Fourth Grade

Fourth Grade Memories

Miss Augusta was my fourth grade teacher.  This photo must have been taken about the time I was in her class, since it looks just like I remember her.  She was an exceptional teacher.  I have used her as an example in many classes I have taught for teachers and students planning to become teachers.  I was always going to write her a letter and tell her what a good teacher she was, but I procrastinated until it was too late.  Thinking back over my fourth grade memories, not a single one is traumatic or negative.

Our Marvelous Coat Closet

On the west wall of our classroom was a long skinny coatroom.  Many  classrooms have a coatroom, but not like this one.  In our coat room was the most amazing thing--a glass beehive with a glass tunnel that led over to the window, so the bees could go in and out.   I remember  watching the bees at work and hoping to get a glimpse of the queen bee.

Another memory of this coat closet happened one winter day
 right after lunch.  Everybody went home for lunch.   At our house, my mother always had us wear an apron to protect our clothes from spills.  That afternoon, standing in the coat closet,  I took off my coat and hung it on a hook.  A girl in my class said, "Why did you wear that apron to school?"  I give her a look.  Then she says, "Oh, did you sew it yourself?"  I don't remember what I said next, but I quickly took off the apron, before someone else saw it and hung it on the hook underneath my coat. 

The Widow's Walk

I do not know why such a house was built in Snowflake, Arizona, which is far from any seaport, but Miss Augusta lived in this house.  It had a widow's walk on the roof like a lot of East Coast houses where the husbands went to sea and the wife would walk up and look out to see if her husband's ship was returning. 

On a clear night, Miss Augusta invited our entire fourth grade class to her house. She took us up on the roof and used a flashlight  to point out all the constellations.  It is the only time I was ever on a widow's walk in my entire life. 

Frogs Eggs

One spring day, Miss Augusta took us on a walk to a pond where we found some frog eggs.  We scooped them up and the next day they were in a huge tub at the back of the room.  I don't remember that they ever hatched into poly-wogs and later frogs.  But, later, after a big flood at the ranch, my siblings and I got frog's eggs and watched then change to poly-wogs and then grow legs and lose their tails to to become frogs.

Speaking Spanish

Miss Augusta had a metal box of pamphlet size books in the classroom.  One of them was about Mexico.  In the back was a section with words to learn in Spanish.  I taught myself to count in Spanish and also phrases such as, "Usted, Amigo?"  I was probably motivated by the fact that Mexican sheepherders often drove their sheep across our ranch and would say to my father, "No savvy d'English." They would often give my father a baby lamb or a goat for the grass that their sheep would eat while crossing our land. I remember having to feed the lamb or kid with a bottle until they grew enough old to eat grass or hay.

The Bear Pit in Bern

You may wonder why I have a bear pit in Bern on my fourth 

grade  blog.  It is because our fourth grade  social studies book  had a picture of it.  Many years later when I took my kids to Europe for a summer, I remembered and wanted to show them the bear pit.  We took a special train all the way to Bern and then a local bus and then walked.  We finally arrived.  We peered down into the bear pits, but there were no bears.  It turned out that it was a Sunday and the bears don't come out on Sunday.  So although I have seen a bear pit, I still have never seen a bear in a bear pit. 

(I looked it up on the internet and it seems that Bern has  built a new bear pit.  The article didn't say if the bears come out on Sundays, now,or not.  My grand daughter, Rachael went there in the summer of 2014 just  in honor of this story)

The Kalamazoo Clu

(Also known as the Culvert Club)

One weekend, I was picking at a scab on my knee, and it began to bleed.  So, as not to waste this good blood,  I got a pen and and notebook and wrote my name in blood.  By fourth grade, I was reading a lot of chapter books and, no doubt, this idea came from one of them.  Now, that I had signed my name in blood, I decided to start a club and get other kids to join.  Of course, they would have to sign their names in blood, as well.

I wanted the club to have a really good name,   I thought and thought. In our side yard, sat an old iron stove with the magical word, "Kalamazoo," written on it.  I liked the sound of it.  What a fun name!  I wrote the new name of the club on the front cover of the notebook.

The next day at school, I explained this wonderful club to my friends and we arranged to meet at recess in the culvert that drained the playground.  Our culvert was big enough for quite a few of us to sit in, but not big enough to stand in.  There was never any water in it.  It was perfect for our secret club meetings.  Several of my friends pricked their fingers and signed their name in blood.   It seems that I didn't get far enough in my club plans to decide a purpose for the club, so after a few meetings, we went on to some other recess activity.





