Sunday, March 18, 2012

Getting an Education

I grew up living in the country, three miles or more from town, where there were no kindergartens. You just started first grade and finally graduated from the grade twelve.

I was fortunate that I had an aunt who was a school teacher. The summer before I started first grade I went to her house for what you might call kindergarten. I learned my ABCs, counting, how to write some words and I discovered Cheerios, my first boxed cereal!!

I got to start school in town where all the rich kids went! My aunt drove me there. I was bored to death. Due to my 'kindergarten' training that year I was way ahead of the other kids... so I was 'promoted' to the second grade. Wrong move. I might could count and recite my letters but I surely wasn't ready for that more advanced stuff...

I sort of didn't fit in elementary school. I was quiet, a loner you might say. I'd grown up alone so what do you expect. No playmates near by, in a household of adults. I didn't know how to be a kid. Then came junior high. That was big business to me. The math, which I struggled with, got really hard. I didn't like sports so a friend and I sat under a tree and made chains out of clover blossoms while the other girls played volley ball. Talk about being different!! Here are a couple pictures of my junior high.

Boy, I bet I walked through that door a kazillion times.

Then it was time to go to high school.

I rode the bus to that school and there were a LOT of students everywhere, up and down the stairs, filling the hall. I got lost in the shuffle.  I joined the band. Played trombone. I failed in Algebra. Wrote letters to my honey during class (he was in the Navy) and got caught doing it.

Then I took biology. All the first semester they kept talking about dissecting a frog after Christmas. Not me. I always laughingly said that Elbert came along and rescued me from that disgusting chore. We got married in December of that year and I moved away. A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do... (grin)

14 comments:

  1. Love reading about your childhood... Glad you found your 'soulmate' and got married... I got married in college --but he certainly didn't turn out to be my soulmate... We lasted 20 yrs. and had 3 wonderful sons. BUT--it was a miserable 20 yrs. for me (except for my sons)...

    Luckily, we had a Kindergarten class which I went to in a ladies' home... That was before they had Kindergarten in the schools.

    Thanks for sharing.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  2. I loved reading your school story!!!!
    No kindergarten for me either, and starting school was so frightening for me. My brother was 5 years older than me, and I didn't know how to play with the children.

    I love 'the look' of the old school buildings..
    Hugs,

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  4. This was interesting, even though I know most of it. I love the nostalgic feel to you telling about your childhood in a post! Love to read more! I'm thinking about doing a few posts now and then of some of my memories, too.

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  5. No pre-school or kindergarten for me either...had an Aunt who was a teacher but no tutoring for me the summer before first grade! First grade was probably my most favorite grade (I learned to read) until high school when I had English Literature and Art! Started having problems with arithmetic in the second grade...by the time I reached junior high and elementary algebra it was a disaster. Now that you mention it I never dissected a frog in biology either...my sister (7 years older than me) did in college she had this neat little kit of tools that I used to dissect a frog way before high school. Now there are groups against the dissection of frogs because the frog population is decreasing. How brave of you to marry your sailor! And you've had a wonderful life so it didn't matter a bit that you didn't do well in algebra or that you didn't dissect a frog!

    great photos Lantane, enjoyed your school story!

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  6. Love this post. Somewhat similar lives..no kindergarten for me and failed Algebra. We survived though, didn't we?

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  7. I never liked math either...Love the school shots! Great looking old buildings...
    hughugs

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  8. What a charming post. I grew up in a rural area when kindergarten was a luxury, not a necessity. One would have to drive 10 miles to attend. My mother taught me my abc's and numbers and that made me "ready" for first grade. Not sure I was all that ready, though. But that's the way it was. Thanks for visiting my blog. Your daughter has become a sweet blogging friend. God bless.

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  9. Hi Latane,no kindegarten here when I began school.We went in at 4 years old, straight into formal classes of up to 35 children!
    I love the story of Elbert rescueing you!

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  10. This post is wonderful, Latane. It is so nice to know more about you. The man you married was a wonderful choice. I went to my Kindergarten class at the town hall because the school was very crowded.

    Hoping to read more......

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  11. I have to say I laughed sooo hard at this post. Biology was the only class I ever failed and it was because I REFUSED to dissect a frog. Everyone in the class had to do it, I told the teacher NO SIR, NO WAY, and she said, I'll fail you if you don't and I said Just put a big fat zero there, then, cause I just can't do it. :))

    See, YOUR way was MUCH more romantic. :))

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  12. I have to add a kindergarten story. I started K at a parochial school in W, North Dakota. My grandmother came to visit from Mt. so I was taken out of K for 2
    weeks to visit with her. When she left , my family took me back to K , and the nuns wouldn't take me back. LOL...I never did finish K in North Dakota. mm, vancouver, wa.

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  13. I have to add a kindergarten story. I started K at a parochial school in W, North Dakota. My grandmother came to visit from Mt. so I was taken out of K for 2
    weeks to visit with her. When she left , my family took me back to K , and the nuns wouldn't take me back. LOL...I never did finish K in North Dakota. mm, vancouver, wa.

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  14. Cousin Willie ,you make my day..THANKS

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