Grade School

I recently decided to try to find at least one memory for each of my grade-school years. I was surprised to find I had alot more than I thought. Please travel with me as I relive the parts of my grade school youth that I can remember.

Kindergarten That's my Kindergarten picture I use for my blog
I went to Roxbury for Kindergarten. I was in the morning class and the girl who became my bestest friend--Linda Gries-- was in the afternoon class. We got to know each other because we shared the same cubby. What serendipity!

In Kindergarten, we got milk--chocolate milk--in little cardboard milk cartons. We used laddie pencils--blue, fat pencils made for chubby and inexperienced hands.

I read Dr. Seuss's Are you my Mother for the class. I remember this distinctly because I am pretty sure I was faking it.

One day we pretended to take a train ride. I brought my shiny, red suitcase with the black straps and metal corners to school. I had to remove all the dolls that lived in there for this occasion. The days before this, we had colored a large backdrop to look like the inside of a train and made rows with the chairs. We got on the train with our luggage and went for a ride. I remember us bumping along to our trip to nowhere.

On Halloween, our teacher went into a room and never came back. Instead, a witch came out. She did something to our teacher and I cried.

First Grade
I went to St. Rita Catholic School for grades one through eight. There were about 40 kids in each grade and they were the nucleus of my grade school experience. Linda went to St. Rita too, but we were very rarely in the same home room. We wore uniforms: jumper, white shirt, saddle shoes, and knee socks for the girls; blue shirts and blue pants for the boys. Girls who cared also wore shorts under their skirts for the obvious reasons. I wore rubber bands to hold up my socks.

My teacher was Sister Mary Elizabeth Seton and she was young, sweet and pretty. I found out that she left the convent and got married. She had beautiful handwriting and in my report card she wrote that I needed to read and talk more (be careful what you ask for).

There was this girl in my class named Dawn. She had a hat with ear flaps; I thought--and still think--this was cool. One day, as we ate our lunches at our desks, she fell backwards--desk and all--and began laughing. She laughed so hard, milk came out her nose.

Second Grade
Second grade is where I began to notice I was the younger sister of either Michael or Paula. I say either because the one-sided conversation between the teacher and me went like this:
           "Oh! You're Paula's sister!"
           "Oh....you're Michael's sister."

I don't think Ms. Meck was my homeroom teacher, but she belonged to team Michael. In Michael's defense, I was glad she didn't like him; she was mean.

This was the year we began penmanship. Linda was in my homeroom. We were the only lefties and were made to sit in the back of the class to teach ourselves. Linda had that curvy-wristed style many lefties have: the kind where the arm and hand eclipse the words from above. I had the whatever-I-felt-like-that-day style; the kind that usually smeared my printing.

I think this was the year Mike Sedlak tripped me during a very violent yet satisfying game of dodge ball. I landed eyebrow first into a voting machine (they were stored where we had gym class). After being told I was bleeding all over the place, I was sent to the "nurse". the room had a framed collection of butterflies on the wall; I felt bad for those pinned-butterflies. It was decided no stitches were necessary, just a butterfly bandage. I still have the scar.

Third Grade
Third grade moved us to the top floor of the building. There were only four classrooms for each floor--two for each grade level. Mrs. Swansiger was my teacher. I think she belonged to team Paula. It was a good year.

We would play the Catholic version of "Mother may I" on the steps: the top step was heaven, followed by purgatory, limbo, and hell. If God/Mother got you down to hell, you would be chased. If caught, you stayed in hell.

One morning, while waiting in line outside, Jim Leffel put a big, fat worm in my hair.

On the last day of school, Mrs. Swansiger performed witchcraft and told us our futures. She told me I would become a third grade teacher (I did eventually teach music to third graders).

I think this was the year I broke Linda's front tooth when I tagged her way too hard and pushed her into the building.

Fourth Grade
My teacher that year was a nun with a man's name. She kept mint melt-aways on her desk that she let us help ourselves to.

