52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 36: School Days

This is my second year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

I always loved school, even if I wasn’t the best student. I liked the structure. Summers were fun, but after a few weeks, I missed the routine of the classroom. I liked learning new things, too.

It took a long time for me to finally figure out how to study to be successful. Now, as an adult, I know why I didn’t do as well in school. For one, I’m a visual learner so whenever instructions were given verbally, I usually missed something important. Secondly, our parents didn’t do a lot of things with us. We had few vacations or even day trips. My dad worked six days a week, and by the time there were six kids, it made it hard (and expensive) to take trips.

During summers, I liked to play school, and would set up classrooms where I was the teacher to my younger brothers and sisters. It was probably good for them to get the extra practice. I thought I would be a teacher when I grew up, until I got older. I found science more interesting than teaching.

My best class in school was spelling. I would practice writing the words over and over on Thursday night and by Friday, I could spell the words. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t remember how to spell them later in my writing. I’m a much better speller now. Thank goodness for spell check, too!

In elementary school, recess was fun. In the 4th grade, our school got new monkey bars. The line would be so long we only got about two passes during recess. I had some pretty nasty blisters on my hand from them. There were also other bars that the girls would hang out at. Some of the girls could spin around and around on one leg or hang upside down and flip off. I wanted to be able to do that, but could never. Mostly I was afraid of heights.

Other games we played at recess were jump rope, hopscotch, four-square, tetherball, and jacks. I loved to jump double-dutch. I wish I could remember some of the ditties we used to sing. At my 10th birthday party, we gave all the girls jacks as a favor. We would sit in the breezeway playing jacks during recess. Then the boys in the class got jealous and Mrs. Eckhardt bought jacks for the boys to use, too.

My favorite grade was 4th. We had California history and Mrs. Eckhard had artifacts of the Native Americans. I did a report on Mission San Diego. We also learned some German.

In the 7th grade, I got a new friend, Beth, with whom I've been friends since. We both loved to read, meet downtown on Saturdays to shop, and play catch in the backyard.

The schools I attended were:

• Kindergarten: Pittsburg Grammar School
• 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd: St. Peter Martyr School
• 3rd, 4th, 5th, & 6th: Parkmead Elementary
• 7th & 8th: Parkmead Intermediate
• 9th thru 12th: Las Lomas High School
• College: California State University, Hayward
• post college work: studied Calculus and German at Diablo Valley College; a teaching credential at Cal State Univ, Hayward.

Copyright © 2019 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.