Lisa Hale works to keep the classrooms clean on a day when Sheila McFarland is out sick.
AMBER ROLLAND – Hoof Prints Editor
Some things are so frequently found together that they become automatically associated with each other.
Peanut butter and jelly. Calculus and stress. Milk and cereal. Mondays and dread. The sound of laughter and the hum of a vacuum or the racket made by wheels rolling over the bumpy hallway floor.
Custodians Lisa Hale and Sheila McFarland can often be heard laughing as they clean the high school building every afternoon. The subject of their joking has become quite a mystery and a point of interest for many students though the reasons for the custodians’ laughter and those for the students’ laughter aren’t too different from each other.
“We laugh about anything and everything,” Ms. Hale said. Added Mrs. McFarland, “We have to make a joke about everything or we’d go crazy.”
Both have been cleaning all their life with this year being the tenth for Ms. Hale and the nineteenth for Mrs. McFarland to hold the title of custodian at the high school. Of course having the same job for that many years is bound to create situations that make them want to do anything but laugh.
“Sometimes we’re funny but sometimes we’re mad too,” Mrs. McFarland said. “We like cleaning. Sometimes we just get stressed out.”
Bathrooms are the biggest frustration for both but they never let even the messiest situation keep them down for long.
“We just make it better by laughing and going on instead of getting upset,” Mrs. McFarland said, “because getting upset won’t get you nowhere.”
They carry their positive attitudes all year long, even after the bell has rung to end eighth period classes on the last day of school, spending summer vacation making sure the high school remains well-kept. The lack of students certainly doesn’t keep them from making the best out of their workday.
“If you think we’re goofy now, then you ought to be here in the summer,” Ms. Hale said. Added Mrs. McFarland, “We’re crazy in the summer.”
They both genuinely enjoy their job and see laughter as a way of making it even better. Just like the students of the high school building they clean they use laughter and friendship to make it through even the worst of days.
