Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Wistful Wednesday: 1958-59

I had the occasion to scan some very old photographs.  They are from Jackie.  She was gracious enough to share so that we could make copies for the museum.

In 1958-1959 Far Guy was in third grade.

third grade PR  1958-1959

He is in the back row..second boy from the right.  I asked him what the teachers name was.  He does not recall.   Perhaps blog reader Ann knows, she is in the second row fifth from the left..with the poufy hair!  Jackie is the gal next to Far Guy..he had to take turns..between he and his friend Mark they are standing next to Jackie in many of the old class photos.  There were several class sections per grade.

This photo was taken fifty-three years ago..most everyone in this photo is retired or thinking about it.   We spoke with Betty the other day..the little gal in the second row sixth from the left..she is counting the years and the days until she is 65.

I asked Far Guy what he remembered about third grade.  He said “ I don’t recall the teachers name or anything that happened that year.”

My third grade memories:

Third grade seems so long ago..I remember it as the year that I learned how to do long division.  I struggled and struggled with it..until one day the light must have come on, from then on I could do long division.

My Teacher was Mrs. Stearns..a neighbor lady who died just last year. She was a wonderful teacher.  She had beautiful dark hair and wore red lipstick.  We said The Pledge of Allegiance in the morning and prayed before going for lunch in the cafeteria/gym.

I can almost feel the hard desk seat that swiveled to the side and see the desk that had a top that lifted up to expose where all my books and supplies were neatly stored.  The stub of a pencil is posed over my math paper, when I am not forming numbers I am making teeth marks in the outer shell of the yellow pencil.

Do you have any third grade memories that you would like to share today? :)

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27 comments:

Country Gal said...

Awesome post and photo !
I dont remeber anything from third grade only that I had to be bussed cause I lived on a hobby farm I remember the name of the school and where it still is its just in a small town north of us here 3 hours away ! have a great day !

DJan said...

I moved around a lot during those years, but I think I was in Fairfield, California. I remember a desk like that, opening to expose my books and papers. I remember learning to spell the word "orange" because it made no sense to me at the time and stands out as an accomplishment! :-)

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

Oh the third grade, Mrs. Oldham was a wonderful teacher. That year I had a new baby sister (my only sibling), we bought a new Mercury and made a trip to New Mexico to see my mom's fam for Christmas. I got a Patty Playpal which I was told later costs as much as our trip to Albuquerque.

I adore that class picture, looks like many I have layin' 'round here.

God bless ya and have yourself a wonderful day Miss Connie!!! :o)

Anonymous said...

It was 1948, and My teacher was Miss Delores Riesenberg (not sure I spelled that right!) I can still remember which room we were in at the old two story brick school that is no longer there. My Mom would braid my hair into long braids every morning before school. And we had to wear long cotton stockings in the winter that were held up by a "garter belt" that was not too comfortable.

Myrtlesgirl

MTWaggin said...

I believe Mrs. Hagen was my teacher. I only remember the room being on the end of the hall and saying the Pledge of Allegance every morning. Oh and milk breaks. I love the class photos though - do they even do those anymore?

RURAL said...

You have such awesome memories of school. And to be able to live your life out among the people who you grew up with, it's pretty unusual you know. Most people have moved at least a few times by the time they grow up.

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Shirley H. said...

Your headings are always so interesting!

LynneFtWorth said...

My third grade teacher was Mrs. Bailey and she did crochet. We also had a new concept of team teaching. The wall between 2 3rd grade classes opened up and the teachers taught the subject together. I think it was usuall history or something. It was the late 60's and I don't remember much.

Nancy said...

My third grade teacher was Mrs. Dewey, and like FarGuy, I don't remember too much about that year other than some of the kids liked to eat the white paste that came in the gallon jars. Remember that stinky stuff?

Lanny said...

Third grade? Sister Ebba. She had a parakeet named Petizza (rhymes with Pizza). She would let it out of the cage and it would fly around and land on the students. She would scold us girls and say if we wore hair spray Petizza wouldn't land on us. I started wearing hair spray right after she said that. She made everyone in class learn the recorder (she called them flutes)ours were metal and her's was larger, white, bone colored. She was brutal. Very fond of hack paddle and punishing the whole class for the one offender. A far cry from my warm fuzzy second grade teacher Mrs. Cody. But then Mrs. Cody was a relief from first grade Sister ...starts with a P... can't remember. She had a rubber hose piece for beating us in to obedience after coming from public school kindergarten.