Imagine my surprise, years later, when I discovered that Kalamazoo was not a magical word, but was a city in Michigan and that the stove had probably been manufactured there.





)

The First Time I Tasted Spaghetti 

One afternoon, Pearl Bigler, announced to the class that today was her birthday and we were all invited to go to her house for a birthday party.  She lived a little ways southeast of the town.   A group of kids began walking down the street which was on my way home from school.  My mother was a teacher at the school that year and had to stay after school so I couldn't really ask her permission to go.  I can remember right where I was standing with this group of kids and had to decide to go up the hill to my house or turn the corner and go with the group to Pearl's birthday party.  I chose to go with the others.  It was quite a hike  and part of it was along the railroad tracks.  Maybe we even crossed a railroad bridge because I can remember thinking what should we do if a train comes along. 

This was a surprise birthday party.  That is, it was a surprise for Pearl's mother.  She had not made any plans for a birthday party and did not have a cake made, but she was very resourceful.  While we played, "Red Rover, Red Rover"  she made a big pot of spaghetti and everyone enjoyed it.  It was the first time that I had every eaten spaghetti. 

We all walked back to town together and I went home.  When I got there, Ada, who sometimes worked for us, said to me,"You are in real trouble, your mom and dad are out looking for you right now."  Sure enough, she was right.  I think this was the last time my parents ever had to go looking for me.

Perfect Attendance

At the end of the year, I got the only perfect attendance certificate that I ever received in all my school years.  I tried to figure out why.  Was it because I loved school so much?  Was it because I was extra healthy that year?  No!  I figured it out.  My mother was teaching sixth grade in our same school that year and no one would be home to take care of me if I was sick.

Third Grade in Heber, Arizona

We "Sort-of" Move to Heber, Arizona

In the fall of 1941 my mother was ask to teach in Heber which was about 35 miles west of Snowflake.  It was an even smaller town than Snowflake and was in the mountains surrounded by pine trees.  It was decided that Mom and the the three oldest kids would live in Heber during the week and would return to Snowflake on the weekends. The youngest child, Wendell, who was almost two years old, would stay in Snowflake with Dad and Aunt Lydia, who lived across the street, would tend him during the day.  My dad's job in Clifton had ended.  My dad was either working at the ranch almost daily or had started a new job where he drove to Holbrook.  


My mother found two rooms in Heber to rent.  There was a bathroom, but no kitchen.  My mother had a hot plate and a very early version of an electric "crock pot."   This appliance had two aluminum pans with clamp-on lids,  These two pans stacked on top of each other and were put into an insulated and electrified pack covered in white canvas.  She could cook two separate items at the same time and dinner would be ready when she returned from teaching.  An exhaustive search of the Internet has not turned up anything like it.    I think my mother bought it before she was married in 1929.  This year was the first time that I remember her using it on a regular basis.   It seems that she might have used it to cook beans when we lived in Safford.


The school had only two rooms, grades 1 to 4 in one room and grades 5 to 8 in the other.  My mother was to teach the lower grades and Edwin Decker, who also lived in Snowflake, was to teach the upper grades.  (After I was a grown-up with my own children and we were living in Vienna Virginia, I discovered that his daughter, Eva, lived with her husband and children in our same ward. It's a small world.)


All three of us children would be in my mother's classroom. Mary Alleen, who was only 4 yrs old, but would soon be five, would be allowed to attend the first grade, I would be in third grade, and Milton would be in fourth grade.  Since schools got paid per student, Heber was probably very glad to get 3 more students.


I remember hardly anything about the children in the room, what we studied, or what it was like to have my mother as my teacher.  All I can remember is that the room seemed small and  dark.  I will relate a few stories that I remember from the time we lived in Heber although they have nothing to do with school.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

My mother often had to stay after school to clean up and get ready for the next day.  My sister remembers helping to erase the blackboards after school and pounding the erasers against a wall to get all the chalk out.  I think that I usually walked home from school with my brother.   However, I was walking home by myself when the following incident took place.


I remember walking down the dirt street.  I wouldn't call it a road because there were houses and even a store on this street.   An older boy, who lived in Heber, began teasing me, not in a playful way, but in a mean way.  I don't remember exactly what he said, but I know it wasn't nice.  I bent over to pick up a rock to throw at him and as my hand closed around the rock, "Stomp" went his foot right on top of my hand.  It really, really hurt.  I have no more memories of what happened afterwards, although  I am certain  that I stayed away from that boy from then on.  I also have no memories of ever throwing rocks at anyone else, again. 


