It's six months into my retirement--
six months, and I've written and
illustrated 11 children's books, 2 plays,
and 2 whole-school performances (one for
Martin Luther King Day, and one to
introduce Ocean's Week). So, what does an
old retired teacher do with all this stuff,
besides send it into publishers and keep
getting rejected? Until I'm discovered for
the unbelievably creative and clever person
that I am by one of them...

Until then, what do I do?

I do the 'Molly Malone' thing--you know-
-'wheelin' the wheel barrow, thru streets
wide and narrow, singing, ....whatever, for
sale'. I made brochures of my books and
plays and went school to school to see if
they'd pay me for a day to do these things
for kids--most of the books have art
lessons attached.

One school booked me for next Tuesday
for pay. It's a start.

The bigger promise is my meeting with
a woman who does grants, writes them, to
make things happen for schools. If I could
get a grant to pay me for doing this, we
have a motor home, and we could travel all
over Nevada, to the little tiny country
schools in teeny-weeny out of the way towns
all across this state that is 465 miles
wide and about 500 miles long. If I could
get this grant, I could be funded (gasoline
alone needs a grant to run a motor home) to
bring my books, my art, my plays and
presentations, PLUS, I could teach teachers
how to use the Paintbrush program on their
computers--if they have a classroom
computer--to have their children write and
draw on the same page. It's what I learned
to do, using the mouse as the drawing tool.
So can others. And children are fearless.

So now you know what the Molly Malone
Retirement is--I'll keep the world of
retired teachers updated as this thing
progresses. gh

Georgia Hedrick, saraw@reno.quik.com,
3/22/00

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