Lee Note 69 Biology Memories June 28, 2001

From Raymond Brock:

Dear Friends,

Truly, one of the most grotesque stories that I have ever heard was one about Mrs. Nelson and her preparation of a cat skeleton for biology class.

As the story went, she skinned and boiled up an entire cat so that she could separate the meat from the bones. After she processed all the meat, she absentmindedly left the plate of meat on the counter near the stove. Later, her husband came in and thought that it was some roast that she had left for him.

He proceeded to eat it and later complimented his wife on how much better it was than her roast typically turned out to be.

She thought that the story was hilarious and apparently repeated it to some of her students. I never heard her tell it, however, and I really do not know if it was true or not. Knowing what she was like, though, I found it to be all too believable and grossly humorous.

What I do know for certain is that that story is the only thing that I remember from her class; sadly, even right after I finished her biology course, I had a hard time identifying much else that I learned from the course.

Thanks, again, Kay, for your persistence and helpfulness. I read all of our stories with delight.

Cordially,

Rayn Brock

(Raymond W. Brock)

From Jack McCartney:

Someone asked about stories on Mrs. Mae Nelson, the biology teacher. I was in her class, but biology was not a favorite subject of mine and I was just anxious to get through it.

The only story on her that I recall is one that had something to do with her feeding cat food to her husband one time. She reminded me somewhat of the absent minded professor and I think the same thing may have applied to her husband who I think taught physics at Lee College. I know they lived on the street behind REL and the guys would sometimes throw out a dare to see if anyone would go by and call on them to try and get a look inside their home.

There were all kinds of speculation as to what one might find inside. I don't remember that anyone ever did. At least I never heard anyone claim to have certain knowledge on what the inside of her home looked like.

Jack McCartney