 ( post script:  I have no memory of ever throwing rocks before this, either. Come to think of it, since I never really got to throw the rock at that boy, I can say that I have never, ever thrown rocks at anyone and  I have never lived in a glass house, either.)

Overnight Miracle Dress

On the evening of October 9, l941, right after supper, my mother sent my sister, Mary Alleen to bed.  Tomorrow would be her birthday and my mother had decided to make her a new dress.  She cleaned the supper dishes from the card table and began to lay out the tissue pattern on the cloth.  She didn't use pins to hold the pattern  pieces down, but weighted them down with table knives. Before I was sent to bed, I remember watching at least long enough for my mom to begin sewing on her portable electric Singer sewing machine.  My mother had already let me sew a little on this sewing machine.  It ran with a knee push rather than a foot pedal.  My mother probably worked late into the night, but the next morning, my sister had a pretty blue dress for her birthday.

A Once in a Lifetime Experience

Late one night, another incident happened that became a "once in a lifetime" memory.  A neighbor, or more likely, the people we rented from, came knocking on our door and said that we should come outside and look at the Northern lights.  My mother took us all outside.  I remember adults and children  standing in the street looking north.   I can still remember  just how the sky looked above the tops of the pine trees.  I don't remember any colors but there were sheets of lights moving like curtains in the wind.  The above picture is as close as I could find to what I saw.  It even had pine trees, just like I remember.   I have never, again, seen the Northern lights.

We Move Back to Snowflake

By the time November came around, my parents felt that this living arrangement wasn't working out and all of the children moved back full time to our house in Snowflake.  My mother would ride with Mr. Decker every Monday morning to Heber and would come home every Friday evening.  One time later in the year while my mom was on the way to Heber, the steering wheel broke on Mr. Decker's car and the car ran off the road and crashed into a tree.  No one was injured, and I don't remember the details of how they were rescued.  

Chocolate Malt Balls 

One additional bit of trivia from Heber:  That Christmas, my mother bought 100 chocolate malt balls  from that little store in Heber.  Perhaps, they had been on sale.  On Christmas morning, we discovered why.   The balls were all empty.  The foamy puffed-up insides had all collapsed.  I have no idea why I remember this at all.    I am surprised that they still make them today, since you can't buy a malted milk at a soda fountain, anymore.

Snowflake Elementary School

This is an early picture of Snowflake elementary school, perhaps when it was first built. In the background you can see the old Snowflake Academy established in 1888 by the Mormon church.  Most of the academies became colleges later on but this one was given to the school district and remained a high school with several more buildings added around it.  The elementary school was built on an entire city block. It has since been torn down.

Although this land looks flat, the northwest corner of the playground had to be built up and a fairly high yellow sandstone retaining wall held the dirt in place.  There was also a big culvert to drain water away from the playground.  It was big enough to play in.  I remember having "club" meetings in this culvert.  

Across the street was the Relief Society building or the cannery.  Part of this lot was used for a playground, too.  The above  picture was taken while standing on this extra playground.   I remember playing soft ball in warm weather and playing "Fox and Geese" in the winter on this cannery lot.  In the above picture there is a street in front of the school, but since it is dirt, you can't distinguish it very well from the dirt lot on which the photographer was standing.  It was still a dirt street when I went attended school there.

The picture, below, was taken many years later and just before the school was torn down.  It looks almost exactly the way I remember it, only no added classrooms in the background.

The school was more yellow than this picture shows.

To the north of the school was a playground  that had a slide, several swings, a merry-go-round and maybe a sandbox.  At least there was sand under the slide.  The slide was strange.  It was two galvanized pipes that you had to straddle to slide down.  I think the tree shown in the above picture was still there when I attended Snowflake elementary.  On the south side of the building were basketball courts and track meet essentials such as a pit for long jumping and the" hop, skip, and jump" event.

The building was made of yellow bricks all marked, "Gallup" which I assume meant they were made in Gallup, New Mexico.  There were only eight classrooms for eight grades since there were no kindergarten, then.  

On the first floor, there was a principal's office, an auditorium, grades 1, 2, and 8, and two restrooms.   The second floor had grades 3,4,5,6, 7 and in the middle above the front entry hall and principal's office was a library, which was used for sewing classes and teacher's meetings.  
You can see the skinny windows from the end of the building and an entire wall of windows on the left in the picture below.  Notice all the plants and several bulbs blooming in this picture.

This is the third grade room in Snowflake Elementary,1928-29.  My mother taught there before she was married.
On the teacher's desk is  bottle of ink and  a clock.  Someone has given the teacher an apple, too..

