Jobs I loved in grade school

In each class year the students were given different jobs based on each teachers' fancy.  The jobs weren't paid jobs, of course, they were really helps for the teacher so she could leave before 4 p.m.  Remember we got out at 3 p.m.

I liked to:  water the plants, feed the fish, lower and raise the shades, clap the erasers, straighten the desk alignment, if I was in a class with moveable desks, and do the monthly attendance records.  I especially liked the after school jobs because I got to talk with my teacher.  I was a chatterbox back then.  Still am, I guess, even though I don't really say much (quantifiably).

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Sixth grade, continued

On the first day of school (in 6th grade) I was amazed to find that my best friend from 5th grade had grown up over the summer.  She has breasts!  Yikes.  Was I ever behind in that department.  It only bothered me because she was the best hitter when we played softball, next to me, of course, and she just refused to play any more. 

We were sent to our classrooms and Mrs. Cunningham's sixth grade was on the top floor in the chartreuse room in the new part of the building.  What a nice classroom that was.  Brand new.

What can I say?  We had new books, new GREEN boards instead of blackboards, new erasers, new desks, new everything, including new plants to water.

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Sixth Grade

This was one of my favorite grades.  My teacher was Mrs. Cunningham.  She was older than most of my teachers. 

Of course with the good there is the bad.  The bad was me.  I didn't particularly like the lunches my mom was packing for me so I didn't each lunch when I was supposed to stay at school during lunch-time.  Well, after three days of bringing my lunch home, my dad wanted to know why I didn't finish what was in my lunch bag.  I told him I didn't have enough time.  WRONG THINGO DO.  

My father called the school the next day and asked to speak with Mrs. Cunnigham.  Well, at lunchtime I knew I was in trouble.  Mrs. C asked me to stay after the rest of the lunch children  were released.  She asked me why I told my father I didn't have enough time for lunch.  She said she would have given me more time if I needed it.  And since I hadn't eaten my awful lunch again that day she made me stay in until the next session started (I still hadn't finished my lunch). 

I didn't take any remnants of my lunch home with me. I dropped them in a trash basket on the way home. 

For my sister:  You see, Deb, I wasn't all that good in school either.

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Our First Summer

 

Our first summer was the summer of 1960.

 

 

That's us.  Alan and me.

 

 



 

It was a difficult summer because we didn't know from day to day whether we could see each other.  We had no wheels!

 

Alan out in the boonies (at that time) of Lindenwold, and I lived in Runnemede.  It was a good six miles between houses.  That's a long walk.  I have to say that looking at the picture I have posted that Alan has really improved with age.  I, on the other hand....I just won't go there.

 

I remember a few dates we had that summer, and a few "meetings" as well.  If Alan's dad was driving to any place near Runnemede, say Glendora, Alan would call me, hop a ride with his dad, and we would "meet" about half-way.  Or, if his dad was in a good mood he would drop Alan off and then go to his scheduled activity, giving us from one-half hour to three or four hours of "meeting" time.

 

If it was one of the shorter times, we'd just sit on the front porch and talk.  If it was one of the longer times we would walk west on Clements Bridge Road, up the hill from Second Avenue, and then down the hill to across the street from Mr. Softee, and somewhere in that area there was a miniature golf place and there was also a trampoline place.  Does anyone remember them?  The trampoline place lasted about two years, the miniature golf a little longer.

 

All our date were dutch and we never had more than one dollar each to spend.  Golf was fifty cents a game, that left us with $1.50 if it was near allowance day, or pay day for me (I worked at Mr. Softee that summer) and we could get a snow cone at the other end of DBR at the stop light in town at the Pike and CBR.  Snow cones were $.10 a piece.  I loved the root beer snow cones.

 

We also went bowling a couple of times.  But the real date that I remember the most -- that means HE paid for everything -- was the time we went to Clementon Amusement Park.  At that time there was no one-price-gets-you-on-any-ride-you-want fee, back then you paid for each ride.  You bought tickets and hoped you had bought enough so you could get on your favorite ride.  The picture you see was taken in one of the Park's picture booths on that night.  We had so much fun. 

 

A few short weeks later Alan left for Kenya and I didn't see him for three years.  Oh, that we had Skype or e-mail or Facebook back then.  Mail to and from Kenya was very slow and a phone call would have cost about $50 for 10 minutes.  So we had no voice contact and little mail contact during those years.

 

I am so glad that dating is over and I have enjoyed married life with Alan for almost 48 years.

 

 

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Fifth grade

I was still at Bingham School and my teacher in 5th grade was "pre-historic" Jackson.  Mrs. Jackson was an older teacher.  I don't know how old she was, but she did have grey hair.  I had issues with Mrs. Jackson.

Mrs. Jackson tried in insert evolution into our social studies curriculum.  My father was no pleased and went to her to try to get her to understand that God created the heavens and earth.  And that event had occurred about 5000 years ago.

Mrs. Jackson rose to her full height of five feet and told my father that she was teaching what she was teaching until the school board told her otherwise.

Light bulb. 

My father went straight to several of the board members who just happened to be members of our church, and talked to them about what she was teaching.

It finally ended with my father coming to my fifth grade class a couple of times to teach what the Bible says about how the earth and humans began and that we didn't evolve from apes or anything else, but were created by a loving God around 5K-6K years ago.

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Fourth grade

What good can I say about 4th grade.  My teacher was Mrs. Kline.  A very, very nice lady, but a very bad teacher.  She had no control of the class and the students ran all over her.

I learned 4th grade lessons on my own because she never had enough control to teach anything.  She was a fun teacher and wanted us to have fun in school, which we did.  We were housed in the auditorium of the school.  In the basement.  Next door to the heating room.  Near the bathrooms.

She always left the door open and the noise in the halls was a distraction, at least for me.

We had a stage in our room and made up plays frequently.  Nobody saw our plays except our classmates.  Yawn.

That's about all I have to say about 4th grade.  Yawn.

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Shoes

  1960

  2013

  1975

  Flats 2012

 

 

I love the shoes (for women) that are currently in style.  They are so much like the shoes we had in the 1960s.  Then arrived a new decade -- the 70s.  And with the new decade, new shoes.  UGLY shoes.  CLUNKY shoes. 

You can tell from the pictures that the CLUNKY and UGLY shoes from the 70s are not nearly as flattering as the shoes in the 60s and in 2013.

I saw my daughter in church yesterday and she had on really beautiful shoes.  They looked like dyed snake-skin and were, I would guess, the five inch heels illustrated in the 2013 picture. 

I wore shoes like the one in the 1960s picture and when the CLUNKY and UGLY 70s shoes came into style, I bought one pair, and decided that was enough.  I had quite a collection of the 60s style shoes and decided to wear them.  So I was out of style; so what! 

Notice the current "flats" style.  Same as in the 60s.  I know, because I still have a pair, believe it or not of 1960s flats.  The price for the 60s pair of flats?  $3.00.  The price for a pair of 2012 flats?  $30.00 at DSW.  Quite a difference.

NOTE:  In the 60s the highest heel available was a three-and-a-half inch heel and we thought that was high.

I fell off the 60s shoes in the late 70s.  Just couldn't walk in them anymore and went to flats.  I've been a flats lover ever since. 

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