I am continuing the school theme going back even further. I remember less of grade school but the following comes to forefront:

There were two grades per classroom as the class ahead of mine only had about 6 kids. My class had 10 to 14, I think. Grades 1 and 2 were taught by Mrs. Lambert, grades 3 and 4 by Mrs. Holmstrom, and 5 and 6 by Mrs. Prescott. I got my first pair of glasses while in Mrs. Holmstrom’s classes because I couldn’t see the blackboard clearly. Mrs. Prescott gave me my first poor mark to “take me down a peg because I was too much of a smarty pants.” Or so my mom always said. The other kids didn’t like me much because I was smarter than most of them.

I remember hating recess in the winter. We were all made to go outside and back then, girls weren’t allowed to wear slacks. We had to wear dresses and skirts. Kathie and I would huddle in a corner of the building out of the wind. The boys called Kathie, “Dirty A” and I never knew why. They weren’t very nice to either of us.

Warm weather found us jump roping or playing at horses. I loved horses, wanted to be a horse so I could run free.

Marlene was my best friend. I loved Marlene. She was beautiful. There’s no recollection of Donna, her step sister, who was our age but I remember visiting them at home as our parents were friends. By the end of elementary school, though, Marlene wasn’t much of a friend anymore because she began hanging with the girls who all considered me from the wrong end of town.

One time, Cathy Collins came to school with a coloring book based on a Disney movie. I don’t recall the movie but it was about white horses. Cathy let everyone color in her book but me. I didn’t want to color the horses white.
I remember drawing on the blackboard--- anatomy, astronomy, animals, etc. I’d copy pictures from books.

I got accolades for reading “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” because it was such an adult book for a child.

I remember having a crush on Tom Henry… only recall his presence for about one year. I hit him with a snowball then was embarrassed for laughing over it.
Looking back, I think even then I was different. Guess everyone else knew it before I because I never knew why others didn’t like me. Then again, I didn’t want to be like them. I didn’t want to play the games everyone else played… too childish for me. I didn’t like to gossip. I didn’t play with dolls nor was I interested in girlish pursuits or conversation (if you can call girl talk conversation, ha ha.)
These are the names I remember: Doug Dunn, Kathie Brown, Marlene Cleeve, Debbie Burdick, Cathy Collins, John Tuthill, Charlie Kimball, Diana Swift (her mother later became the Kindergarten teacher of my sons,) and there were the Lufkin twins… Diane, Donna?? I can’t remember her brother’s name.

Oh yeah, there was David Kuegal. We drew names for the class Christmas party and he got mine. He gave me note paper, the kind old ladies used. I cried. All the other kids got cool kid stuff. He snapped, “At least I gave you something nice!” He was hurt by my tears. Now I can see that as a good gift for someone like me but back then I didn’t realize that although I was much older mentally than others my age there was still that part of me that was a child. (David was killed in an auto accident in high school.)

That’s it for my elementary school memories.