Thank you for trying

My senior English teacher at Clinton High School was easily the most polished grammarian as well as the politest person I have ever known. Whenever she orally quizzed a student, her reply to an incorrect answer was inevitably, "No, but thank you for trying." Her policy of humility paid off too in the respect she earned from her students. Besides her primary task, she was also our senior class sponsor. Just prior to our departure for the traditional senior trip to Washington, she called to the auditorium first the girls, then the boys, to discuss a subject we males decided must be taboo amid mixed sexes. The talk turned out to be nothing but a warning to stay together in groups of three or four to avoid the perils of the big city. Returning to our classroom, one member of our class was heard to remark, “Well, if anyone should try to pick her up, she'd just say, "No, but thank you for trying." According to a tale told at a Clinton High reunion, Miss Shealy was caught failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. The policeman who stopped her had been one of her students and reprimanded her by saying, “Miss Shealy, that was a period, not a comma."