This is more for my children's sake than anyone else's, but some of you may get a kick out of some of this if you and I went to school together anywhere in my life from Kindergarten to 12th Grade. My children will never know this stuff unless I write it down. I remember EVERYTHING and probably some things people have forgotten, but there are also some things I don't remember. There are chunks of my life throughout school that I just plain don't remember, and actually have discovered it was probably when things were not going great in my life. Looking back I have found that the years I struggled in school or got poor grades were the years that there was either a death in the family, or my mom had her stroke, or my dad had his heart attack, or something major happened in my life.
Anyway...kindergarten. I remember my oldest sister Cindy holding my hand and walking me to the kindergarten schoolhouse from the car. Geez, I'm already crying. She is my oldest sister, we are 12 years apart and I don't have A LOT of memories growing up with her, but I remember this. My kindergarten teacher was Mrs. Heidrich. She used to swing us SO HIGH on the swings outside. We used to have competitions with the first grade teacher and I would tell all of the other kids, "I bet MY teacher can swing me HIGHER than YOUR teacher..." nanny nanny boo! One day during circle time, we were singing a song about a swan or a duck and I started playing footsie with the kid beside me and before I could blink, Mrs. Heidrich yanked both of us up by our arms and threw us in the closet and had a talking to with us. I don't remember what she said because I was crying, but I do remember the scowl on her face and her pointing finger. She slammed us back down in our chairs and yelled at me to keep singing, but I couldn't because I was crying. Yes, this is the way I remember it...sounds violent doesn't it? It was...to me. :) Teachers probably couldn't even do that nowadays without getting in trouble. The other thing I remember about kindergarten were the birthday swats. Mrs. Heidrich would give "pretend" birthday swats, but they SCARED me to death. I almost got out of it because my birthday was on Christmas and we had no school, but she got me when school was back in session. I also remember the snack wagon that would come in with cookies and milk on it! I also specifically remember her teaching us the alphabet and the letter W and the Wh sound for "whale" (the picture on the alphabet border around the room) and I can still see and hear the magical way she taught us that sound by making a woosh sound and motion like wind with her hands and mouth. I can hear her voice: "Wh, wh, whale...wh, wh, whale..." It was awesome and I will probably use that method to teach it to my kids. I remember the play kitchen and specifically the blue play phone on the wall in the play kitchen was my favorite room in the schoolhouse. I remember having a crush on a little blonde, blue-eyed boy named Stephen. I remember making our handprints in this clay stuff and the smell of it made one kid sick and the janitor had to come clean it up. Funny the stuff we remember, huh?
Okay, if you noticed in my roll call of teachers on Facebook, I have no 1st and 3rd grade teachers. That's because I did not go to school in 1st and 3rd grade. We were "homeschooled" by my mother and just skipped school in those grades. For a small period of time, we went to this one room schoolhouse on W. Cherry Street off of the access road on N. Van Buren called "Victory In Jesus" and Beverly Schoonover was our teacher. I think it went up to the 8th grade. It was like a room full of misfits. I do remember a few things from that place. I remember doing math and her letting me use the guide to cheat with this math toy game that did addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with buttons that lit up. I remember having relay races up to the hill outside. I remember having a crush on Chris Watkins. I remember being an angel in the Christmas play that we performed in the food court at the Oakwood Mall. The mall was brand new. I must have been 7. That's when Hastings and Beall's were there. I remember feeling sick and dizzy during the play and they let me sit down because I couldn't stand up and hold my arms up any more. I was the angel who said, "Fear not, for I bring you good news of great tidings and joy that shall be unto all people! For today a Savior has been born and His name is Christ the Lord!" Something like that....I had jeans and a plaid shirt on under my sheet er...angel gown and a silver tinsel halo. I think we have pictures of it in a photo album at my parent's house.
