Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Q: I see. (laughter)
A: So we just learned words and enjoyed words and enjoyed saying them.
There is one very interesting thing about schooling. When I first took
geography my father said, "You're taking geography." I said, "Yes." He
said, "What are they teaching you?" I said, "Well, they teach us the states
and they teach them by regions like the northeastern states and the north
central states and the south central states and we learn what the products
are and what they do in those states and so forth." "Okay," he said, "what's
the capital of Maine?" I said, "The capital of Maine? I don' t know, sir ."
He says, "They're not teaching you anything. You mean you don't know the
capital of Maine?" He said, "The capital of Maine is Augusta and it's on the
Kennebec River." Then he went right through the states giving the capital
and whatever body of water it was on and I came to find out that that is how
they taught geography when he was a boy. They taught them the capitals, you
had to know the capitals of every state, and whatever water or tributary of
water it was on. Really, that was geography and actually they may not have
had a great deal of knowledge about what they did there or where it was
located in the . . . So anyway, to make sure that I would know that also, he
went out and bought me a jigsaw puzzle of the United States and I learned to
put it together. So, you would, of course, learn to localize the states and
how they interfaced with the other states. So that was how he supplemented
my geography because he just didn't want me to not know the capitals of those
states. I still don't know whether it was Pierre or Bismarck--one of them is--
I think Pierre is North Dakota and Bismarck is South Dakota, or vice-versa,
I'm not sure. At least, I know that there is that difference.
Q: Was your father a stern taskmaster?
A: I would say he was not overly, overly but he expected you to learn and
he expected you to do things. I can remember when I finished high school and
he bought me a bow tie, one that you tied yourself. I was just enamored of
it, it was such a pretty little tie. And then, he said, "Now, I'm going to
teach you how to tie it." And he taught me and he would take it loose and show
me again, take it loose--he did it about three or four times and took it
loose. Then he went in and sat down and got his newspaper and he said, "Now,
you tie it." And I was struggling with it and struggling with it and finally
I said, "Dad, I can't do it." He said, "Well, if you can't wear your tie, you
can't go to the dance tonight." So I learned to tie it and I--now I can tie
them in the dark, I don't need anything else. But to say stern, I don't know.
He was a person who believed in what he believed in and he expected you to
make a contribution, he wasn't for a lot of "lollygagging," you know. He
expected you to do something, that was all.
Q: Did he use the strap very often?
A: I think maybe my father whipped me once, or maybe twice, in his life. My
mother was a great deal more frequent in that area.
Q: Oh, is that right? (chuckles)