MPT Part 3: First Grade and Accurate(?) Memories

This is the third in a series of 15 blogs I'm writing for Mommy's Piggy Tales .  Janna has provided a forum for members to write and share stories from their youth.  Since I now have five young grandchildren, I want to develop my personal history for them.  These stories are targeted for an 8-year-old granddaughter for now.  She loves playing school and actually has asked me about how schools were run long, long ago!

Grade School and Accurate (?) Memories

August 1949.  Looks like my sister had already had her new perm!

Here we are ready to ride along in the Kiddie Parade on the first night of the annual County Fair.  Children decorated their bikes, wagons, and scooters with crepe paper and rode all the way from the Courthouse to the Fairgrounds with "gigantic" crowds cheering along the way.  Well, that's how I remember it.

This photo was taken beside our "Little House" with our new car, a 1949 Dodge,  parked in front.  That's important because now we had a family car (the new one) and our dad drove the old Chevy to the farm daily.  For several years we packed 8 people, 4 adults and 4 kids,  into that car for a 2 hour Christmas morning drive to be with my mom's family.  And then we drove back home late that night... once in the snow!

My cousin and I walked to school (about six blocks) for First Grade with the neighborhood children to arrive at 9 AM.  Then we walked home for lunch at 11:40.  And back to school at 1 PM.  If there was a reason, we sometimes ate lunch at each other's house, but only very rarely did we take a bag lunch.   The lower grades got out in 10 minute intervals beginning at 2:45 PM.  We walked home slowly, through the downtown area and sometimes stopped at her family's drug store to say "hi" to her dad and grandfather.  In a small town, you often knew the extended family of your friends. They were always delighted to see us (as I recall).

Here's a partial photo of our school, actually a two story building built in 1897, our desks,  and general things. My memories are not necessarily from First Grade, just general thoughts about my six years in elementary school.

For some crazy reason, I have always loved school supplies!  I did years ago and now as a grandmother, I wander through the Back-to-School aisles chuckling at what a big business is it now.  I was able to find photos of the standard supplies we used.  In my memory, we had the 16 pack of crayons, maybe 24.  The fold-back tops came out when I was in 5th grade, what a great packaging advancement!  Students in lower grades used the Big Chief tablet, wide ruled.  We did a lot of writing because we didn't have worksheets or workbooks.  We copied the math problems from the book to the tablet (being careful to copy correctly!) and then worked them.  We always used No. 2 pencils and sometimes they were sharpened by a parent (never a child) with a knife. The schools had rotary pencil sharpeners.  We didn't get one at home until I was in Jr. High.  Did I say that I've always loved school supplies???

The best item of all, and oh I remember it well, was "school paste."   The teacher, perhaps kind Mrs. Humphrey or stern Miss Corners,  opened a gallon-sized jar of thick paste. Then with a stick,  Mrs. Humphrey gave each student a "cute plop" or Miss Corners a "glob" of paste on a piece of scrap paper to the students standing in a line near her desk.   Oh, it smelled so good as we held it carefully walking back to our desks.  We used our fingers to put the sticky stuff where needed.  Well, that's how it was supposed to work.  The truth is that nearly everyone tasted it.  Some kids, like me,  were discrete and merely licked their fingers as they worked.  But those silly boys ate a mouthful when the teacher wasn't looking! And we all giggled and licked more.  Who could forget those days?  

Typical school clothes in front of the Little House;  Birthday Nov 23, 1949, Ages 10 and 7.

My mom got a new electric Singer sewing machine about this time.  She made the skirts we're wearing here in front of our Little House as well as school outfits for us. Often she made doll clothes to match.  She crafted costumes for numerous school programs. That machine logged many miles and was still functioning in our house 50 years later!

My sister and I have differing memories as to whether our mom made the "gorgeous" matching birthday dresses that year.   I thought the tartan plaid pinafores were stylish with the ruffled underskirt but my enthusiasm waned when I outgrew mine and a larger one was waiting for me in the closet!  These were the dresses we wore when two families squeezed into that small blue Dodge riding along on Christmas Day 1949.