I read a blog post about remembering kindergarten, and I started thinking of my own early school memories.
I started first grade in the Fall of 1985. I wasn’t yet 6 years old, too young to start first grade in public school, so my parents enrolled me in private school. It was a tiny school with a little playground that bordered a larger park in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.
I was the youngest kid in a school that had classes from 1st through 8th grade, and I remember only bits and pieces of that school year. My teacher was Mrs. Gold and the classroom was on the bottom floor. I remember taking my preemie Cabbage Patch Kid doll to school for Show and Tell. She was stolen on the playground, never to be seen again. When I think about it now, I wonder why the teacher didn’t search backpacks and find my doll when I cried that she was missing.
I remember that there was a clunky IBM computer in the front office that we were allowed to use every couple of weeks. I have no idea what the specs and details on that computer or program were, but I remember that you had to type in the color and coordinates for each pixel to make a picture.
My most vivid memory of first grade is my mama telling me that I shouldn’t wear my tacky plastic charm necklace over my pretty plaid dress for Picture Day. I cried and begged, but she insisted that I leave it at home. I sulked and hid it in my backpack anyway. When I got to school, I took my precious necklace out and put it on, thinking”Ha! So there, Mama! I showed YOU!” to myself.
I was confident that I had gotten away with it and she would never know that I defied her. Of course, it was Picture Day, and I didn’t think to take the necklace off, so the picture was recorded for posterity.
My mama was not pleased.
Tell me about your earliest school memories!
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