 Each classroom had one huge wall of windows and on the opposite wall was a door to the hallway. There was a wall of blackboard at the front of the classroom and in the upper grades there was a map rack with rolled-up maps that could be pulled down.  The teacher's desk was in front of this.  There was a narrow bulletin board above the blackboard that usually had a row of  Palmer handwriting alphabet letters on it or was used for seasonal decorations as seen in the above photo.

There was always a flag at the front of the room, since we pledged allegiance to it every morning.  There was a standard school clock on the wall, as well.  As near as I can remember all of the rooms except first grade faced to the north.  This was helpful when looking at maps and orienting yourself to compass directions.  On the map east was to the right and as you stood facing the maps, east really was to your right.  I still have to face north when looking at a map or at least mentally face north.

Our desks were similar to the ones in the photo and were attached to the floor either directly or an entire row was attached to two long wooden boards. The desk chair for the person in front of you was attached to your desk so they had to be in rows.  Because class sizes differed from year to year some more movable and much newer desks were added at the front or the back of the rows of the solidly attached desks.  

These new desks looked like this and had a top that lifted up so you could put books and pencils inside and nothing ever fell off onto the floor.  I always wanted one of these desks, but in six years never got a chance to sit in one of them.

Ink Wells and Pens

All of the desks and even the new ones came with a round hole in the top of the desk.  In the middle grades, you were expected to practice your cursive in ink.  The teacher would pass out the ink bottles and they fit exactly into the round hole.  Then you got the wooden ink pens to dip into the bottles for writing.  Often ink blobs and spatters went all over your paper.  You also had to use a blotter to soak up extra ink.  These wooden pens, below, look just like the ones we wrote with in school.

This fit into the hole in your desk..

                                           The Principal 

The school principal was also the eighth grade teacher and there was probably a door between his office and the classroom.  I don't know for certain as I didn't go to the 8th grade in Snowflake.  I was only in the principal's office one time and that was to use the telephone.  Hardly anyone had a telephone.   During the time I lived in Snowflake, there were only two principals,  Lee Johnson  and Ezra Shumway who took over after  Lee Johnson moved to Phoenix.  

Fine Art in the Hall

Somewhere in or near the principal's office was a copy of Gainsborough's painting called the "Blue Boy."  It was probably the first famous painting that I had ever seen.   I don't recall any other art work being in the school nor do I recall doing any artwork in class, other than drawing with crayons and cutting and pasting.

Holiday Celebrations 

Halloween

Halloween was not a big dress-up holiday in Snowflake when I was a child.  They didn't have a costume parade and no one went trick-or-treating.  I remember going with my siblings to other houses and holding a jack-o-lantern up to the windows, supposedly to scare anyone inside.  We also might have knocked on doors and ran away.   Big bad boys would, however,  play tricks on people by putting some one's bicycle in a tree or writing words on your car with a bar of soap.  I heard stories about putting outhouses in trees but I never personally saw one.  A few people in Snowflake did still have outhouses, but most had indoor toilets.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at school was all about pilgrims and Indians and turkeys.  We colored ditto pictures, cut and pasted turkeys, and made Indian headdresses.   I don't remember any big pageants, but we certainly dressed up because I remember the yellow paper buckles on shoes, tall hats on boys with more buckles, and paper bonnets on girls.

In middle grades we read or listened to stories about the Pilgrims.

At home we always had a big dinner, usually with relatives.

Christmas  

The entire school participated in an annual Christmas program.  I had parts in several of these.  Most of these were  held in the evening  in the church recreation hall rather than the school auditorium.  I assume it was because it could accommodate all the children, their older and younger siblings, and their parents.     Separation of church and state was not a big deal at that time and in that place.  The pageant was mostly of a religious nature including Bible passages and almost all of the Christmas carols.  There were shepherds, wise men, angels, and, of course, Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. I think that every child from grade one to grade eight had a part in the program.
One year the whole school walked into the pageant carrying lit candles.  I have never seen that before or after that.  Candles are not usually allowed at functions held in the church house.

Another year the school put on a play based on Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.  I distinctly remember a cloth "roasted goose" someone's mother had sewn and stuffed for the Cratchet's Christmas dinner. 

Classroom Decorations

Every classroom was decorated for Christmas. Often we made red and green chains from construction paper during any free time and hung them in swags on the high up  skinny                        bulletin board or the windows.

