School Days

I started kindergarten while living at that house. The elementary school was (and still is) directly across the street. I wasn't allowed to take the shortest route there unless Mom walked me across. Otherwise I traipsed up to the corner where Mrs. Mahoney the crossing lady was in charge and would guide me safely across the street. For some reason I really liked her - she was welcoming and friendly. Anyhoo, my kindergarten teacher was Mrs. Pretty, and she commanded a class of around 30 kids - all by herself. Perhaps kids were better behaved back then, I dunno. One kid - I believe his name was Stanley - was forever getting up out of his chair and wandering around. Mrs. Pretty was forever telling him to sit down and threatening to find some rope and tie him to his chair. Some of those kids I ended up graduating high school with, though I don't recall ever seeing Stanley again after kindergarten.

My 1st grade teacher was Mrs. Nearing who, in my estimation, was elderly at the time, at least compared to other teachers. Imagine my surprise some years ago to see her obituary in the paper. She must have been 180 years old when she died.

2nd grade was Miss George (I think; could have been Mrs). What I recall most vividly about her was the time she came in to work sick. While she was waiting for the substitute teacher to arrive, she had to puke and ran for the bathroom. I had never seen a teacher run. I didn't know teachers could run. A kid named Tommy laughed out loud at the sight. He was verbally chastised by a number of self-righteous hypocritical classmates. I say hypocritical because I'm sure we all thought it was funny to see Miss George dashing out of the classroom and down the hall. Also in 2nd grade we did a short play. I don't remember what it was all about, but I played some sort of military commander. I was quite good, as I recall. My first foray into stage drama.