My first grade class: that would be me just over the teacher’s shoulder.
Since I put my Dad’s class picture in one of the stories here, I thought it only fair to put in a couple of mine. The main reason being; heck I don’t know, maybe I did it just because we all looked so enthusiastic about being there? One thing that we have pretty much lost in this world of technology is the hold it in your hand photo album. I know there are viewers and ebooks and this and that and the other electronic gadgets to display pixeled, digital, images. But there is nothing like a good old, dust covered, photo album to hold in your lap and look at to see how weird you used to be and for bringing back all sorts of memories you’ve tried for years to forget.
This is the third grade; yeah that’s me in the front row wearing the striped shirt.
Looking at this line up of Elementary Scholars brings back a lot of memories and a lot of questions. The main question being; where did those kids go? What happened to their dreams, their smiling faces and their innocence… well, we know where that went with our age group, usually it disappeared in the back seat of a Ford or Chevy. Actually, that’s not the innocence lost I am really referring to but I do wonder where that boy behind the Teacher’s shoulder went to?
Most of the memories are just that; memories. Neither good or bad, they were just things that you just remember. Like having to line up to get a drink at the water fountain. Those old lead soldered thing with rust coming out for the first few seconds when you held the handle down were so unsanitary they wouldn’t be allowed in today’s schools or maybe the would? Los Angeles has had a two year running, on again off again news story about the high lead levels in the school drinking water. Maybe, somethings never change.
Our clothes made quite a fashion statement back then. Notice the dashing way I wore my pant legs in the third grade. I’m sure this was done to draw attention to my lace up hunting boots I was wearing. Patrick McManus wrote a great story about tenner shoes and clod hopper boots that I’m not even going to try and top. By using his time table, it must’ve been cold enough by the time school pictures were taken, that the tenner shoes had already been retired for the year. Judging by the soles of my boots we may have been closing in on spring and a new pair of tenner shoes.
Some of the memories, I won’t mention any names, were not so nice. One of the girls in my first grade class had been sent to school in a cotton dress, a pair of those cute little black shoes with the strap that went over the top and a buckle on the side, with a sweater for a coat. This would’ve been fine on a nice spring day but it was a blizzard outside, complete with sleet and freezing rain and the poor girl had to walk to school from the other side of town. I don’t know how many blocks she had to walk because I never knew for sure where, exactly, she lived, but I do know, she was nearly frozen to death by the time she got to school. It was the first time I had seen hypothermia up close and it was not pretty. I overheard the Teachers and Principle talking about how she didn’t even have any underwear on. Today there would be human services and no telling what all authorities involved, that would probably fine the parents or press charges against them and never do a thing to solve the problem. Back then they took her down to the lost and found department at the school and found a coat and some clothes that would fit her. I know they called the parents in for a meeting but beyond that I have no idea what happened. Before anyone judges too harshly here, let me say, those people were poor! I don’t know their story, if the Father worked or if he was even alive or in thier lives. The Mother was the only one I ever saw and I’m pretty sure she was just proud to be able to put some kind of shoes on the girls feet. I’m guessing that when the girl left for school she was very proud to have those pretty black shoes. Sometimes, people are just doing the best they can with what they’ve got. I think it did more good for the school to find her a coat to wear, than all of the fines and criminal charges the authorities could have put on those poor people, would have done. Don’t get me wrong, child abuse is the worst crime in the world, but here was a case that nobody was trying to do anything bad; they just didn’t have any money. It’s things like this that bother me when I think about them so I try and be like everybody else and not think too much. I am glad that my children did have warm clothes and food to eat. Beyond that, the rest is just gravy. Don’t believe me? Go back and ask somebody who has ever been really cold and really hungry.
When I think of Grade School, that’s what they called it back then, I remember being sick; whacking my eye into a bycyle rack (my first shinner) playing keep away at recess; I remember my first fist fight; I remember the playground bully (he wasn’t in my class so he’s not in the pictures); I remember never understanding Modern Math (guess nobody else did either because they quit teaching it real quick but not quick enough to save me from it) in the fourth grade; I remember (here’s a topper that only happens once or twice in a century) when the Beatles invaded America; I remember the first space launch and the walk on the moon (I know there are conspricy believers out there that don’t think it ever happened but I believe it did. If they had never done that then how did we get to the space shuttle? I know it happened because I was working on my roof in California and watched the pieces of the one (I forget the names of them) that blew up on re-entry go by. I remember sitting there crying for the lost lives those conc trails represented. I remember the names of all but one or two of the faces I see in these pictures and I wonder where they all are now. I’m pretty sure there are very few of us that are doing now, what we thought we’d be doing way back then. One thing I can say, I always wanted to be a cowboy, I guess I at least got that part of my life right… the rest? Well, the jury’s still out on that. Later