 Six sided Snowflakes were made from folded paper and pasted to the windows.  I don't recall having Christmas trees in the classroom, but they might have been there since I have distinct memories of paper chains hanging on trees.  I am sure there was a tree somewhere either in the hall or the auditorium.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was really a big day in every grade from first through eighth.  Early  in February, every class decorated a Valentine's box with a slit in the top. Valentine's must have been readily available and cheap, because I remember almost everyone giving them to each other. Class members would address valentines at home and drop them in the box. Some valentines came with little lollipops attached. When Valentine's Day arrived, the box would be opened and the teacher or another student would call out the name and one or more others would deliver the valentines to your desk.  There was always refreshments, but the exciting part was to see who gave you a valentine and to read the clever sayings on them.

We also made homemade valentines to give our parents using red construction paper and paper doilies or home made lace cut from folded paper just the way we had made snowflakes.

Lincoln's Birthday

Lincoln's birthday was almost always celebrated in school with the teacher reading you stories of Lincoln's life, the students coloring  pictures run off on a ditto machine, or putting on a skit.  In second grade our class  cut and pasted three-dimensional log cabin on his birthday.(see Second Grade blog)

George Washington's Birthday

Actually the entire month of  February was a patriotic month with red, white, and blue decorations everywhere.  Washington's Birthday was celebrated in about the same ways as Lincoln's Birthday. And of course, we heard about the cherry tree and we made little hatchets and three-cornered hats. 

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day was hardly celebrated at all.  Maybe at the first of March the class would make green shamrocks to pin up on that upper skinny bulletin board.  I never remember hearing the story of St. Patrick or singing any Irish songs.

Easter

Easter would bring dittoed bunnies to color or cut out, but I don't remember teachers reading us any Easter stories.  We never had Easter egg hunts at school like we did in Safford. 

 At home we colored boiled eggs and on Easter morning we got Easter baskets from the Easter bunny.  Inside were candy and marshmallow eggs and  the same yellow peeps they have still have today.  Almost every Easter our family got real baby chickens or baby ducks which we raised for eggs and meat.  It took several years to save enough down for one pillow. 

May Day

Sometimes we made this kind of basket.

This was the most common kind..

May Day was celebrated with little woven baskets of flowers.  In Snowflake we never did dances around a May pole like they did in Safford the year my brother was in first grade and like they did in Virginia when I taught school there many years later.  We did learn to weave baskets for flowers.  

Patriotic Programs

For four of the six years that I attended school in Snowflake, our country was at war.  We had patriotic programs during the school year where we celebrated America.  We did not wait until the Fourth of July.  We learned all verses of the National Anthem, America, the Beautiful,  My Country 'Tis of Thee, God Bless America and all of the armed services songs.

Track Meet

Every year a school track meet is held.  Dashes, races,  high jump, long jump, the "hop, skip, and jump," and "chin ups."  Ribbons were given out.  I can remember that I never won any of these.  Athleticism was not one of my gifts and besides that  I was  younger than anyone in my class even though I was just as big as they were.

Second Grade Stories

My second grade teacher was Miss Hamblin.  I know that in my first grade blog, I said that the teachers went by their first names and most did, Miss Laverne, Miss Augusta, Miss Leona, etc. but some didn't.   So I was wrong.  I think that Miss Hamblin was the great granddaughter of a well known pioneer, Jacob Hamblin, and had many Hamblin relatives in nearby towns.  Her full name was Clara Hamblin.  I didn't remember her first name, but found it on the 1940 census.  The census says she was 30 years old in 1940 and that was the year I was in her class.  The census also says  that her  annual salary was $1,130.

Our second grade reading books were from a different series than the  Dick and Jane books.  I remember it had a monkey in it.   We also read an old fashioned second grade text book.  It had traditional stories in it such as The Gingerbread boy and another  story about a boy whose pig wouldn't jump over the stile.   The boy asked the dog, the cow, a stick, a rope and a fire to help him.  The pictures weren't even in color.  They were black and white with touches of orange.  I have never seen a "stile" in my entire life except in this book and one picture taken somewhere in Ireland or England, but the word has turned up on a few crossword puzzles. 

One of the best things I like most about Miss Hamblin's was that everyday she read to us from such books as "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and some sequels to it, too.  I remember one of the Oz characters saying "It's getting warm, so it must be going to snow."  Then it began to snow "popcorn."  This was so surprising and magical to me that the memory is still in my head.  Sometime during second grade, I borrowed the book and read it myself, enjoying the magic all over again.

Another book that she read to us was Doctor Doolittle.  Today,  I think people would be critical of a teacher reading almost daily to a class, but I think it is wonderful because it makes you want to read things yourself.  It teaches you to listen and use your imagination to picture the story in your mind.  If she hadn't read the Wizard of Oz to the class, I would never have tried to read such a big book myself at that age.

