At the end of summer, my sisters went off to school and I had no idea what they did or even where "School" was. We lived far enough from Minneha that I really never went there even to play on the playground equipment. I did learn that the new kid across the street had a mother that was a teacher and his dad was head custodian at the school. I lived next door to the kindergarten teacher but she was a lot like a really friendly aunt not a teacher. In fact, if things really got slow around our house, Carrie Longhoffer was always good for a graham cracker now and then.
I can remember the first day of school, one of my sisters walked me to the kindergarten room. There was Mrs. Longhoffer and it kind of surprised me. What startled me was that the kid that lived only a couple of doors to the north of us cried when he was dropped off. Ernie Gary was way beyond scared even when I went over and reminded him that just a couple of days earlier we had gone over to Mrs. Longhoffer's house to mooch graham crackers. Oh well, he finally did calm down. I would have never had cried and things moved on smartly. I remember having a ratty old rug that we napped on. I think the dog used it between the time my sisters used it and I took it to school.
When I started Kindergarten, the new Elementary school was still under construction. The classroom we were in was over in the "Old Building" and down at the end of the hall. I remember it was filled with lots of things to do and had the numbers and alphabet in the tile. For some reason, we listened to Bozo the Clown on records as one of the activities. Between that, graham crackers with milk and naps, each day flew by fast. Did I mention that I went pretty much full bore and could drop off to sleep at a moment's notice. My mother said I could go over and put my butt against the wall and start sliding down to a sitting position and be asleep before my butt hit the ground. The good thing was that there was no Ritalin back then, only a good spanking now and then. Yes, you could (and I did) get my butt paddled at school. Most of the time I swallowed the punishment and didn't tell my parents as I could count on another round of spankings if I told on myself.
When we started the first grade, we were in the new Elementary school. It was so new that everything smelled. From the paint to the flooring, there was this new smell that filled our world. In fact, there was these support poles in the cafeteria that were wrapped in some sort of vinyl that made them look like elephant legs. They stunk to high heaven from either the material in them or the glue that held them to the pole. It was a daily challenge for the boys to go by one of them and sniff them until you were so grossed out that you could no longer stand the smell. I would win that challenge a lot. Perhaps I too didn't smell all that great back then. I do remember that one day I took off early to go to school and one of my sisters came and took me home to put on clean clothes. I looked OK to me but I Didn't pass the big sister appearance test.
The one thing I can remember that stood out to me the most was that a lot of the other first graders were just dumb. Not stupid, but uneducated. My sisters had read to me a lot and I went to school being able to read. I can remember showing the other first graders that I could read way beyond the level of Dick and Jane and their stupid dog spot. Other than that, I don't remember a lot about the academics of the early grades. I would read the class books and then put them away to not open them unless I was made to do so. To this day, I don't like to read books for the second time.
For reasons I will never know, even though Minneha was not a Christian school, we did the whole gamut of things to start our day. We pledged allegiance to the flag, said the lords prayer, and put on our golden gloves (Do unto others before they do it to you - or something like that) We even sang the doxology prior to eating. Praise God from who all blessings flow, Praise him, God and heavenly Ghost. I don't remember it doing us any harm, or good for that matter.
For some strange reason, the library was over in the other building. We would once a week line up and do our imitations of ducks going over there. I loved the library and all the new books I could check out and read. I wasn't all that fond of the Dewey Decimal system other than I knew where all the autobiographies were. I read about every General that ever won or lost a war. Going to the Library was what caused me to quit school. One day we lined up and started over to the library. The teacher stopped us about half way between the buildings and told us to be quiet. "The next person talking will be sent back to the classroom!" Less than a minute later, she stopped the class and she said, "Luke, I warned you, go back to the classroom." No amount of protest could dissuade her that I had not made a sound. I went back but I warned her that I would not be there when she got back. I walked back into the class room and promptly walked home. I firmly told my mother that I had quit school and wasn't going back. Wrong! I don't remember how many days I had to stay in from recess over that little fiasco.
Another time I got into trouble was when as I walked down the hall with my nose stuck in a book, one of my friends, Jesse walked right into me. He had been walking backwards and I was lost in literature. It was like an original scene from Dumb and Dumber. There was no real harm done to either of us but his teacher came up and grabbed me by the ear. I hit her hand away and told her flat out that she had no reason or right to grab my ear. Oh shit oh dear was I ever in trouble over that one. I had to go to the office and remain there until Mom came by to bail me out of purgatory. Everyone agreed that grabbing my ear was wrong but hitting a teacher's hand was a sin not a mortal one but bad enough that I had to spend several days in the office during recess and after school.
One of the highlights of school was time spent with Mrs. Holloway the music teacher. She had a room full of instruments and those of us that could sing did so and those that could not were given something to play rhythm with. My family always sang when we got together and I sang my butt off. I think I started singing in the first grade and sang the whole rest of my school time.
The early grades flew on by with only a few disruptions. The new school had coat closets that had a large gap between the bottom and top of the door. One teacher had the bright idea that putting me in the closet was a suitable form of punishment. What she didn't know was that a lot of the rich kids would bring their lunch and there were always goodies to be had. Yes, I learned that you can eat an apple core and all to hide the evidence. I am sure that some of the kids wondered why they had just a cheese sandwich. A good slice of ham would just hit the spot. am fairly sure that My missions were never completely discovered but all at once the punishment of the closet stopped.
I never was interested in grades. It was a shock when in the fourth grade I got my first report card with a lot of D's. I am not sure that I got D's because I was not that stupid or if the teachers didn't want to get me back again if I failed a grade. I remember the teacher at the end of the year announcing that someone was not going on to the fifth grade. Oh crap, I failed the fourth grade and how was I going to ever explain that to Mom. Then the teacher laughed and told us that the only one not going on to the fifth grade was her. What a dirty trick to play on such an impressionable youth.
Tomorrow I will move on to the fifth grade.
LUKE
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