teaching fourth grade at Grant Elementary in Santa Ana

“I remember something called the smiley of the day, all these smiley faces. It was fascinating to go back and see her still teaching after all these years. She remembers me, and … it’s good to see that she enjoyed teaching as long as she did.”

— Oliver Fleener, Newport Beach, Mrs. Dickson’s second grade, 1981-82

“I remember she was always really cheery, her room was really colorful, and there were all the art projects…. She wasn’t just a teacher; she really became a family friend, and I loved going to see her. And I always thought the photo album she gave kids was so cool — none of my other teachers have done that.”

— Brittany Sturgess, Newport Beach, Mrs. Dickson’s second grade, 1995-96

“Mrs. Dickson was so vibrant and really fun. Her classroom has always stuck out in my mind as one of my favorite classes and classroom — it was so colorful. Then later, being a parent, it was comforting for me because she created an environment where the kids would help [Gutierrez’s handicapped daughter] Leilani, but it wasn’t a chore…. She’s an amazing teacher.”

— June Gutierrez, Costa Mesa, Mrs. Dickson’s second grade, 1982-83

“I liked to read the books, and I liked all the books that she had. I loved all the cats in the classroom because I love cats, but I think Mrs. Dickson likes cats even more than me! She was really nice.”

— Leilani Gutierrez, Costa Mesa, Mrs. Dickson’s second grade 2005-06, daughter of June Gutierrez

“I loved the abracadabra room and the tissue paper map, and the terra-cotta warriors. Today, whenever I hear about terra-cotta warriors, I remember learning about them in second grade. She still is my favorite teacher.”

— Sarah Wattson, Newport Beach, Mrs. Dickson’s second grade, 1994-95

“She’s a really caring person. I think she had a way of making children feel important … and the children she taught became her family. I admired her and appreciated her professionalism with other teachers and with parents. I learned to appreciate her more for the things she was doing to help kids, and I realized how much care and concern she gave to each one.”

— Vickie Weber, Long Beach, taught for 11 years at Newport Heights

“I remember her being really sweet…. And my mom says that after I was in her class, I wanted my work to look nice because her opinion mattered to me. I just remember that it was fun to come to her class every day. And I took my son to school and introduced my son to her, which was really cool. It’s a really neat legacy.”

— Kelly Kurz, Long Beach, Mrs. Dickson’s first grade, 1978-79, daughter of Vickie Weber