For 2nd grade, I went to Emmanuel Christian School. I tested to see whether I should be in 1st or 2nd grade and they put me in 2nd. I remember the office and the plants and the rail outside the office. I remember doing Mousercise with Mickey Mouse in chapel. I remember choir class with Mrs. Glazier. I remember a song about angels and it was a BEAUTIFUL echo song that said, "They are above me (above me), they are below me (below me), God's angels are all around me...everywhere..." and the song was so beautiful, it made me cry. I remember Grandparent's Day and holding up a poster with Angela Sayre and we had to say our poster and it said, "Grandparents are like Frosted Flakes, they're GRRRRRREAT!" I remember the first friend I made at Emmanuel was Eva Sims. I LOVED HER. I thought she was so beautiful, sweet, and kind to me. I remember another friend, Michelle Watkins. I remember my friend Taylor Buckminster and he had an older sister Moriah who was in my sister's class in 4th grade. I remember he used to love to run relay races with my sister Chantel before school. I remember my friend Becky Faulk and going to her house for a school party and she had horses there. I remember going on a field trip to the plant East of town and I remember them telling us not to breathe in the ammonia and I about passed out because I held my breath the entire time! I remember going to the Cherokee Strip Museum in Perry. I remember going to the fairgrounds for something and I got sick and had to go back to sit on the bus and my teacher, Mrs. Juliano sat with me until I felt better. I also remember one day when this boy Shawn Campbell accidentally stapled his finger in class and it bled everywhere. I remember the day that Angela Sayre's grandpa died and her dad came to pick her up early and he was all red-faced from crying and Angela cried and cried as she cleaned out her desk to leave for a few days. I remember walking on the playground with my friend Tony Neis. We were both sort of loners I guess...kids that didn't really fit in, but at least we had each other. I remember talking to him on the phone when we both got the latest Highlights magazine and doing the activity sheets over the phone together. I remember going out with Jay Smith for like one day...he followed me around the playground and everywhere ALL day...just for one day though. I remember having a crush on Chris Kohutek and I remember the day he found out about it and came in from lunch yelling, dancing around, and singing, "You like me, you like me, you like me!" and I was MORTIFIED. I remember going to my friend Shanda Hogue's birthday party at Skatetown and it was the first time I had ever skated. I was so scared to fall in front of my friends and make an idiot out of myself. I remember we had coconut cake with white, coconut frosting on top...that might have been Becky's party. I remember getting in a fight with my friends Angela Sayre, Katy Jenkins, and Courtney McGee on the playground one day while we were playing foursquare. I can't remember what it was about, but I think it was because someone was being too bossy or something. After that, they ignored me for a few days, but then we had a lesson about forgiveness and if there was anyone we needed to forgive, then we needed to talk to them and Katy came to talk to me to tell me she was sorry and to ask for forgiveness. I remember thinking that my teacher, Mrs. Juliano was the most beautiful teacher in the whole world! I loved her hair and her dresses. I can honestly still picture some of them. She had some black/white, and red/white, and blue/white ones that were similar. She had a pink one with black polka dots on it. I remember that she got pregnant in the middle of our school year and had to go on maternity leave. I remember that my classmate Courtney McGee's grandma was our teacher after that. I think that is all I remember about Emmanuel....just kidding...how could I leave 2nd grade without telling this story........the main story. Two words...Chris Carpenter. Four words....All Around the World. All Around the World was a math game that we played with flash cards. Simple addition and subtraction problems were on these flash cards. The teacher would take two students and put them up against each other and show the flash card to both of them and the student who said the answer the fastest got to keep going and the loser had to sit down. Well, I was GOOD at this...no I was GREAT at this game. One day, we were playing this game and I went up against EVERYONE in the ENTIRE class and BEAT THEM...I was just about to get through the WHOLE class and be the All Around the World champion of the ENTIRE class when I went up against Mr. Chris Carpenter and he beat me and RUINED MY RECORD! Since then we have reconnected and are like best friends....more like brother and sister. He was the best man in our wedding actually and is my husband's best friend...we call him "Carp".
That is enough for now.......later I will start with 3rd grade...a year I actually didn't go to school and go from there.