  

Other books that I loved to read included Raggedy Ann and Andy and  the books about two sets of Swedish triplets, Snip, Snap, and Snurr, and Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka.  There were many sequels to all three of these series.

 Tomorrow is going to be a solar eclipse here in Utah and that is what reminded me to include the Bobbsey Twins because the first time I had heard of solar eclipses was in a Bobbsey Twin book. I began reading this series in second grade and continued to read them in later grades.  The books were about two sets of twins in the same family, Bert and Nan, and Freddie and Flossie.  I read the first book, The Bobbsey Twins, followed by the Bobbsey Twins in the Country, the Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore and  quite a few others.  The Internet shows there were more than 20 different titles all written by the same man under the pen name of Laura Lee Hope.  Reading these books taught me a lot about different life styles, poor and rich, city and country, and mountains and seashore, as well as family interaction.  

Spelling At Age Six

Second grade is when I learned how to spell "Phoenix."  I can distinctly remember having to fill out a form and it required me to fill in my birth place. I have no idea why a six year old would be required to fill out some official form.  Most of the other children were born in Snowflake.  They knew how to spell Snowflake and so did I, but  I had no idea how to spell Phoenix.  The "ph"  and the "oe" were serious problems to me.  I probably spelled it, "Feenix" or "Feenicks."  Miss Hamblin had me erase whatever I had written and spell it correctly.  Luckily we weren't writing in ink, yet.

We had weekly spelling tests on Fridays.  Time was set aside each afternoon to study that week's spelling list.  If you were certain that you already knew the words, you were allowed to draw pictures with your crayons during the spelling practice time.   I knew that I loved drawing more that practicing my spelling words and so, one week, I didn't study them at all, feeling fairly certain that I would get them all correct.   I usually did. When the test day came, I missed one or more of the words.  The punishment for being so over-confident was that you weren't allowed to participate in the planned art project that afternoon.  Everyone in class made little log cabins except for me.  Other kids had missed spelling words, but they had studied during spelling practice time and I had not.  I guess that I learned another lesson or two, "Pride goeth before a fall." and that, "Actions have consequences."

What, No Stars?

One day Miss Hamblin asked us to draw and color an American flag on a standard size sheet of paper.  After getting all thirteen stripes colored red and white, it was time to make 48 white stars with a blue background.  I remember having a big discussion with a girl sitting next to me  about how there wasn't enough room in that corner spot to draw 48 stars with our worn down thick white crayons.  We both came to the conclusion that we would just make 48 round white dots then carefully color blue around them.   I can still remember where I was sitting when  Miss Hamblin walked over and held our flags up for the whole class to ridicule because we obviously didn't know that the flag was supposed to have stars.  To this day I don't know how any one could squeeze 48 crayon drawn stars into that little space.

 A Shameful PTA Party

U.S. Half-dollar coin-1940

One time  a few years back, I was listening to a speaker who was encouraging people to write about their lives.  She read a quote, that said you would really get to know a person if they wrote about the things they were ashamed of.    The following story came, instantly, to my mind and so I will write it for posterity.  It's the first time that I remember being ashamed.

The PTA was trying to get parents to join and said that there would be an after school party on a certain day for all the children whose parents joined the PTA.   At the end of the appointed day,  Miss Hamblin read off all the names of the children who were allowed to go to the party which was held in the auditorium.  My name was not on the list.  I couldn't believe it.  My parents always supported the PTA throughout my life and my mother later served as  the PTA president.  I don't know why they hadn't paid it.  It is possible they couldn't afford it.  Fifty cents was quite a lot of money in those days.  Ladies would clean your house all day for only a dollar.  It is, also,  possible that they just got too busy and forgot about it.   My mother had a pre-schooler and a brand new baby at home that year and my father was working out of town from Monday  through Friday, so she had all the milking and farm chores to do besides the housework required to take care of four children.  We had chores, but were too young to do most of the farm chores like milking and feeding animals.

Now comes the part I am ashamed of.   I went home from school and cried and cried about not being able to go to the party.  My mother got out a fifty cent piece and sent me back to school to pay the PTA dues.  The party was already in progress by the time I got there.  There were  no games or music--just kids sitting in chairs.   And even worse, the refreshments were minimal and bad.   I couldn't believe that I had made my mother feel sad,  just so I could attend such a dumb party.  

