I got so many nice letters from folks
who read my original story, School Memories, that I thought I would
do a School Memories–Part 2, adding the grade school memories
my pen pals mentioned, and contributing many more of my own.
So once again I ask that you take a deep breadth and let that
tension drain from your neck and back…………….
Let the memories take you back to that safe place where every
one of your friends is young…. no aches, no pains, and no
worries---yes, that’s it. You are almost there. Your parents
are young and vigorous; and life is fresh and green like new Spring
grass.
Your mind’s eye sees your school hallway…… and
just a few more steps and you will be at the door of your favorite
grammar school teacher’s room. You see him/her smile at you
and you know this is the place. You look around, seeing and hearing
the chatter of excited friends. The teacher says in a happy voice,
“All right children, let’s be seated and start today’s
lesson.” ……..and then the happy memories start
parading by….something like this…….remember?
***************************************
Memorizing multiplication tables (up to 12!)
Doing poster board projects
Writing compositions
Learning how to use the telephone
Learning how to write letters and mail envelopes
Tracing autumn leaves on paper
Pasting autumn leaves on paper and other things to create decorative
objects
Rubber rain-coat slickers for walking to school
Those big rubber boots with the metal clip buckles
Tormenting the girl who sat in front of you:
hitting her in the back
pulling her hair
tickling her
snapping her bra strap !!
undoing her bra snap !!!!!!!!
Hiding spent chewing gum underneath your desk
Facing up to your first bully
Writing a valentine card to a girl/boy
Being invited to a Saturday party by someone in your class
Passing notes around in class
Washing the chalk boards
Clapping erasers to clean them
Researching and writing your first project paper
Giving your teacher a present on special occasions
No sneakers or blue jeans allowed in school !
Carrying your sneakers into school for gym class
Saving money in your weekly savings pass book through the local
bank (in Newark I remember it was the Howard Savings)
Getting caught reading a comic book
Decorating the school bulletin board
Running the mimeograph machine
Mimeographed work sheets with math and other problems on them
Doing the grab bag pick at Christmas time
Being let out early during snowstorms
Fights in the schoolyard
Playing on the see-saws, slides, and jungle gym
Schoolyard games like punchball, Buck-buck, kickball, hop scotch,
tag, and 3 flies up
Bringing your parents to school because you were bad !
Being sent to the principal's office
Having someone else try and write an answer to a note the teacher
sent home to your parents
Faked being sick so not to take a test
Blamed the dog for eating your homework
Shared your milk or lunch money with someone else
The smell of the crayons in the big can the teacher kept for everyone
to use
Colored chalk
Chalk boards with lines on them
The penmanship cards for each letter (in capital and small case)
that hung over the chalk boards
History and geography maps
South Sea Blue ink
Square shaped pencil erasers
Molding clay in art class
Your first attempt to make something in shop class or Home Ec
Giving your parents a gift you made in shop class
Your favorite poem
Trying to write a poem
Buying candy for a penny on the way to or from school
Getting caught with candy in class
How the wooden chairs and floor in the auditorium squeaked
How it felt when a favorite teacher was seriously ill
Seeing a polio victim for the first time, or knowing someone who
was sick with it.
Staying home sick with the measles, chicken pox, or mumps
Having your house or friend’s house quarantined
The smell of the school cafeteria
Being in the upper grades and laughing at the younger kids when
they messed up or did an auditorium performance
Taking a younger grade kid under your wing or having one follow
you around
Your first kiss in the schoolyard !!!!!
Falling in the schoolyard and putting a hole in your pants, or skinning
your knee
Getting a raspberry burn on your leg on the gym floor
Spilling stuff like paint, milk, ink, or food on your clothes
Squirting someone with your ink pen
Being told to get a haircut
Being taken home from school because you got sick
Milk and graham cookie snacks
Having your hair checked for lice
Had to have a clean handkerchief
School clubs
Trips to local parks for May Day
Visits to the school library to get books to read
Musical instrument practice
Helping the handicapped/Binet class kids
Having a handicapped child in your class
Knowing someone who had their appendix or tonsils out
Knowing someone who had TB
Getting stitches or knowing someone else who did
Having your parents meet you teacher on PTA night
Going back to school with your parents on election day so they could
vote
Having to go to summer school
Crying on graduation night
Your graduation party,………………..and,
That first day in high school realizing you are on the bottom of
the pile again !!!
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