In 1944 I was six and began the first grade. Mom would drop me off at the cousins on her way to work in the mill. N and C walked with me down to the main road then, keeping our eyes open for the log trucks that came barreling down the road with two or three huge newly cut logs on the way to Springfield, we hurried through the covered bridge that crossed Mill Creek. The school was about half a mile on down the road.
The school had a small room for kindergarten and four classrooms for the eight grades, two classes to a room. There were not always two teachers to a room so a teacher might be forced to move from one side of the room to the other. We were taught to read by looking at cards held up in the front of the class showing a letter or group of letters making a sound which we would all repeat in unison. Similarly we were shown cards with 1+1:2 etc which we would all repeat in unison. I had already begun to pick up on reading at home so I spent a lot of my study time listening to the second grade lessons.
Both classes would listen as the teacher read a story.
For recess we would go out back of the school and mill around. There was a large shed where we would go on rainy days.
We had indoor plumbing and there was central heating.
When I was in kindergarten an older boy named Albert got angry with me and smashed my head against the wall in the bathroom, dashing away all my memories prior to that moment. In the first grade I kept an eye out for him but I never saw him, or else I did not recognize him.
When school was out my cousins would walk with me back to their house then I ws on my own walking on the plank road up the hill to the grandparents house. There Grandma and GD would greet me and he and I would play war or cowoys till dinner. On rainy days I would read to him. Horton Hatches An Egg was a big favorite.
Then dad came back from New Guinea and after Christmas we moved to Denton, Texas.
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