I remember the first day of school. We were living on Clover Lane in Boise. Dad took me. By the time I was picked up that afternoon, we found I was enrolled in another school that that required a bus trip. My first grade teacher was named Mrs. Smith. My second grade teacher was also Mrs. Smith. It was hard to remember to call her teacher rather than Mom. I do remember being given a test on writing numbers one to nine. I asked a class mFranceate how to make a six. I new my numbers, I had never written them.
To digress for a moment, one of the nurses in surgery at WKMH had a little girl who was starting first grade in the Fall. All summer, Frances took her shopping, got her new clothes, shoes, school supplies. On the appointed day she got her little girl up, dressed and off to school. She asked her what school was like, it was ok, The next morning Frances got her up for school and the little girl gasped, "What, again!?"
Back to my first grade. We had to walk past a yard full of barking German Shepherds, we could walk to another pickup. One time, as I was walking toward the front of the school bus, a little boy jumped up and kissed me on the cheek. I was very confused. But I was consoled by the fact that a butterfly landed on my dress. When I got home I would take off my dress and change. I wore the same dress for a week. Also at this time I joined the Brownie Scouts. I got the recipe for chocolate mayonaaise cake during that time.
The next school I attended was in New Plymouth or Payette, not sure which. We lived on a farm just east of there and Mom drove us to school. The school building was a two story brick with fancy fire escape slides, never got to do down them.
We moved a lot but the only other place I went to school was American Falls. I loved reading anything but I was terrible at numbers. One test was where you had to place clock hands in the correct position, I got them all backwards. We moved some more and finally settled in Emmett, Idaho. We went to Wardwell school, it was three stories tall, the third floor had been condemned at that time and never got to slide down the fancy fire escape slides. The lunch room was in the basement. Fourth grade was where we all learned cursive, lots of drawn tornadoes, loops etc. Also field trips to the saw mill and State Capitol, which is an exact copy the nations capital only one third size, very impressive. Fifth grade, I went to Parkview where I eventually graduated eighth grade after learning the eight parts of speech. Both Richard and I worked in the lunch room for free meals. I left class a little early to walk to Wardwell. The food was ok as I remember, nothing exotic like balogna boats. Never had the pleasure. Fifth grade was taught by Alice Brownsfield. Would read to us for half an hour after we came in from lunch time. I remember Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe. She also taught art. I learned how to construct perspective. Very informative. There may have been a little Jack London thrown in but I do not rememnber. Six grade was right next door, again Mrs. Smith. She had a big old windup phonograph and we listened to old Vaudeville skits and Barney Google, with the goo goo googly eyes. It was then that Mrs Smith put me in the front row because I was squinting. I needed glasses. After obtaining the glasses, I was thrilled to be able to see beyond the end of my eyes. Seventh grade meant we had a home room and all other classes were conducted in other rooms. I remember read a poem called the Childrens Hour when the bell rang and all the children began walking to different class rooms. Eight grade was torture because of math glass, I had to repeat it. Corporal punishment consisted of a circle drawn on the blackboard and a culprits nose stuck with in the circle.
Eighth graduation was held at the highschool. Mom made me a cool cotton dress white with black polkadots. I loved it and wish I still had it. It was then that I realized that I was taller than my father. He was a wonderfully funny man.
Freshman year was the year of the wig hat and humilation from the beautiful Gratton boys in Study Hall. One of them patted me on the head, that was the end of the wig hat.
Algebra and Geometry were a relief, it was like telling a story with numbers. I did well with Geometry because I typed all the theorems and used red and blue ink. Miss Primativa Perez from the Phillipines scolded us because we were so lazy.
It was that year on November that Kennedy was assassinated. A very long four day weekend with constant coverage. I went to Church on Sunday and Jack Ruby had assasinated Oswald by the time we got home.
Graduated highschool 50 of 150. I was paired with a very popular boy to march into the auditorium. He was gorgeous and if looks could have killed I would have been smoking. I
forgot about the half year I attended school in Riggins, Idaho. They had an art class and my typing was done to music. Weird. I became aware of a beautiful Senior couple. She was blond and he was dark. The first time I saw him, I thought I was having a heart attack, my heart was pounding and I was afraid I would faint. He was the prettiest young man I had ever seen.
We went by bus. We also attended Church School, all of us, me and my three sisters and both boys. One of the teachers thought I was the girls Mother. As if. It was only one week.
We had no TV reception so we played Nertz or played in the creek in the backwhere there were otters. It was quite magical.
No more school until I moved back to Idaho after my divorce. I went to BSU for medical records. Made the Deans list, took the national test and worked in Emmett the twelve years.
After I moved to Barrow, I decided to take a culture pill at the local Ilisagvik College. My class was film and literature. We watched the most recent Frankenstein. We were challenged to write a sequel. Mine was called Big Man and I have mentioned it before.
We were also given the book Love In The Time of Cholera. It was only six chapters but they were thick ones. As I was reading the book, something started to bother me in fact it bothered me so much I started paging backwards. Eventually I found an identical paragraph, word for word. I was intrigued. I was told to write to Marquez and ask if this was a one time Easter Egg. I did so but never heard from him. I never read any of his other books to see if there were other easter eggs so. I have self educated on many things but mostly fiction etc. I would love to study language but am far too lazy to be any good at such an effort.