Drama Trauma

or

The Star of the Second Grade Play

In the spring of the year,  it was the second grade's turn to put on a program for the entire school.  Our teacher had a script for a play that gave everyone a part.  I got chosen to be the main character, Mother Goose.  The other children only had to memorize one nursery rhyme each, but a few had one or two additional lines.  I had several pages that I was to memorize. 

 My parents were taking me out of school for a few days on a trip to Phoenix.  My mother promised Miss Hamblin that I would know all the lines by the time I  returned.  I'm sure my parents had many  things to take care of on this trip.  I do remember my mother rehearsing me as we sat in the parking lot of a lettuce packing plant, but I was much more interested in watching the heads of lettuce go up the conveyor belt than I was in learning all those lines.  

 Miss Hamblin was very glad when I returned  to class, because now, she could begin rehearsals on the stage in the auditorium.  Some of the students were left in the classroom to do seat work, while several others and myself went with her to the auditorium to practice for the play.   It became obvious in just a few minutes that I didn't know all my lines.   Miss Hamblin yelled at me with a lot of cross words, and sent me back to the classroom.  I cried all the way down the hall.  When I went in the room, the other students wanted to know what happened.  I have no memory of what I told them.   This was full-blown second grade trauma.

I eventually learned my lines and can still remember standing behind the curtain waiting for it to open.  I wore a long dress and an apron.  I had a long broom to "sweep the cobwebs from the sky."  All the costumes were great, the play was a success, and, as near as I remember, no one forgot any lines. 

1st Grade

Candelyn:  Tell me the stories of first grade.  How old were you?  What did they teach you?  Did you have friends?  What did you wear to school?  Did you have recess?

Our family moved to Snowflake just before school started in 1939.  Since I could already read a little bit, my parents decided to enroll me in school even though I wouldn't be six until the next April.  

An old photo of the actual elementary school in Snowflake, AZ
My first grade classroom is the lower right hand set of windows.

My teacher was Miss Laverne.  At this time in Snowflake all the teachers were called Miss followed by their first name whether they were married or not.   My teacher's complete name was Laverne Crandall  the wife of Rufus Crandall who taught music at the high school as well as private music lessons.  She had been my father's teacher in an upper grade one year when his family lived in Snowflake.   Miss Laverne was mainly remembered as the first grade teacher, since that was the grade she taught for so many years.

We went to school from 9 to 12 and then went home for lunch since there was no cafeteria and no one brought lunch to school.   It seems that some students who lived far out of town went to the high school for lunch since they did have a cafeteria.  I guess the teachers must have gone home, too. Then class resumed at 1p.m. and went until 4 p.m. for most grades, but it seems that first grade got to go home earlier.   We had a morning recess and an afternoon recess and also played on the playground when we returned early from lunch.   There was no special physical education class, music class, or any specialty teachers.  We sometimes had a program or a play in the auditorium usually put on by one of the classes.  

We had reading, penmanship, phonics, and arithmetic.  I don't remember any science or health or social studies in first grade, but  Miss Laverne had a first grade rhythm band.

 The above book  is the first book we learned to read in first grade and is the same one I used to teach my brother, Wendell, to read several years later.

This was the first page in the pre-primer.

By page 16 we were reading about Dick and Jane's cat, Mew, as well as Spot, the dog.

I remember the above book very well and have been able to recite the entire first chapter throughout my life.  I have used just this first chapter to teach many preschoolers to read substituting their own name for Dick and the name of  siblings  for Jane and Baby.  In my book Baby was not called Sally.  This only happened in the next edition.  I found this comment on line:  "The famous Dick and Jane books that taught millions of children to read were first published in 1931. These primers introduced the students to reading with only one new word per page and a limited vocabulary per book. All who learned to read with these books still recall the 'Look. See Dick. See Dick run.'"
So I am not the only one who still remembers the words. 

 The summer before my brother, Wendell, was to start school,  my mother assigned me to teach him to read.  We had a copy of this same pre-primer which was, by now, out of date.  Every morning for an hour I worked with him and he learned to read the entire book before he went to first grade at Kenilworth.  I have no idea what methods I used, but I suppose I could remember back to Miss Lavern's techniques and used them.

Learning to Write

We did not learn manuscript writing or printing in the first grade, but went immediately into Palmer penmanship.  These are the letters I learned to make in first grade.  I remember this as being very difficult and I never had very good handwriting my entire life, even with almost daily practice for the six years of elementary school.

