Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Random Grade School Memories

In Armadillo Creek, in 1976, kindergarten was an all-day kindergarten. It was a part of the elementary school, but because the school system was getting low on classroom space, the classes were held in a little house across the street from the rest of the elementary school. The little pink house looked, from the outside, like the traditional one-room schoolhouses that were commonly seen at one time in country communities. The kindergarten had it's own playground, a fenced in yard, and two classrooms. When lunchtime would come, both classes would line up, single file, and cross the street, up past the gymnasium, and tromp over to the lunchroom shared by all the grades, from Kindergarten, all the way up to the graduating senior class.

The first and second grades were in an 'annex' building, attached to but not really a part of the old school building, which had been built back in the 1930s, back along about the time that Johnny's Daddy was starting school. The grade school annex building housed four classrooms, two for first grade, and two for second. In first grade, Johnny Miller's teacher still used Dick and Jane books, but also broke up the monotony sometimes by bringing in a television, where the entire class would watch Sesame Street and The Electric Company.

And in second grade, Mrs. Williams, a neighbor of Johnny's family, was the teacher. Back in those days, there, many people were connected to the world by telephone, but not individual lines. Rather, neighbors would share a "party line", with each house having a unique ring. At that time, Johnny didn't understand what that really meant, but later on, when he became a teenager, just before the party lines were removed, Johnny would learn that he could listen to neighbor's conversations, but also knew that he'd have been in BIG trouble if he was ever caught doing so.

Third grade was Johnny's first visit into the big elementary school made of field rock so long ago. His first day of third grade started out a bit on the troublesome side, with Johnny being called into the hallway. He was scared that he had somehow done something really bad, but as it turns out the school had to adjust class sizes slightly, so he ended up having the other third grade teacher instead of the one he expected. He had always heard how mean she was, too...

But he learned that as long as he worked hard, she treated him fairly, and he learned a lot. And one day, he raised his hand, and said, "Mrs. Mullens, say 'gee', say 'gee'." Finally she did so, and he answered her, just like on television, "No, GTE!" There had been, for a while there, a barrage of television advertisements for GTE... where all their innovations were discussed, and someone would say, "Gee..." and someone else would say, "No... GTE"

Third grade also introduced Johnny Miller to the principle's office. One day, on the school bus, Johnny somehow got ahold of a magic marker... and drew a little bit on the seat. Graffiti, in all it's forms, was NOT allowed. When Mr. Jones found the stains on his seat, he asked the kids to fess up, and Johnny, ashamed, did not. His brother's good buddy Anthony took care of the job, though. And soon Johnny was called into the principle's office, fearing the worst.

Forth grade, in 1980, in the small community of Armadillo Creek, was different. It was the first time that Johnny Miller had to split time between multiple teachers. Mrs. Long, in the morning, his homeroom teacher, sometimes was a little short-tempered. And although she did usually bite her tongue, his sharp ears actually heard her mutter a bad word once or twice. He didn't know teachers did that! But Mrs. Kennedy, the afternoon teacher, had a completely different personality. She was always calm and smiling and offered to help.

When fifth grade rolled around, Johnny Miller's classes were even more different. For as time went on, the school became smaller and smaller. That is, class sizes grew bigger, and expanded beyond the ability to house them in the old buildings that had been there forever. Johnny's homeroom teacher was in the classroom opposite to where his afternoon forth grade class had been housed, but in the afternoon, after lunch recess was over, the class again crossed the street, and attended class in a house next to the kindergarten. Fifth grade brought other changes, too. The girls started to get flirtatious, and Johnny became self-conscious of how different he imagined he was compared to other kids. This was the year that the Rubik's Cube became popular, and after recieving one for Christmas, Johnny would spend hours and hours playing with it, making futile efforts to solve the darn thing. One afternoon, two of the "good" kids were acting up, and Miss Smith pulled them into the other room, out of sight of the rest of the kids... and "WHAM... WHAM... WHAM..."

They came back into the room, stifling their mirth, pretending to cry... and she came after them, brandishing her big paddle. What she had actually done was whacked the floor with it, and told them to act as if she'd hit them, instead. For a few moments at least, the whole class believed... And although she didn't fool anyone for long, she did get her point across, and discipline was once again restored.

And sixth grade.... In ways, the final year of elementary school in Armadillo Creek, before the kids moved over to the high school building and started Junior High... In ways, it was like being in kindergarten again. For Johnny Miller's homeroom teacher, was the same teacher who had taught him in kindergarten. She was different, in sixth grade, but still, a great teacher. At this age, Johnny was already picking up his mother's habit of reading anything available, and took inspiration from a science fiction book that he had read, and wrote his own long (to him) story. He turned it in as an extra credit project, and his teacher gave him points for it, and lots of praise. Johnny Miller never got that story back and often in later years would wonder if she still had it....

The afternoon teacher... The day Johnny stepped into her classroom, she told him, "Oh... you're Tommy Miller's brother aren't you?" And when he said yes, you could almost see the dread in her eyes. Johnny felt he was badly mistreated by her for having this attitude when she didn't even know anything about him. But later in the year, she came to him, and apologized for being mean to him in the first part of the year. Tommy was a good kid, at heart, but never really cared to try very hard in his studies, and at times, following in his footsteps had proven a challenge. In this case, he won his teacher's heart by working extra hard to prove to her that he wasn't his brother.

After the sixth grade graduation ceremony, Johnny Miller moved on to the high school, where he would spend the next six years of his life. At home, things were changing, too. They no longer lived on the farm where he had always called home, but instead had moved into town. At eleven or twelve he was going door to door selling Grit magazines, and Christmas cards, and other things that an enterprising kid of the times could do to earn some cash and/or prizes.

The schools were changing, too. As Johnny entered his second year of Junior High, a new elementary was built across town, and Kindergarten through second were housed there for the first year or two, and eventually the entire grade school system. By the time Johnny graduated high school, the old fieldstone building where he and his Dad had gone to school was empty and abandoned, except for occasional use for storage and such.