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
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| Writing compositions
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| Learning how to use the telephone
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| Learning how to write letters and mail envelopes
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| Tracing autumn leaves on paper
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| Pasting autumn leaves on paper and other things to create decorative
objects
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| Rubber rain-coat slickers for walking to school
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| Those big rubber boots with the metal clip buckles
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| 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
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| Facing up to your first bully
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| Writing a valentine card to a girl/boy
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| Being invited to a Saturday party by someone in your class
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| Passing notes around in class
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| Washing the chalk boards
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| Clapping erasers to clean them
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| Researching and writing your first project paper
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| Giving your teacher a present on special occasions
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| No sneakers or blue jeans allowed in school !
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| Carrying your sneakers into school for gym class
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| 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
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| Decorating the school bulletin board
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| Running the mimeograph machine
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| Mimeographed work sheets with math and other problems on them
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| Doing the grab bag pick at Christmas time
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| Being let out early during snowstorms
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| Fights in the schoolyard
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| Playing on the see-saws, slides, and jungle gym
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| Schoolyard games like punchball, Buck-buck, kickball, hop scotch, tag, and
3 flies up
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| Bringing your parents to school because you were bad !
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| 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
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| Faked being sick so not to take a test
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| Blamed the dog for eating your homework
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| 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
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| Colored chalk
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| Chalk boards with lines on them
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| The penmanship cards for each letter (in capital and small case) that hung
over the chalk boards
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| History and geography maps
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| South Sea Blue ink
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| Square shaped pencil erasers
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| Molding clay in art class
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| Your first attempt to make something in shop class or Home Ec
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| Giving your parents a gift you made in shop class
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| Your favorite poem
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| Trying to write a poem
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| Buying candy for a penny on the way to or from school
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| Getting caught with candy in class
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| How the wooden chairs and floor in the auditorium squeaked
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| How it felt when a favorite teacher was seriously ill
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| Seeing a polio victim for the first time, or knowing someone who was sick
with it.
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| Staying home sick with the measles, chicken pox, or mumps
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| Having your house or friend’s house quarantined
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| The smell of the school cafeteria
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| Being in the upper grades and laughing at the younger kids when they messed
up or did an auditorium performance
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| Taking a younger grade kid under your wing or having one follow you around
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| Your first kiss in the schoolyard !!!!!
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| Falling in the schoolyard and putting a hole in your pants, or skinning your
knee
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| Getting a raspberry burn on your leg on the gym floor
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| Spilling stuff like paint, milk, ink, or food on your
clothes
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| Squirting someone with your ink pen
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| Being told to get a haircut
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| Being taken home from school because you got sick
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| Milk and graham cookie snacks
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| Having your hair checked for lice
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| Had to have a clean handkerchief
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| School clubs
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| Trips to local parks for May Day
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| Visits to the school library to get books to read
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| Musical instrument practice
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| Helping the handicapped/Binet class kids
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| Having a handicapped child in your class
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| Knowing someone who had their appendix or tonsils out
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| Knowing someone who had TB
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| Getting stitches or knowing someone else who did
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| Having your parents meet you teacher on PTA night
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| Going back to school with your parents on election day so
they could vote
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| Having to go to summer school
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| Crying on graduation night
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| Your graduation party,………………..and,
|
| That first day in high school realizing you
are on the bottom of the pile again !!! |