Rulers and Yardsticks

I will relate a few stories about first grade that stand out in my mind.  The first is that once, during a phonics lesson, I turned around to talk to the person sitting behind me.  WHACK!  Without even a warning the teacher hit me on my head with a ruler.  This was a common punishment.  Some of the teachers of the upper grades even kept wooden paddles in their desks to hit misbehaving students.  Miss Laverne's niece, Gail Crandall, was in my class and, for  some misdeed, Miss Lavern hit her over the head with a ruler and the ruler broke.  Then, Miss Laverne got the yard stick and hit her again.  This was very scary to the entire class.

Barbed Wire Fences 

My brother, Milton, and I usually walked to school together.  One morning we were taking a shortcut and climbed through the barbed wire fence that surrounded the school playground,instead of walking to the front of the school.  My brother held open the wires so I could climb through, but I slipped and landed on the barbed wire and cut my knee quite badly.  I had a handkerchief with me and so I tried to stop the bleeding with it.  Later in class, Miss Laverne called on me to come up to the front of the room to read or perform some task before the class.  I was still holding the handkerchief on my knee and so I had to walk all bent over.  She yelled at me to straighten up and walk normally.  When I straightened up she could see that I was still bleeding.  She softened immediately and asked me about what happened and treated me with kindness.  We had no school nurse or any office staff to send me to.  The principal was really the eighth grade teacher and had no secretarial help.  I don't know if she had me clean my knee or what else happened.  I just remember the big wave of relief that I wasn't in trouble with her. 

 A Three Year Old Goes to School

This next story is very strange to me, especially since my mother had been a teacher, herself.   My parents had to go to Winslow, one day, maybe to see a doctor or a dentist and they asked Miss Laverne  if my three year old sister could stay in the back of the room coloring in her coloring book while they were gone.   I have no idea why Miss Laverne would say, "yes" to such an arrangement, but she did.  Everything went okay for the first part of the day.  Then, Miss Lavern was standing up walking around the room as she gave the class a test of some kind.  It was probably a spelling test.  Alleen started walking towards the front of the classroom.  Miss Laverne told her to sit down, but she just kept on walking.  Miss Lavern then walked over and gave her a push.   Alleen toppled over and hit the floor with a loud thud.  I was mortified and scared for both Alleen and myself.  Although, Miss Laverne did not get out her ruler or the yardstick,  I would bet that she never agreed  to babysit again.

A Rhythm Band

This  picture is of my sister's rhythm band.  She is in back row, far right.

The first grade rhythm band was a tradition for Miss Laverne.  There were little red capes and caps and it looks like white pants, although I don't remember them when I was there.  There were rhythm sticks, tambourines, drums, triangles and other noise(or music) makers, and a bird whistle.  

I had almost no ability to keep rhythm and was eventually assigned to blow the bird whistle.  You had to put water in it so that it "warbled" like a bird, when you  blew on it.   We practiced and practiced for the program in the auditorium.  My job was to tweet the whistle right on cue.  I must have done it correctly because I have no traumatic memories attached to the rhythm band.  Many years later, I told this story to another American teacher in China as an example of my lack of musical ability and rhythm.  She said, "No it was probably because you were smart enough to count up the many measures of music before that one little tweet was called for and obedient enough not to tweet it out of turn or spill the water out of it."  She knew because she, too, had been assigned the bird whistle in first grade in another small town in another state.

End of Year Prize

My final story from first grade is that I won the award for reading the most books.  The prize was a book signed by the teacher recognizing my achievement.  I kept it for most of my life, but it seems to be lost now.  I read 50 books that year.   There was no town library.  The school library had only a few books, mostly about the Hardy boys, and no books on a first grade level.  I was a good reader but the reason I won was because my mother had a few books at home and her sisters, who were teachers in nearby towns, helped us borrow books to read.  I read every book available.  Three years later my sister won the same award by reading 137 books.  Times had changed that much in those few years and many more books were being printed for children.  Even Disney got into the act with books written on a beginning level about Donald Duck and his nephews, Huey, Duey, and Luey.  Dr. Seuss' easy-to-read books would come much later.

First Grade Alumni

The town of Snowflake was small and the population was fairly stable.   I went to school with mostly the same children from first grade through sixth grade.  The 1940 census just came out a month ago(April,2012) and I was able to identify almost all of my classmates by reading through the census list.  I am surprised at the achievement of so many of my classmates.  Out of these twenty-five, or so, children, this class has produced a town sheriff, a general in the US Air Force, a lawyer, at least two PhD college  professors in Chemistry and English, a prolific author, several teachers and a psychologist.  These are the only ones I happen to know about, so there are probably many others.  Too bad that  Miss Lavern's 1939-1940 first grade class doesn't have an alumni association to keep track of everyone.  "Thank you, Miss Lavern!  You did good!"