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Wilkes-Barre’s Third Friday featured artist Helen Kaucher brings handmade jewelry, stamps and giraffes to downtown

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School districts get break in health insurance payments as state budget flap drags on

<p>Madeleine Hope Park got her new driver&#8217;s license Thursday.</p><p>As she posed for her picture, the clerk asked her if she wanted to be an organ donor.</p><p>&#8220;Oh no,&#8221; said Miss Park. &#8220;They don&#8217;t want my organs. They are pretty beat up.&#8221;</p><p>M. Hope Park turned 100 on Wednesday. She taught me algebra in ninth grade at Plymouth High School.</p><p>Miss Park, of Wilkes-Barre, still drives her 2002 Ford Taurus around &#8212; to doctor appointments, to her hairdresser, to just about anywhere she wants or needs to go.</p><p>Sharon Jones of Home Instead Senior Care, is her caregiver. I asked Sharon to tell me what she thinks of Miss Park.</p><p>&#8220;In a word, she is amazing,&#8221; she said.</p><p>I sat down with Miss Park in her home on Wednesday. We talked about those days when she taught kids like me. She remembers most of her students by name &#8212; even the maiden names of the girls she taught.</p><p>When I got there, Miss Park was doing a Sudoku, defined by Webster as &#8220;a puzzle in which several numbers are to be filled into a 9x9 grid of squares so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9.&#8221;</p><p>As terrific a teacher that Miss Park was, I think I failed her as far as math skills. I can&#8217;t do Sudoku puzzles nearly as fast as she can.</p><p><strong>Lasting memories</strong></p><p>In her classroom way back then, Miss Park impressed me as being not just smart, but also so articulate and always so professional. Each year, on the first day in her class, she would say, &#8220;My name is Miss Park &#8212; that&#8217;s Park as in park your car.&#8221;</p><p>Things like that stick with you over the years. Teachers &#8212; good teachers &#8212; always leave an indelible mark on their students. Such was the case with Miss Park.</p><p>So it was with great joy that I read our recent story about Miss Park and her 100th birthday celebration. I opened my paper and there she was &#8212; Miss Park, my ninth grade algebra teacher. I was thrilled to see her smiling face and I wanted to see her again. I wanted to sit across from her and chat about those days of old.</p><p>I avoided the subject of algebra. I was afraid Miss Park would give me a pop quiz that I would most definitely fail.</p><p>I told Miss Park that I enjoyed her class and how she taught, apologizing for not learning or retaining much about algebra. I told her I really haven&#8217;t had to apply much algebra in my life.</p><p>Miss Park laughed. She laughed a lot during our visit. And she told stories about students, former teachers, the old Plymouth High and Junior High buildings. It was like talking to an encyclopedia of Plymouth.</p><p>What a valuable resource Miss Park is to be able to ask her questions that perhaps only she can answer. At 100, Miss Park is still teaching.</p><p>We talked about the current state of education. Miss Park said the Wilkes-Barre Area School District should forget about renovating Coughlin High School. She said fixing Meyers would be a better project.</p><p>Miss Park said Coughlin&#8217;s location in center city offers too many options for kids to skip school. She said Meyers has many less options for students wanting to skip school.</p><p>Miss Park told me she preferred Wyoming Valley West over Plymouth. She said the larger school district offered teachers better educational materials and options.</p><p>She got her first driver&#8217;s license in 1933, following her first year of college. She said her knees are what ails her the most now.</p><p>&#8220;Everything else is good,&#8221; she said.</p><p><strong>Moved to Plymouth</strong></p><p>A native of Hazleton, Miss Park moved to Plymouth in 1942. I asked her if she ever married or had any children.</p><p>&#8220;I never married,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But I tell people that I had between 3,900 and 7,800 children &#8212; my students. They were my children.&#8221;</p><p>Miss Park doesn&#8217;t watch television &#8212; except for the news from 10 to 11 p.m. She votes in every election by absentee ballot.</p><p>&#8220;But I have a problem with that,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The bios on the candidates don&#8217;t usually come out until after absentee ballots have to be turned in. So many times, we don&#8217;t know anything about who we are voting for.&#8221;</p><p>Miss Park said she voted in her first presidential election in 1936. She only missed one election; that was in 1979. She said she kind of favors Ben Carson, a retired neuro-surgeon, for president.</p><p>She learned to drive on an old Peerless automobile &#8212; a stick shift, she said.</p><p>&#8220;To pass my test, I had to turn the car around in the middle of the road without touching the curb,&#8221; she said.</p><p><strong>Secret to longevity</strong></p><p>Miss Park retired from teaching in 1981 from Wyoming Valley West after 39 years in the classroom. I asked her what her secret is to her longevity.</p><p>&#8220;I guess God or the devil don&#8217;t want me yet,&#8221; she said.</p><p>She said she eats anything she wants, adding that she was raised on ice cream and milk.</p><p>Miss Park loves hearing from her former students. She welcomes their calls and cards and conversations. She has traveled a little and her memory is as clear as can be. She even drove through last weekend&#8217;s Plymouth Kielbasa Festival.</p><p>Before I left, Miss Park sang a little of the old Plymouth High School Alma Mater. She knew the words and she carried the melody.</p><p>I asked her why she wanted to renew her driver&#8217;s license.</p><p>&#8220;The only seat I&#8217;m comfortable in in a car is the driver&#8217;s seat,&#8221; she said.</p><p>I told her we would do this again when she renews her license in four years.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">100 year old former school teacher M. Hope Park of Wilkes-Barre. (Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_infocuspark01.jpg</photo0><caption0>100 year old former school teacher M. Hope Park of Wilkes-Barre. (Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_infocuspark02.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">100 year old former school teacher M. Hope Park of Wilkes-Barre. (Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_infocuspark02.jpg</photo1><caption1>100 year old former school teacher M. Hope Park of Wilkes-Barre. (Pete G. Wilcox|Times Leader)</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Columnshot-1-16.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Columnshot-1-16.jpg</photo2><caption2>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082215Hope11.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Caregiver Sharon Jones holds the door to the DMV for Madeleine Hope Park after the 100-year-old woman had her driver&#8217;s license renewed Thursday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082215Hope11.jpg</photo3><caption3>Caregiver Sharon Jones holds the door to the DMV for Madeleine Hope Park after the 100-year-old woman had her driver&#8217;s license renewed Thursday. </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>At 100, Madeleine Hope Park still offering lessons</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

In Focus: Retired Wyoming Valley West teacher taught students much more than algebra