Monday, September 14, 2009

SCHOOL DAYS Grade Sixth

School started at Knox after Labor Day. Daddy had bought a farm in mid-August, a move would happen, just when was the question. I was honored to be one of the Knox Tiger cheerleaders and looked forward to sharing my enthusiasm at school sports.

The teacher, Mr. Friedl, was my first male teacher and we seemed to be on a good road to learning. I had great classmates and we had fun winning the kick ball game against the other class 147-0.

It would not last, half way through the second six week period, the house was sold and we moved to Noper's Motel in a kitchenette unit until the house in the country was ready. I would start at Northrop, again, on a day that followed a heavy snow fall. It would have been okay if mother hadn't of caught me and told me to put on my over shoes.

We would move to the farm and I would begin taking the bus. I asked Bruce what time the bus came and he said it came at 4:15. The bus came at 15 to 4! and I missed it. What I didn't like was art class was always the last thing in the day and I had to leave at 20 to 4 to make the bus.

Earlier in the year, I had gone to get overshoes while wearing slick soled shoes. Now, on this dreadful day, I was wearing rubber soles and an old woman would have a heart attack trying to get them off or on or both.

And so it was that Carol Cummings was hall monitor the day of the boots. I had to sit down on the floor to get them off. I wish I would have known about plastic bread bags then!

There were two teachers, a Mrs. Smith and Mr. Beadle. Mrs. Smith's room was in the old part of the school and Beadle's room butted up to it. Across the hall from his room was the library which was well lit. Northrop had under gone an addition which included a new gym with tables, an entrance, and the 6th grade classroom and library upstairs.

The cheerleaders were already picked, of course. If you look at the old pictures of the sixth graders at Northrop, you can see, that on picture day, there was a game. The girls were dressed in green skirts, white blouses, and green scarves tied like a neckerchief. In my class, there were Becki Ferber, Sandy Christianson, Patsy Heyn, and Judy Hanson. In Mrs. Smith's class it appears Clare Lietzow may have been a cheerleader as well as Norma Sorenson, and Soozi Ballingrud. Clare has something on around her neck but is standing in the back row so one can't be sure.

Mr. Beadle was a genius. He told us to look out the winter on a cold day. Ranum Construction was building a tall building to the east. You could see the hammer strike the building but you didn't hear it until the hammer was pulled back as if it where ready to strike again. Light travels faster than sound was the lesson although I do not know the ratio.

We did neat things like do plays. One was a spoof on $64,000 Question. Tom T was the Revlon Girl. Another play, and who know what it was, I was wearing mother's bathrobe.

It was this class I met Anita. I walked up to her and asked her if she wanted to be friends. She did and we were for a few years until her life went another direction.

I did all the things kids should do, like jump rope, play jacks, win all the marbles from a boy, and play soft ball without a glove. Mr. Beadle recognized my writing style and gave me an A on my report card. I had come into my own!

So much that a bottle of red ink slide down the desk and spilled on my watch plaid skirt. That was the end of filling a fountain pen on a slanted surface!

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