First and Second Grade

I was one of three students entering first grade at Cardwell Grade school when I was 6 and a half. Gay Armstrong, Barbara Ballard and myself. (Susan was one of three also and when someone asked her about her class she said she was second to the dumbest!) Gay and Barbara were cousins and I never thought they liked me. (Barbara told me later in high school when we were friends that she didn't like me because I would always come with my granparents to the cemetary looking all beautiful with long golden curls and a dress on and she was there in her grubs.) I don't remember playing with anyone or caring if I did. The life I enjoyed was at home and I could go there after school. I did like school and did well. I only remember the wonderful smell of learning. The Dick and Jane books. I loved to learn and loved to please the teacher. First and second grade were in the same room and I believe Mrs. Crian was my teacher. We got to have a carton of milk after recess in the morning and one person was chosen to go get it each day. Each blue plastic carrier was full of just the right amount of cartons with only a few chocolates. We had to take turns having chocolate. I LOVED it when my turn came both to pass out the milk and to have a chocolate. Sometimes we got to be picked to clean off the chalk boards with a special longer eraser that made it look nice and clean. I remember that Norman Tebay wet his pants during class one day. I can still see his pee slowly running across the hardwood boards toward my desk. I felt a mixture of sadness for him and horror that he would do such a thing. At Christmas time one of those years Mrs. Crian sang, "O Holy Night." Her voice was incredible and perhaps I had never heard an operatic type voice because the feeling in my chest as she sang is clear to me even now. I sat in my chair transfixed.