We would go to church every morning before class, first, third, fifth, seventh grade were on the left side of church (north wall) and the even numbered grades on the right, same arrangement in the school, odd on the left (east) even on the right. My house was to the west of our school and the windows on that side of the school also looked out on the playground/courtyard and the back of the church, I felt safe on that side.
Odd numbered classes looked out on a quiet neighborhood street and into the fronts of houses I did not know. Except for playing on the street during recess, I had no connection to those houses or the streets we could see from that side. I did not like being in the classrooms on that side. Not to mention while on the right side of church (first grade) we had a historic earthquake, it caused the tabernacle to fall from the hook in the ceiling and Father Millner caught it just before it hit the floor. I had a front row seat for that crazy scene! To this day odd numbers are not my favorite and I am very suspicious of them.

The teachers proved my theory that nothing good came from that side of the school. Fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Weir, tall thin woman who wore too much rouge and crushed straw hats, was very nice. My mom had issues with her as a teacher, but I was less concerned with learning and more concerned with not getting beat, shut in the closet (which never happened to me but I was definitely in fear of it) or not allowed to get a drink or be allowed to go to the restroom unless it was a scheduled break (part of Sister Ebba's whole class punishment). So once again, west side, right side, teachers were nicer, kinder. It could have also been correlated to lay teacher and a nun, but fifth grade cleared that up. We had a nun for a few weeks, hard to get a sense of cruel or kind in that amount of time, then something happened and she was replaced by a lay teacher, Mrs. Gambel. Holy moo cow that woman put the nuns to shame on levels of cruelty that could be reached. Boys mostly got into trouble, she would have them come forward, squat, hold their arms out in front of them palms up and then she would begin to stack encyclopedias onto their outstretched arms. Or heels on one side of the door jam and lean forward to the other side of the door jam held up only by fingertips.


Well I betcha that was more than you wanted to know about my third grade... But I am resting my toxin racked body so there you go.

Ellen said...

Well, I don't remember a lot about third grade. It was 1958. I went to Ynez School in Monterey Park, California. My teacher was Mrs. Dean. I can still picture her, but I don't remember many specifics. Now if you had mentioned 2nd grade, I probably could have. Mrs. Pierce in second grade was terrific.

Jo said...

If 3rd grade equates to UK primary 3, I would have been about 8, and at an all-girls school. My teacher was Miss Hassall and we all loved her dearly - she was young and cool and we cried when she left to get married. We donated our pocket money to buy her a little wooden sculpture of an okapi. I don't remember there ever being a class-organised collection for any other teacher. I learned to play the descant recorder in my lunch breaks that year. I still have it, and can still only play one tune on it :-) Aah - when life was simple and I didn't need pliers and reading glasses to open the milk!

Anonymous said...

I was able to find Far Guy before I read where he was!!! I love reading your memories. I had Mrs. Dildy in 3rd grade. She attended our church and also taught art on the side. We made a Nativity banner out of felt one Christmas!

Red said...

I like the pictures which show the style if clothing worn in those days. It's always intrigued me how people cannot remember things about parts of school. I guess from my teacher's point of view I was imparting knowledge and skills and everybody should remember when the lights came on!

Red said...

This is a really sad story. It's unbelievable that children could be beaten by someone who was to be a mentor and in a position of trust. They wouldn't get away with that now.

Red said...

I was also in gr. three in 1948!!!

thecrazysheeplady said...

I'm not sure I even remember who my 3rd grade teacher was. Mrs. Brockreidy or did I just wish I was in her class? 4th grade was penmanship. Wish I'd worked a little harder. I remember doing flash card - no that's not the right word - math quizzes where you had a page full of equations and your wrote your answers through a hole in a paper stuck in the middle - cardboard sort of stuff. Can still feel it.

Judy said...

Our school had a room problem so the third grade went to a smaller school yet...we were bused there...so we rode the bus to school, then climbed on another bus which took us to the two room school which had the third grade...I remember watching the bus come around noon so that we could have a hot lunch...That building is now the township hall and we go there to vote...

Just Stuff From a Boomer said...

I was in third grade in 1958 too, but, I'm like Far Guy. I don't remember a thing about it. Kindergarten, yes, but not the other grades until 4th grade. Must not have been anything interesting during those other years.

rkbsnana said...

