First Grade
First Grade
By the time I got to first grade, I had been to three schools during kindergarten. First grade was my first full year in the same school. My teacher’s name was Mrs Ward, I think. We did all the standard stuff, Dick and Jane and their dog Spot. it was the 60’s, and the fall of that year was 1968. I remember kids chanting on their way to school “we want Nixon.. We want Nixon” and i didnt know what that was about but that the other dude was Humphrey, so I led my friends in chanting “We want Humphrey”. I lived walking distance to school (not an unusual thing in those days, i dont remember parents driving their kids to school all the time. My first grade was in a public school, i think at least part of my kindergarten was a catholic school in NYC. My parents weren’t “in the military”, like i wasnt a military brat being moved all over the place, but by the time i made it to first grade i had lived in texas, NY, texas, NY and then Michigan and those were just the interstate moves made by me , i don’t know how many differnet places we lived in Texas. My parents were still driving VW Beetles, like 1960 model year. at one point they had two, one black and the other gray. I don’t remember anything about the kids i knew in the first grade. This was to be my last year in public school until the 6th grade. The kids who went on to go to St Dennis School in Royal Oak, Michigan became my main friends the following year when i transferred to the Catholic School. For reasons I don’t understand, the Catholic school started in 2nd grade. I suspect that the reason was space - I was in the tail end of the “baby boom” and a few years later I think the school started in 1st grade.