#2 Grade 1

I still attended Grand Mound Elementary School and my teacher was Miss Ely (or was it Mrs??? – I’ll have to find my School Days memory book for the photos, etc).  It was exciting to be in the 1^stGrade.  We got to be upstairs with the other classrooms (the school only went to the 4^th Grade).   We had the Dick & Jane readers.  Because I already knew how to read, I was put in the “advance” series.  I think there were about 4 of us.  There was one boy in the class that was 4 years old (his name was Jay).

Lunch was eaten in the classroom.  I don’t think there was a hot lunch program at the school.  I didn’t have perfect attendance due to getting the mumps (there wasn’t a vaccine back then).  I can remember going back to school and not being allowed to go outside for recess for several days.  I can also remember playing in the play shed on rainy days.  I would bring some of my “Barbie” dolls to school and my friends and I would play with them.  On the nice days, I would play on the swings or we would walk around the playground.  I can remember another girlfriend and I would pick up these black rocks and put them in our pockets.  These rocks ate holes in our coat pockets.  I’m not sure what type of rock they were but might have been volcanic rock.

I don’t remember if there was a Christmas program that year but I’m sure there was.  But I do remember us having to write (actually print) what we wanted to be when we grew up – I wanted to be a teacher!  Didn’t most little girls?

 

Another memory is “field trips” to Rochester Elementary school to join up with the class there and learn how to dance in their gym.  I can remember going home in tears because one of the boys was mean and had torn my dress.  I can’t remember his first name but his last name was Cram and I found out he was “related” (he was the grandchild of my Great-Grandmother Lucy – she was actually my grandfather’s stepmother).

I rode the school bus to and from school.  I can remember a couple of times where the bus driver forgot to let me off and he had to take me to the house instead of my normal stop.  The first time was when I sat in the back of the bus.  He told me that I need to sit towards the front so that he can see me.  So, a couple of days or weeks later, I sat right behind him.  Guess what, he didn’t see me.  So after that, I sat in the third row.

 

Best friends were Susan, Margo & Cynthia Knickerbocker.