Laura enjoyed some of the special assignments that she had to do. She was very neat and put a lot of effort into what she did. She has enjoyed writing as far back as I can remember. Like me, she did first grade twice. I think it was a good idea for me to repeat first grade and I hope Laura feels that it helped her to do the same. Some of us needed that extra help in learning to read and do first grade arithmetic.
Bill benefited from doing second grade twice, but I think that he started to shine in school when he was older and had new glasses. He went to an eye doctor once when he was three or four years old and nothing was found to cause concern. I should have taken him to our favorite optometrist to have his vision checked. When I finally took him to have his vision checked he needed special glasses. This helped him a lot. I think that is when he started doing real good in school. Bill and Laura, as well as their brother Griff, all do very good in math.
Griff did not seem to struggle with any subjects in school. In fact he was identified as gifted. His problem was that he may have felt that he knew more than the teachers at times. He may have been a challenge for the teachers in many ways. In high school he got to where he would not go to school after a while. When he was seventeen he got his GED and then he joined the Marines. He did the best possible on the test to join the Marines so of course they wanted him to enlist.
Our oldest daughter Kathy did her best and got good grades. In high school her favorite subject was probably homemaking. She had the opportunity to take four years of this class with one of our very favorite teachers, Mrs. Hanks. My sisters and I loved Mrs. Hanks and each of us learned to sew under her watchful eyes. I even visited this favorite teacher at school after I graduated. I took my baby Kathy to show off to Mrs. Hanks. It was a blessing for Kathy to also have this same homemaking teacher as I had.
Kathy was the third generation in our family to graduate from Coronado High School. Paul's parents, aunts and uncles all graduated from CHS. My Dad attended Coronado schools, but did not graduate. Some of Dad's siblings graduated from CHS. Paul and I, as well as his brother and my sisters, graduated from Coronado High School.
Laura graduated from Coronado Junior High (8th grade) and then we moved to South SanDiego (Otay Mesa). She went to Montgomery Junior High and then Montgomery High School, as did Bill and Griff. Laura had another Junior High graduation when she graduated from 9th grade at Montgomery. Bill and Griff were in 5th and 6th grades when we moved here. They attended Juarez Lincoln School near here. We can often hear the children playing in the schoolyard on the nearby hill reminding us of the good old school days.
"Reading and 'Riting and 'Rithmetic" are words to an old song we used to sing. There is a hickory stick in this old song, but none ever had to be used on me at school. That would have been a rare thing when I was growing up and was probably never done when my children were in school. I do remember my sister getting in trouble one time at the school we went to when we were on the farm. She was in first grade. All she had done was to refuse to eat something on her plate in the cafeteria. And when I made the mistake of mentioning it to my grandmother Donna got in trouble again at home. That's the way it was. I did not like some of the cafeteria food, but I choked it down.
Time on the playground with friends was one of my favorite things at school. I enjoyed jump rope, hop scotch and jacks. I did not do good at team sports. Playing on the monkey bars, or the bars you swing across hand over hand getting blisters along the way, is another memory. Those blisters were badges of skill.
We were lucky to have square dance classes at times over the years. There were other lessons in dancing too, all good old fashioned dances. I'm sure not everyone appreciated these lessons though. But I remember them being fun as I liked boys. We were still young enough that some of the kids probably did not care for the opposite sex. Not all of my children had these opportunities. Laura did not get to do this as she had a different class. I guess some of the children got to square dance. My husband Paul remembers these lessons from back when he was in school.
Paul and I never danced with each other except for trying to when we were first dating. I did a little bit of dancing when the opportunity was there with friends or classmates. Once in a while there would be a party at a friend's house. At one such party at my friend's house I was having fun, but must have eaten too many nuts or other goodies. The music was on and some of us decided to dance. I danced with one of the boys that was trying to enjoy his first dance. I so much wanted to enjoy this dance. Our dancing in those days was slow and together, with the music of the early fifties. It would have been fine if I felt good.
The dance was barely over when I started for the bathroom, but I did not make it. I threw up all over the floor right in front of my dance partner and the other kids there. Not a fun experience for the fine young man I had been dancing with a few seconds before. I felt so bad for him, not to ignore the fact I was embarrassed to have spoiled what should have been a fun evening.
Caroline's eighth grade graduation picture--Coronado, 1951
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