Well, I've already told y'all about probably every grade I was in. Third grade was Miss Vivien. Last name was Misenhimer...therefore she let us call her Miss Vivien. I love grade school and 1950s stories.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Oh dear Lanny, It is a wonder you survived. We had one teacher with a yard stick with a red ribbon on it..he would whack kids with it..usually at the water fountain..and usually boys..I didn't get whacked:)

Dreaming said...

We moved when I was in third grade. I started school that year in Connecticut. I remember that the room was on the 2nd floor. Then, during the fall we moved to Rochester, NY. We were renting a house while our house was being built. We had very little furniture in the huge rental house so most of the rooms were empty. But about school? Hmmm..... I remember our coat closets. The room had built in cubbies to hang our coats and snowsuits and there was a shelf on top where we could just reach, on tiptoes, to put our lunch boxes if we brought lunch. We had show and tell on Fridays and I remember liking that. I also remember playing some sort of bouncing ball game at recess, bouncing the ball against the building and doing some sort of turn or hop or a series of things before catching the ball again. Our classroom desks were positioned in neat rows.... just like in Leave it to Beaver TV shows. I remember working on cursive handwriting... and not doing well at it! My final memory is of the library. I loved going to the library and picking out books to read. Thanks for taking me on my own little memory trip! I haven't thought about any of that for ages!

Rita said...

Third grade was rough for me. I went to a parochial school for first and second grade. I was born in 1951 and both my brother and sister were born in 1954 (one in Jan and one in Dec) so my mother wanted me in first grade at five and public school wouldn't allow it. Third grade I was switched over to public school.

I had been in classrooms that were like a one-room schoolhouse in the church basement. First through third grades were together on one side and fourth through sixth were together on the other side. If you got your work done you got to help other kids with their work and I had been doing that since first grade. I was used to being up and down helping kids and talking and just loving school! Suddenly I was in a classrooom where I wasn't allowed to walk around, or talk, or laugh. I was constantly forgetting and spent a lot of time standing in the hallway, standing in the corner, and standing with my nose in a circle on the blackboard. Mrs. Rymer rapped my knuckles with rulers, spanked me with a wooden paddle, smacked me upside the head, yelled at me, and generally couldn't stand me. That woman with her grey french roll, red lipstick, and circles of red blush on her cheeks was an absolute shock after teachers who loved me and encouraged me.

I was never good at math and we had multiplication tables that year to memorize. It was the first thing in school I was terrible at and Mrs. Rymer was delighted. She loved to embarrass and belittle me in front of the class. So, being adaptable, I turned into the class clown that year (which really ticked her off!). I got drilled with multiplication cards at home by my folks till I cried. It was a rough year.

Funny, even though I have always hated it, math was my highest score in my SATs!? I was just slow at it...and I don't have the multiplication tables memorized to this day! I loved the old school picture! You remember a lot from third grade, too. We didn't have fancy swivel seats, but the same type of desks that lifted up. I never chewed on my pencils. I swear I was born with a reverence for writing utensils and paper and books. Would have been unthinkable! LOL! ;)

Far Side of Fifty said...

Your Mrs Rymer sounds like a terrible teacher..I think she would have been a shock to anyone:(

troutbirder said...

Sorry. Like Far Guy I draw a blank on third grade. But 1959 was a good year for me. I finally made it through High School (barely)... :)

LadyFi said...

Oh what cuteness! Love the old photo.

Anonymous said...

Those were my school picture pin curls. Don't remembers her name just her face. Third grade was very hard for me. I went to country school the first two years. Started at age 5. My first year in third grade was totally lost. I remember being asked to write out my address. Which I didn't know. When I went up to tell the teacher this she slap my face. I fail that year. Never did learn to spell well. Found out years later my brain is just not wired to do it well. In this picture it was my second go around at third grade. Needless to say I was felling pretty dumb and yet another class of new classmates in two years. I was good in math. Thank heaven for spell check!!!!!!!!!! Was failing again in 7th when the teaches called my mom in. They told my mom they couldn't understand why someone as smart as me was failing. Wow, I took that and ran with it. Got better grades. Was able to tell the teacher I knew the answer if they could over look my spelling. Got good grades, went on to Voc Tec. Made honor roll. Just goes to show when one believes what one can achieve. Ann