Sue Chickering Pyper Retires

Long ago, in a galaxy far away it was 1970, I was 12 years old; I was in the 7th grade; I went to Wasatch Junior High School; and I lived in Heber City, Utah. Heber was a great place to grow up. It's located in a mountain valley. There are four beautiful seasons. It is cold in the winter time. The summers weren't too hot. Heber had two movie theaters, the Avon and the Ideal. We shopped at Safeway, managed by my Uncle Harris, and JC Penney, where my Mom’s cousin Ruth Todd worked. We even had two bars--Clyde's Billiards, and The Other End. When we got older, we used to drag main for fun on Friday night. And one other thing, 95 percent of the town were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There were a few kids who went to the Catholic church, but that was about it. Even the people who visited Clyde's Billiards and The Other End were members, they just didn't go to church. I love my religion and it was the basis for much of our social life, but we rarely came into contact with anyone different from us.

So, here I was in the 7th grade. We had to take P.E. the whole year (yes, you heard me right). We had units in football, volleyball, flag football, basketball, softball, gymnastics, table tennis and track and field. We also had to wear one piece blue gym suits that were UGLY. By the way, I HATED P.E. I was not talented in P.E. in any way, shape or form.

Why am I all of a sudden waxing nostalgic? My brother Kirk sent me an article from THE WASATCH WAVE (the weekly paper). "Mrs. Pyper, the girl's P.E. teacher is retiring this year after 41 years of teaching." I'm thinking to myself that there is no way in the world that it has been that long. . .

Our gym teacher was pregnant, so she had to quit. Yes, you heard me right, she had to quit. Even at 12 I couldn't figure that one out. If someone was pregnant, they couldn't teach. Go figure. The old teacher (whose name I can't remember) introduced our new teacher--Miss Sue Chickering (Pyper) from Iowa. She could have said the new teacher was from outer space, we couldn't have been more shocked. Okay so here's the deal, she's from Iowa, she wore funny shorts, her last name was Chickering, she had little balls on the back of her socks and. . . .she wasn't a member. What were we to make of this situation? We reacted like most 12-year-old girls-we were little brats. Let's see, we made fun of her name, of how she talked, her glasses, and anything else that we could think of. Now this was all done behind her back because, after all, it was the 1970's. We knew we had to be polite to the teacher. I guess we figured she never knew. Why would she come to Heber of all places. I don't remember her answer to that question.

Another quote from the article--"The first years Mrs. Pyper taught, she replaced a very good, well-liked teacher. The students were upset that they had to have a different teacher, and did not treat her kindly." Of course she knew how we felt. I hope the adults were kinder than we were. I don't know if I want to know her opinion of Mormons back then. We surely didn't act how we were taught.

She married another teacher who moved to Heber named Roger Pyper. They have lived in Heber all this time and have many friends. Heber is a much different place from how it was in 1970. It's much bigger and there are lots of different kinds of people living there. I'm glad she didn't judge us on her first couple of years. So congratulations Mrs. Pyper on teaching P.E. for a really long time.

Photos: Sue Chickering Pyper now, Sue Chickering Pyper 1970, my seventh grade picture, Wasatch Junior high.