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 Elliott School 1955-1958 |
| The School | It was fairly new, as the size of the trees indicate. The Principal was Curtis Hanson. He was a short and cheerful fellow. The school seemed to be well run. Once a year it had a "fair" with activities in the gym and lunchroom. That hadn't happen at Irving so it was an exciting thing for me. I remember seeing a "Cake Walk" for the first time and using fish pole over a cloth wall and pulling out a "prize". |  |
| The 4th Grade | Miss Arlene Mickelson. Since we had moved to Richfield I was the "new kid on the block" and didn't know anyone. The only things I remember are that the teacher was a blonde with glasses and how the classroom was situated. The single incident I recall is struggling over reading something like "it was shown live" and I couldn't figure it out. I was so embarrassed when I had to go to the teacher and ask her what it meant, because I was reading "live" as live with a short "i" and not as in "alive". Report Card. |  Aerial |
| The 5th Grade | Miss Helen Miller. This was the big year for me. I loved Miss Miller. I now had friends in the class and life was good. Instead of a brief comment on the report card, Miss Miller wrote long messages attached to the card each time it was issued in which she encouraged me. In April she let me work on arithmetic at my own pace, so while the class had a lesson I would sit at her desk and soon got way ahead of the class. I still had to take the tests and managed to be in the top 10%. But even more she let it be known that on the Iowa Every Pupil Test I had scored in the top 1% in the country and she wanted me to study hard and go onto be a doctor or a scientist. I got to the Decimal chapter ahead of the class and in my head I read it as "dekimal". When the class got to it I was amazed to hear Miss Miller pronounce it properly. I visited her several times over the years and even made mail contact with her in 1975. Report Card |  Class |
| The 6th Grade | Mrs S Kaihai. She was a like a kind grandmother, who loved us. She probably wasn't all that old. She would often tell us stories of what was happening at her house with her teenage sons.
She managed to embarrass me one day. We had taken a maths test and we were marking it. I don't know why, but she felt a need to tell the class her disappointment with either its effort or ability.
She stopped in middle of marking and asked the correctors if anyone else besides John had so far gotten them all right. And then a big lecture on how she wished everyone were more like me. Gary Olson, a couple other guys and me got up a hillbilly band. We dressed the part and came in front of the class one at a time. We had a washboard player, a spoon player and maybe something else. I remember my entrance because I was playing bass using a rubber band on a broom. The class was told "...and Johnny is sweeping the country with his wonderful music". I came on sweeping the floor and then plucked the rubber band. Big laugh. I don't remember what song we played or sang, I think we lip-synced to a record. Then there was the time when I threw up. I knew it was coming fast, so I didn't have time to raise my hand. I just bolted to the door and to the toilets and I made it in time. I felt bad, because I should have gotten permission first to leave the room... but. I was class president and also Safety Patrol Captain (I got to wear a sash while supervising the flag holders) and should have been very respectable, right? No. It was me who tied Lee Frederickson, who sat in front of me, to his chair (the desk and chair were one unit) through his belt loop on his pants. So when he stood up so did the desk. He was one of my best friend's but he was a nerd. The only boy to have a satchel brief case. One day I quietly eased it away from his side and passed it along to the person next to me and the class spent the next hour moving it around the classroom without Mrs K noticing. Came the end of the day and it was on the opposite side of the room. Report Card - Report Card reverse |
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| The Sewing | Can't remember which year. We had to choose between several "life skills" and I elected sewing. I remember going to the Hub to buy a piece of calico. I remember being taught how to baste and hem. We were shown how to pull a thread out which would then leave a line to use as guide. | |
| The Recorders | Can't remember which year. But I do recall that the mouth pieces were kept in a large jar filled with what I think may have been a disinfectant. I was never any good with it. But Mark Schiffer brought it to a professional level. | |
| The Red Jackets | Again can't remember when this happened. Randy Winterer, Stephen Gibson and I each had a red jacket, so naturally we formed a "gang" and we would hang out together at recess. There was a jungle gym and it was the center of "King of the Hill" efforts. A few times we three ruled, sitting on the top and fending off all attackers. |  Randy |
