Fun in Second Grade

My oldest grandson called me early this morning excited to start his first day of second grade. It was so good to hear the enthusiasm in his voice; sometimes he stresses out about new things (just like his Nana).

I wonder if his mom got a picture of him on his first day of school. That was the ritual when I was a girl - picture taking on the first day of school. Dressed in our new school clothes, we were all lined up on the little green and white fence that separated the driveway from the yard -the picture spot. Whoever suggested that your subject need to face the sun ought to be shot. Can you imagine trying to get a good photo with five kids squinting, tears running down their faces? I could never seem to be able to look into the camera without squinting and I have pictures to prove it!

The little country school I attended was called Garden Grove. There were two buildings which housed 8 grades. Some of the grades didn't have students at all. My first four years were in the "little room" which was actually pretty good size building and had two rooms. The other room was where the stage was and the partitions would be opened whenever we had any plays or events in the community. I will tell you about the "big room" in another blog.

If you have ever seen "A Christmas Story", then you can imagine my classroom (minus the bricks and 2 stories and 3 more grades) with the alphabet charts in cursive above the blackboard. I remember our teacher putting a paper train on the wall with all our pictures. Every day we got to open our train window with our picture if we had brushed our teeth that day. It was a big deal and you sure wanted your picture to be open. There was a small, tiny library in one corner of the room that was cordoned off by a wooden fence with a wooden swinging gate. My favorite books were about dude ranching in Montana.

I can still smell the oily sawdust the teacher would spread on the floor to keep down dust before she swept the room. Teachers were the janitors, too. I remember the cloakroom to the side of the room where we hang our coats. That room wasn't heated, and man oh man, it was cold in there in the winter.

We had a sink with an attached water fountain. I can remember the teachers trying to get us to lean over the fountain without curving our backs so that we would grow up to have good posture.

I had my 7th birthday party at school. Back in those days, we were allowed to have a birthday party with cake and presents the last two hours of the day. You can do that when there are only 12 or 15 kids. I have a cute picture of that day. Mom even brought each of us a bottle of pop (soda for you town kids). My favorite present that year was a large plastic shaped pencil full of erasers, pencils, rulers, etc. There was even a multiplication table on the side--years and years before calculators.

If you know me, you may have noticed a scar between my eyes. The back door to the building had a concrete block to keep the door open for ventilation (no air conditioning in the school or our homes for that matter). At recess one day, a few of us girls had gathered to talk and laugh at that back door. I thought it would be fun if I held on to the door knobs and swung back and forth. It was for a few swings - UNTIL my hands slipped and I fell right on that concrete block. I remember my teacher sending one of the girls to the other room to get the other teacher to help her. I was bleeding a lot. Both of them were cleaning up my wound over the sink trying to decide if I needed to go home and/or to have stitches. They couldn't let me bleed to death, so they taped some gauze to my forehead. There was no telephones in our school and we didn't have one at home either. Finally, the decision was made to take me home. On the way home, the "big room" teacher said I looked just like a nurse with that bandage on my forehead. I can still remember that statement and how much better I felt afterward. By the way, I didn't go to the doctor and my wound healed pretty good. Wonder if I would have this scar had I gotten stitches.

Whenever a teacher had to leave, the kids in the "big room or small room" would bring their chairs to the other room and the kids would get to choose the person they wanted to set by. The big kids then would help the small kids with their work.

By the time I was in second grade, I didn't hate school as much as I did in first grade; however, I never liked it. Even to this day, when I see advertisements for back to school supplies, I secretly cringe. To hear the excitement in my grandson's voice today filled me with hope that maybe he will not follow my footsteps and my fear of school. Have fun in second grade, little guy.