SCHOOL DAYS

Birren Guided Autobiography April 17, 2009

School Days, School Days

Dear old Golden Rule days.

Reading, and writing and 'rithmetic,

Taught to the tune of a hickory stick.

I have always felt that I was extremely lucky in my education.

We lived on Princeton Drive in Toledo, Ohio, about a short block from Harvard School which had opened only a few years before. The school was built on the edge of a ravine with a brook running through it flowing into the Maumee River and many classrooms had a wonderful view of that little wilderness. The school remains to this day as a spectacular example of school architecture.

The fact that all the members of the Toledo Board of Education lived in our district probably accounted for its prominence, as well as for a faculty which was

certainly outstanding.

I first attended kindergarten at the age of four in the Fall of 1931. Although I was expected to go to kindergarten for two years (first year in the

afternoon, and second year in the morning), at the end of the first year the teacher contacted my parents suggesting that I go into the first grade the

following September. My parents actually consulted me as to my idea on the

subject, and it sounded great to me; so I became the youngest pupil in my

class, and remained so through graduate school at Northwestern.

My first grade teacher was Mrs. Rowe, and I must assume she was a good teacher; but the most important thing in skipping a grade was that I met Nancy Lee Boyer (and I married her twenty-one years later).

Ms. Leonard was my 2nd grade teacher, and I must admit I found her a bore, but

learning by rote at that stage was the accepted thing to do.

Dad had a heart attack, and the doctor suggested that he take it easy for a while, so in November of 1934 (when I was in the third grade) we took off for

Florida for five months. My teacher at South Broward School in Dania, Florida,

was Mrs. Roper, and her son, George Preston Roper was a classmate. Sorry to say, he was a rival, and I must admit I dearly hated him. (there is class picture in my album, and it is obvious that at some time or other I tried to erase his likeness). Leaving class in Toledo after two months, and then returning for the

final two months of the school year was far from easy, but I doted on the

special attention I was given.

In the fourth grade we were all in love with Mrs. Fitzgerald. Although Harvard was quite spacious, it was decided that the class sizes for the fifth and sixth grades

were too large, and that a mixed fifth-sixth grade would relieve the strain, and

the best students would be put in that group under the supervision of Miss

Wallington who was certainly Harvard School's Glamour Girl.

It was decided we would go to Florida again that year, so Mom and Dad (actually

my maternal grandparents) and my great-grandfather packed us up for the trip

to the South. My Mother drove us as far as Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we

went on from there.

I went into the fifth grade in Florida (that pain-in-the-neck, George Preston Roper was still a classmate), but for my 10th birthday in January I was able to invite two very special girlfriends, Bettylou and Jimmie. On April second we received a wire from my step-father that my mother had died in childbirth when my sister Judy was born, and we drove fourteen hundred miles in three days to get back to

Toledo. So after the funeral I was once again back in that mixed fifth and sixth

grade.

We were quite surprised when we returned that fall to find that Miss Wallington was now Mrs. Meyers, and once again we were going to Florida for the winter

season. By now I was an old hand at the transition.

For the seventh and eighth grades we were joined at Harvard by a smaller grade school, Beverly, and had four teachers to teach their subjects. The two I

remember best were our English teacher , Velma Desmond (Yes, that was her name, and in that fuzzy pink sweater she was quite a dish), and our History teacher, Glenn Sloane, the first male teacher I ever had.

We also had a weekly two hours of manual training for the boys, and domestic

science for the girls. The classes were given reading tests, and broken up

for three hours a week for reading improvement; and it was decided that

the best reading skills group did not need that much training, and so we were

given an hour a week for the girls to take manual training, and the boys would

take cooking and domestic science.

We had a wonderful time. We all bought chef's toques and I remember that our first receipt was for gingerbread. Our teacher was Miss Daisy Semple, and since most of us attended the dance class which she ran with her sister, Miss Margret,

it was a ball. At the end of the school year we gave a luncheon for our teachers

(I was a waiter).

I really loved going to school (except in Florida). I had planned to continue this essay through Edward Drummond Libbey Highschool, but it best wait for another time.

rwtf

PS: The song ends with:

You were my queen in calico,

I was your bashful barefoot beau.

Then you wrote on my slate "I love you so"

When we were a couple of kids.