How would you like to have 75 kids in your Kindergarten class? Yep I do (a term I got from my buddy Josiah Patterson!!!) But that is correct, my twin brother Tim and I were in the same Kindergarten class. We had 150 kids in our grade and had an afternoon and an morning section each for the fall semester. That meant we had 75 kids in our section of K. By the spring semester, the new south elementary school was completed and then we only had 37 kids in each of our Kindergarten sections!!!! I am not making that up my friends! And to think we only went to Kindergarten just half days back then. Schools weren't considered daycare centers by parents in those days!!!! That is because most of us had June Cleavers for mothers who stayed home and took care of their kids and husbands! (Wow, have times changed!!). Any of you who know my mother know that while she was a wonderful mother, I can't say I ever saw her as a true "June type" mother!!!
Anyway, getting back to Kindergarten. I loved Kindergarten (all 4 years of it!). I did get confused because I always thought one of the things we would do in K would be to plant a garden (get it?). We never got close to soil. I was not a happy camper! But in our K class, we had two teachers for the fall semester. One was Miss Mabel. That is what we called her. I think her last name was something like Zigelowskibombrosky or something no Kindergartener could pronounce. And the other teacher was Miss Autenreith. Miss A became my teacher the 2nd semester when the classes divided.
In our section of K there was not only my identical twin brother (can you imagine he always insisted that he and I had the same birth date) but there were actually a total of 4 sets of twin in our one section! Two of the sets were identical twins. And two of the sets all had the same last name of Patterson. Now tell me why CNN or Entertainment Tonight didn't cover that story?!! Pretty significant for a small town of 4,500 people!
But I actually remember learning in that class of 75 kids. Someone once asked Miss Mabel who had taught Kindergarten for like 45 years how she handled all of the kids and their noise. She looked at the reporter and said, "You know it worked pretty well. When the kids got noisier, I just turned down my hearing aid!!" What a cool lady.
Man those were the days of learning! Back then we came to Kindergarten to learn our colors, the alphabet and how to share toys with other kids! I remember parents being told not to teach those things to their kids before Kindergarten or their child would get bored! How hilarious!
I spent most of my time in the coat room. We had the neatest wooden toys that were built by a local retired fellow. Barns that came apart and you could get to the various sections. Trucks and cars that hooked up to a trailer. They were way cool! But compared to the junk I had at home for toys I had died and gone to heaven. Well, when it was time to quite playing and to join Miss A in the student circle, I usually got in trouble for wanting to just play with those cool wooden toys. So to the coat room I would go. And from there I smelled the unique common smell of smoke from parents on the coats of their children and red rubber balls that we played with. My wife's school still uses those red rubber balls and they still smell the same!
The last memory I have was a gal called Bambie Sloan. She was born during the time the movie, "Bambi" first came out. Imagine calling your child Bambi! I had told my wife and daughter about the parents that named their kid Bambi. They both thought I was not telling the truth (imagine that!)! So a number of years ago, the three of us went back to Jefferson and visited the north elementary school and ran into Bambi Sloan. I thought Carrie was going to lose it from her reaction when Bambi introduced herself. Boy, I milked that the rest of the trip!
That old north elementary has now been torn down. But at one time some idiot decided in order to protect the decaying brick, they would paint it. So one summer the building was painted. We all returned to our beloved school that was now painted PINK!!!!!! Oh my could I say some things about that color! Well anyway, apparently one year a first year teacher who taught in that north elementary received a letter addressed to her at the Pink School, Iowa and she got the letter!!!!! I can't imagine not getting that letter confused with all of the other PINK schools in Iowa!!!!!!!!
Those were the days. And as my old friend Pearl Shadle used to say, "Life Just Don't Get No Better!" Where else but in Jefferson could a 2nd grader walk alone to school (an 8 block walk)? And on top of it, I hula hooped all the way to school going through the downtown area! Gee, maybe I belonged in a PINK elementary school after all!!!! Just kidding!
Markus
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