| The Erasers | I'm talking about those green foot long chalkboard erasers that were felt on one side and chamois on the other. They were so cool, but even cooler was staying after school and being honored by getting to be the one to clean them on the special vacuum cleaner. |  |
| The Field Trips | We went to the University of Minnesota Museum of stuffed animals. We saw an orchestra playing "Peter and the Wolf". I remember all of us singing "100 bottles of beer" on the bus ride. And I recall seeing the State Capital building. We also went inside of Sibley House in Mendota. We also went to historic Fort Snelling. |  |
| The Paper Drives | I always thought these were so cool. I loved being issued with new twine that had an oily smell. Then down in the basement I would stack the newspapers to the minimum height thereby assuring to get the maximum number of bales and therefore more points for my room. And it was cool to be get more twine showng everyone how well you were doing in collecting...maybe I should have asked for more and just kept them, eh? When I was in 6th grade I had a turn on the truck, accepting bundles and stacking them. And it was there that I discovered Playboy and other "girlie" magazines. The other boys would all gather around one spot saying "look at this" etc... My first centerfold and she had a sweater on which was open but still covered the important bits (remember this was mid-50's and it was quite risque). |  |
| The War | We had battles at recess - basically the 6th graders vs everyone else from the other two wings of the school. It was more like chase with no one really getting hurt. I remember one brilliant tactic that we used. Bryan Tuggle was our leader and he had a force behind him on the playing field facing the opposition. Meanwhile a secondary force, including me was pressed up hard against the side wall of the gym. It looked as if Bryan was vastly outnumbered, so they charged him and he made a slow retreat. Soon as they went past us, we sprang out onto their flank and soon had them surrounded. Diagram. |  General Tuggle |
| The Olympics | 6th Grade - we had school trials. I tried several things including the baseball throw, which I won by a mile. I also came first in the long jump. I could only represent the school in one event at the Richfield inter-school and it was the long jump. Well, I did poorly and didn't reach my previous distance. But what really hurt was when the medals were given out at a school assembly, in our gym. Why? Because another Elliott boy had won bronze and I was a better jumper than him! | |
| The Picnic? | One year on the day, near the end of the school year, that the class was to go somewhere on a picnic it rained. So we went into the school basement. I remember two things from that event. I put down my bottle of pop and it exploded. I had placed down on the concrete floor and blew the bottle cap. Anyway, what I definitely remember is that the pop was Royal Crown Cola. It was warm and it tasted like turpentine to me and ever since that day I cannot drink the stuff. |  |
| The Circus | The father of a girl in our class had connections and got seats for the Shrine Circus that were on ground level right next to the rings. I remember going there with Paul Oberg, Larry Moose and two other boys (Paul's father drove us). The girls went in a different car. It was so different being right up front, smelling the sawdust and the animals. Normally I would be sitting way at the top of the Minneapolis Auditorium (going up so many flights of ramps). And then after the show we went "back stage" and I can remember being next to an elephant and seeing the big cats in their cages. But most of all I remember the smell, eh? |  Auditorium |
| The Pledge | Every morning we would stand, put our hand on our heart, look at the US flag and recite "The Pledge of Allegiance", which pretty ironic since I was an Austrian citizen until I became 12. I still rememr the pledge all these years later. | |
| The Poem | Don't know when this was written, but definitely during elementary years if my handwriting is anything to go by: Read it. | |
| The Ed Gein | In 1957 Ed was found to a house filled with furniture made from human bones and skin that he got from a cemeteries. He also killed two people and dressed them as you would a deer. This, of course, caused Gein jokes and sickly references to him to frighten girl classmates. | |
| The Lunch | You would buy lunch and milk tickets. My favorite meal was sloppy joes with potato chips. My worst memory was burning the top of my mouth when biting into a "pizza" - cheese on toasted flavored accordingly. It was super hot and the when I bit into it I punctured the bubble released steam and scorched my upper palate. | |
| The Shots | Not basketball, but it did take place in the gym. I remember lining up a few times. Definitely once for an injection and another for the scratch on the left arm. Finally, we had three sessions in which we drank polio serum. | |
