In eighth grade, my South Carolina history teacher was Mrs. Sabo. Mrs. Sabo was awesome. The woman had done it all. She was offered multiple camels in exchange for her hand in marriage in Egypt. She went on a date to a rodeo with Elvis about 2 weeks before he became famous. She said he was a boring date. She was quite a little bit nutty as well, but in such a fun way. Any of you Hammond kids know what I'm talking about!
Back to the point of the story- she offered an extra credit option for us over Christmas break. That extra credit option was to find historical markers. If we found 20, we got some sort of extra credit. She informed us that there was a book out there that listed all of the historical markers in the state. She also informed us that we were not allowed to simply purchase the book and write them down. We had to go find them. The parentals and I, being the nerds that we are, took this as a challenge. The book was purchased. I was never allowed to look at what the markers said. Mom used the book simply to find where the markers were located. You have NO IDEA how many there are in this state. To this day, Mom has the book in her car and if we pass one we've never seen before, we mark it down. Yep- nerds to the core.
Anyway, we travel a lot to see family during the holidays. So side trips were made to find any and all historical markers in the area. My favorite was when we were near Orangeburg. The book told us the general vicinity, but we couldn't find the darn thing to save our lives. There was someone walking down the road where this alleged historical marker was located. We asked said person where the marker might be found. Said person responded, "You looking for that hysterical marker? It's just down the road. That hysterical marker's been there for years." Yep- hysterical marker. We still call it that.
By the end of Christmas break, I was ready to turn in my extra credit option. I didn't have 20 markers listed. I had over 100. I got so damn much extra credit, I think I aced every test for the rest of the year. Without even having to try! Ah- the joys of private school!
I did the exact same thing for Mrs. Sabo! My parents still talk about how many markers we went and visited and wrote down! I know I had over 100, wonder who had more, you or me? Such a fun project!
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