| The School |
Irving Elementary on 28th and 17th St. It was built in 1884. It was torn down and replaced with houses. |
 |
| The Kindergarten |
Room 100. Mary Wheelan. I can remember the room and all the neat things to play with. I thought it was heaven and they let me come everyday to have more fun. Report Card. |
| The 1st Grade |
Room 101. Alice McCauley. See the big colored boy. He's the one who once pushed me down on purpose on the playground. I had small gravel stones embedded into my palms. Report Card |
 |
| The 2nd Grade |
Room 103. L Lindberg. My very first girlfriend, Karen Cox. She wasn't the most beautiful girl in class, that was blonde Mary Madison. Karen was loaded with freckles and gorgeous red hair.
I would walk her home (and yes I carried her books) which was something because she lived 6 blocks the opposite direction from me. Then I would hang out at her front porch not wanting to leave.
Her little brother would tease us. This all seems so strange now because I was only 7 at the time!!! Unfortunately, we moved away. But as fate would have it one day, five or six years later I spotted
this gorgeous red haired, freckled girl was visiting her cousins, in the house next to Hines'. I was positive it was her, so I went over and sure enough it was. I'd like to say that she remembered me, but I can't remember.
We had a book report contest. Each day we could make a book report and some sort of system would result in something done to a chart on the back blackboard.
Well, I loved to read and I read and read and reported and reported so that my chart line was about 4 times longer than anyone else's. Poor teacher couldn't tell me to stop reading as that was counterproductive to the purpose. Report Card |
Karen |
| The 3rd Grade |
Room 103. L Lindberg. We put on a play about a whether a train should come through our town. I played the general store owner (wearing an apron) and all of the action took place in it, so I was always on the stage.
In fact, I was the male lead and Mary Madison (see above) was the leading female. The final scene was a barn dance to celebrate the arrival of the train. We brought a bale of straw from the farm to be used as a prop in the play.
But big deal for me was the finale square dance. I got to be Mary's partner. My poor mother said she was embarrassed because my shirt wasn't tucked in. Report Card |
| The City Slickers |
I recall that the farmers would call us "City Slickers" when we visited. I reckon we were one up on most of my classmates who were real "City Slickers". It was apparent that most of them had never seen the straw mentioned above. Another time my mother had us stop at a lake on the way back from the farm and she cut some cattails (they were just beginning to open) for me to bring as "show and tell". They were very popular. |
 |
| The Book |
I said above that I read a lot of books. The most interesting one that I remember was about 5 Chinese brothers each with an amazing power. |
| The Classmate |
This is a very vague memory. I recall going into a house on a corner across from the school. I can only imagine that a classmate must have lived there. |
| The Tip of My Tongue |
One winter day at recess I did the old cliche and put my tongue onto a steel tube around the sunken window well. And yes, just like in the movie "Christmas Story", it froze onto it and I had to pull it off with the resulting damage ruining my tongue for days. |
| The Candy Shop |
To get to school, I walked down the alley, cut across a gas station and crossed at the lights on 28th and Bloomington. Then it was one short block to the school.
But on that corner was an old fashioned candy store. The number of times I would go in to buy some penny candy is innumerable. And the candy:
wax bottles filled with "pop", candy cigarettes, bubblegum cigars, strips of paper with candy drops, thin strawberry-flavored string and wax lips. |
 |
| The Paper Drives |
I don't actually remember but here is a photo of me preparing bundles of them in the backyard. |
 |