| The Johnsons | I walked to school with Gary. If I arrived at his place early I would wait in the kitchen. His beautiful mother and even better looking sister would be finishing breakfast. Even his father was handsome. But they were normal. On the wall was a mood meter for his mother to use and some days she could be in a bad mood. |  Gary |
| The Bus | We were about 4 blocks from the school and usually walked it or road my bike. But sometimes in the winter Angi and I would walk to the corner of 67th street and 14th Avenue to wait with other kids for the bus. I don't remember if we took a bus home. |  |
| The Gra-Y | This was a YMCA group for grade school boys. We met in the gym after school once a month and played games. I remember being so excited packing for a campout weekend, which would have been my first. Put everything into my father's old WWII duffel bag, including several bars of chocolate. Well rain cancelled it and I was very disappointed. One time we went to the Y in downtown Minneapolis for a swim in the indoor pool. I have vague memories of that experience. I once read that clothing is not worn at Y's, but I really don't recall if we wore trunks or not. I also remember at the first meeting the boys being asked if we were Catholic. I, of course, lied being afraid I would be kicked out. I guess the Church said we weren't allowed to join which didn't make sense to me. One winter day we went to the camp - big house on top of hill. We were zooming down that hill 7-8 to a tobaggan. There were wicked rides with boys falling off and near crashes with other tobaggans. |  |
| The Gym | I remember playing "Farmer in the Dell". I know that I was the farmer once, but I forget who I chose to be my wife. And Dodge Ball where I was normally the final one to be hit. | |
| The Basketball | Mr Hall ran an after school basketball league for 5th and 6th graders. I enjoyed it (Details). | |
| The Alaskan | A fellow showed the school (maybe just 6th graders) a film he made in Alaska. Obviously was interesting since I recall it. 20 years later a fellow from Minnesota showed up at our door in Papakura. Turned out that he, too, had a film he made in Alaska and wanted me to orgainze showing it the Rosehill. Only catch was he wanted to charge a fee. | |
| The Bestie | Gary Olson became my best friend and we seemed to do everything together all the way through University. He even spent a week with me on the farm in 1960. Malley Mate page. | |
| The Longest | Paul Oberg (mentioned above "The Circus") and I found each other via the Internet in 2002 and he has remained in contact ever since. He even sent me a photocopy of the Richfield '64 yearbook. He was in a band, The Crestmen, that played often in Northern Michigan and that is where he met his wife. This is from an email: Once at Vikes practice, another guy and I were standing near Bud Grant tossing the ball around and talking about going duck hunting the next morning before classes. Grant, being an avid hunter, over heard us and asked if we'd like some company. We said meet us at 5 AM at the Flying Cloud gas station on old Hwy.169 and we'd go out to the slew. Sure enough, we drove up and he was sitting there with his dog so off we went. He was a man of a few words as he said very little all morning. |  |
| The Spelling | We had a spelling book and each week there was a list of new words and exercises. At the end of the week we had a spelling test. Each year over the Christmas break I would do every exercise due the next six months. Then all I would do each Thursday night was look at the words so as to get 100% on the test. | |
| The Flat | One year I biked to the school for the "fair". When I was going to leave I discovered that the rear tire had been slashed. No other bike was done, so I always imagined that it was someone jealous of the best looking bike in Richfield. | |
| The Milk | We would have a milk break - I think in the mornings. Again, I think it cost 2¢ and you would buy tickets in bulk, similar for lunch meals. The big deal was when it was your week to be the guy/gal who went to get the milk and to return the empties. | |
| The Car | A fellow came to show us his car that he claimed ran on water. | |
| The Girls | Lois Monson was a freckled feisty thing and I enjoyed teasing her. Her house was on the way to Olson's, so I would always keep an eye out for her coming and going. I think they moved so she didn't make it to Jr High with me. Joanne Hansen was a little overweight and had black facial hair. The cruel boys would touch her and then touch another boy saying: "You've got Joanne's germs". Got so bad that teacher had to lecture them. Barb Kimball and Jean Posorske were both blonde and best friends. | |
| The Boys | Mike Evans was a short fiesty left-handed bolt of lightning. The clowns were Steve Brinkman and Jerry Benedict. Bill Overmoe, Wesley Book and Bill Johnson were friends, tall and not athletic. I remember being in Bill's house one time. He was a cheery fellow. Joel Oliver had thick glasses. Bob Wight was amazed that I spelled his surname correctly since most would do it "White". Don Franson was a left-handed smooth character, always with a sly smile. | |
