Friday Five

...but from a different source than the usual Friday Five...

1. What is your earliest memory of school?

Kindergarten was a blast. We had a luau. We got to learn about Native Americans (OK, they were "Indians" then) and pick pseudo-Native names (I was bummed because all the colored feather names--Red Feather, etc.--were taken by the time they got to my end of the alphabet), I was allowed to read to the class occasionally. My teacher was Mrs. Morton, and the kindergarten was in its own separate building, with a completely separated playground.

The only really negative memory is of a lovely day in the spring of the year when we were having a treat and I got my tongue stuck to an Orange Creamsicle. I was completely freaked out by the pain and the blood (someone carried me into the bathroom and ran warm water over my tongue to get it loose), and to this day I can't eat Creamsicles or anything that has that same weird orangey-white color.

2. Who was a favorite teacher in your early education?

Well, it certainly wasn't Mrs. Ramadan! Let's see: first grade was Miss Campbell; she was nice, and young, but I thought Mrs. Potter was better-looking. Uhm, second grade we'll just skip completely. I don't remember third or fourth very well--who were my teachers?? Fifth grade was Mrs. Weitman; she was cool and fun. Sixth grade was Miss Groff/Mrs. Morley--she got married in the middle of her time at Maddox; she looked like Cher (a good thing in 1975!) and made learning fun.

The problem is that from first grade on, we all moved from room to room (and from teacher to teacher) for almost every subject, so I really had at least 5 teachers every year. Looking back is very confusing; I can't remember most of the teachers, but I know which hallways & classrooms went with which grades! How sad is that??!

3. What do you remember about school back then that is different from what you know about schools now?

Aside from the moving around thing??

The principal had a paddle with a hole in the business end--the better to hurt you with, my dear--hanging in his office. That was the rumor; I never really saw the inside of his office except on infrequent occasionas when his door was open as I passed on my way to lunch. Jerry Johnson was always on the chair outside the office. Always. He was a problem and rumor had it that the paddle had been used on him multiple times. Nowadays, not only would the paddling never happen, but the rumor of the threat of paddling could get you fired!

Other things that I see now that I didn't notice as a child are: I never thought the teachers ever argued with one another, or that they might be just as bitchy as the kids were among themselves; sometimes the grownups are wrong; the secretary runs the school, not the principal (I loved our secretary, she was so kind to, well, me at least...); and the idea that parents would ever be in school outside of programs and conferences, or to pick you up from the nurse's office. There were NEVER parents in the classrooms!

4. Did you have to memorize in school? If so, share a poem or song you learned.

We had to learn all the songs from "The Wizard of Oz" for a class play in 3rd? or 4th? grade. I still know them all. We also learned "You Are My Sunshine" (which is when I found out that Dad hated that song from his Army Air Corps days) and a pastiche of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the list of the U.S. Presidents which is how I still organize them:

First there was George Washington
And then John Adams served
Followed by Tom Jefferson then James Madison
James Monroe he led us then
John Quincy Adams next.
Andrew Jackson [blah blah blah]

USeful, but of questionable taste in most situations.

5. Did you ever get in trouble at school? Were there any embarrassing moments you can share?

I never was in trouble. I was a real goody-two-shoes, although it was totally more about of fear than it was about showing people up. It just didn't ever occur to me that getting in trouble was an option; I knew I'd pay in spades, both at school and at home.

The only really embarrassing moments were the Creamsicle debacle and my klutziness: tripping over a door stop and literally flying 5 feet before landing on my hands and knees on the concrete or running, during gym class, face-first into a brick wall and scraping my face and dinging my knee (again).... Frankly, just getting through each day was fraught with embarrassing possibilities.