That year, we learned the Blue Danube Waltz. My mom made me a dress that I think was the same dress I wore for the bi-centennial; it eventually got shortened into a regular dress. It had a light blue long skirt and a white and blue eyelet bodice. I had to dance with Richard Toth. This meant his hands would be on my hips and my hands on his shoulders with enough room for God to fit between us comfortably. We went to someplace and danced on a stage.

One day, someone stole something from somebody's desk. We were made to stand outside in the hallway and take turns going into the classroom. If we were the thief, we were to put that item on the teacher's desk. This was all done to maintain annonymity. I don't remember if the item was returned, but whenever someone came out of the classroom we would ask if there was anything on the teacher's desk.

This was our last year in the "small building." For grades five through eight we would go to the building across the street. We were all afraid because we were told to beware of Sister Mary Monster.

Fifth Grade
We were now in the "big building", which was about the same size as the "small building" only newer. We were on the top floor. I think these four years were not good for me and I have blotted most of it out. I think these were four years of hell.

The metric system was pushed hard by Sister Mary Monster because we were told that in ten years the country would be converting to it.

Mark Korkowski kept hitting me on the head with books. Bob Graham told me that it was because he liked me. I liked Herb Giesler. One day we got in trouble for talking during the Pledge of Allegiance. Our punishment was to write out the pledge one billion times. I couldn't remember the words and had  to place my hand over my hear to recite it. That was the first time in my life being left handed played in my favor. In high school I saw Herb waiting for the bus that would take him to Channel, the all-boy Catholic school. He was beautiful.

Sixth Grade
In English class, we made our own magazines. I remember having a cartoon/joke section that contained things related to college football such as the orange bowl and cotton bowl. These had oranges and cotton balls bowling.

We got measured for new uniforms that year. These consisted of a skirt and vest instead of the jumper. I remember the nuns having girls kneel to make sure the hems reached the floor (some girls rolled up the waistbands of their skirts to shorten their hems).

It was at this time that my friend Mary got her period. She, Linda and I were in the bathroom when Mary's head popped up from behind a stall door and she told us she got her period. Mary was very tall and this image has been burned into my memory. I stayed with her while Linda went to get help from a teacher. A very long time later she finally came back. She had gone to a nun who told her she had to go to the convent to get a pad. Linda walked to the convent only to be told she need a dime/quarter to pay for the pad. Linda walked back from the convent and told a lay teacher. She gave Linda the money. Linda walked back to the convent, got the pad, and came back. We got in trouble for being late to class.

Seventh Grade
I think this was the year Rita Ternai, Carol Gendre and I began playing guitar for our school masses. Yes, my first playing gig. We went to church at least one a week. I remember waiting in line for confession and noticing how long kids were taking in the confessional. Feeling bad that I thought I was too good to sin, I made up sins for the priest. Yes, I lied in the confessional, but was probably absolved by saying my ten Our Father's and five Hail Mary's.

Shawn and Kathy were seen committing PDA: holding hands in the hall. They separated us by boys and girls and gave us "The Talk". That year we also went to the Health Museum to get more of "The Talk". I say we were pretty progressive.


Eight Grade
Last year before high school. Many of us would be going to Solon High school. To prepare us, we did alot of sentence diagramming on butcher paper, and alot of math. Mrs. Benlak was the math teacher. I blame her for all my high school problems with math.

Sister Mary Monster died that year after suffering--and I do mean suffering--from liver cancer. In life, she had been a very large woman. In death, she was nothing more than skin and bones. They had a school funeral service for her. I later went to confession and told the priest all the bad thoughts I had about her. He was kind; I think there were any of us confessing the same thimg that day.

We had a picnic at the end of the year at a park. We got to wear regular clothes. I had no regular clothes only play or church clothes. It was not fun for me. I was to get some kind of award--awards chosen by the alpha members of our grade-- but it must have been mean-spirited because Linda found out and obliterated the words.


I recently went through my grade school yearbook from eight grade. I had cut out the pictures and name of some boy that I no longer remember. I had to ask Linda; she remembered. She told me he was mean to me during those years. I already forgot his name. I also asked Linda what was written on that award and she of the steel memory told me she forgot. That is why Linda was--and will always be--my bestest friend.