School Memories

Today is Monday, April 14, 2008. This sun is shining but it is windy.
One evening we were sitting around in the family room talking about school memories. Everyone in our family liked going to school. We never once heard any one of our children say they didn't like school. Memories were about all different kinds of experiences. Glen started out by telling us one of his. I will put quote marks around each story even though they are not the exact words.
"We were having a little store - using actual items and paying real money. It was a part of our arithmetic. Each day we had to tally up. And we were always just a little short. I was so disappointed when I finally figured out that one of my best friends was taking a little money each day."
"Our school had two rooms. My dad taught the 5th to 8th grades in one room and my best friend's mother taught 1st to 4th grades in the other room. Her son and I went half year to the 4th grade and half to the 5th and then on to the sixth the next year."
"One time there were some marks on the wall at the school. Some kids blamed it on me. Dad asked me straight out 'Did you do it?' I said No and he trusted me."
One of the girls remembered how much she liked the playground area which was mostly grass at the back of the school. She and her friends liked standing on the heads up against the back fence.
"I remember when I got to help in the cafeteria and getting an ice cream cone as pay. Then we would sit behind Mr. Andrews' room eating our treat. Another special thing was when the teachers read out loud to us after lunch."
"My second grade teacher, Miss Jeppson, got married and she invited our whole class to her weddding reception. Then we had to remember to call her Mrs. Gustafsson."
"One time I took a fancy metal heart to school and we had a bomb threat. All of us had to leave the school and I was so upset that they wouldn't let me get that heart. And in Magna the whole school got to walk down to the movie theatre at Christmas time to watch a special movie and they gave us each a bag of candy."
Another daughter remembered - "In our class we had a big jar of M & M's the teacher gave us as rewards. One night the school got broken into and so as a safety measure the teacher decided that the candy had to be dumped. I remember looking at that heap of wasted candy."
Several of our children helped in the cafeteria. The school had a great cafeteria with wonderful ladies as cooks. And the cooks were so good to the student helpers. "I had to get an okay from my parents to work in the cafeteria so I got permission to walk home at lunch time to get Mom's note. My friend Angela and I got to work. My favorite thing was to make pig-in-a-blanket. I also remember that lady who wouldn't let me go by her house the first day I tried to walk to school by myself."
"Remember that day when I picked my scab and got blood all over me. I had this cute little furry white coat. There was blood all over me and my white coat. They told me to go home. And when I got home I had blood all over me. Mom laughed when she finally got all the blood washed off and found this tiny little spot it was all coming from. Nowadays, they would have never let me walk home by myself."
I have a lot of school memories of my own. How many recesses did we play prisoner's base in the jungle gym? One recess it was boys chase girls and the next recess girls chase boys. When you were tagged you had to go to prison. I can still see the jungle gym with all those outstretched arms hoping to be tagged and freed from prison. We'd run and chase the whole length of the playground. It's fun to hear that my grandchildren still play that same game even today.
MY school memories are a great source of pleasure. I have many pleasant memories. Enough to fill a book. That's all for today.