Like all adults that are blessed to have made it this far – there have been many very traumatic times in my life. But I don’t think there have been many – that compare to when I started school in first grade at Clark Elementary in Metropolis. I can’t help but wonder if most teachers realize just how important they are in the lives of the kids in their class. They can literally make them or break them – depending on how good they are at personally connecting. If it wasn’t for my first grade teacher, Mrs Reisinger – I may have never gone. Let me tell you my story – “Nostalgia: Back to School in the 1950’s“
Each year when it’s time for school to start, I can’t help but think back to the days so many moons ago when I was starting school and how terrified I was to leave my mom and go to school.
TRYING To Leave Me At School
When I started first grade at Clark School … it was a terrifying experience for the whole East end of Metropolis, Illinois.
Daddy would take me to school and drop me off and before he could get home himself, I had run down the alley the 3 blocks to our house and I was back home before he was.
And we did that day after day after day.
Spanking after spanking after spanking …
I’d scream and cry because I didn’t want to leave mom and go to school. And I was so painfully bashful anyway … that school was just a terrifying experience for me.
Nostalgia: Back To School in the 1950’s – ALMOST Got Me Arrested
Finally one day daddy dropped me off and he said “If you run home this time you’re going to be in big trouble because I’m going to have to turn you over to the police department.”
But I did it anyway and beat him back home again.
He put me right back in the car and drove me straight up to the police station and at that time it was across the street from the old Massac Theatre.
He went in and left me in the car and in a minute he came back out with a police officer. I just knew I was about to go to jail for life and here I was … only 6 years old.
I Was Threatened With Jail Time By A Police Officer
The police officer explained to me that all little boys and girls had to go to school and he assured me that if I’d just stay long enough to see what they do, that I’d really like it. He said I was such a pretty little girl and he sure hoped he didn’t have to put me in jail for not doing what I was told. :-0
SO daddy took me back to school – but although the police officer had scared me to death, I still wouldn’t stay.
Mom and Me in First Grade
Mrs Reisinger, my first grade teacher, suggested to mom and daddy that mom come and stay just a while each morning and let me see that things would be ok. I wonder now – writing my story – if my mom was the only mom to attend first grade in Metropolis with her little girl – for 2 whole weeks.
At first, the teacher set mom in a corner in a chair where I could see her … and mom stayed all day, going home with me for lunch and then coming back with me for our afternoon class.
Mom and I were learning together and we were getting SO smart!
Then, Mrs Reisinger moved mom outside the door and had her sit in a chair just outside the door. That wasn’t good enough for me because I couldn’t SEE my mom. So she finally set ME beside the door on the inside of the classroom. And every few minutes I’d interrupt class when I’d say “Mom are you still out there?” And mom would hesitate because I was asking so often but then she’d finally say “Yes, I’m still here Kay”
My CHICKENS Solved The Problem
FINALLY … Mrs Reisinger was able to win me over by asking me about my chickens at home and I was so glad SHE liked chickens, I invited her home with me to see my chickens and that set our friendship for life. She came home with me and played with my chickens with me and we were friends from then on and mom was finally out of 1st grade.
Starting school was a very traumatic thing for me and for our whole family, which at that time included my mom and dad and sisters, granny and grandpa and 2 aunts and 2 uncles and a great grandma because we all lived in one big house at 1004 East 3rd Street and just like in the Walton’s family.
I finally took to first grade and school in general. But I was so shy and such a wallflower, I was really ‘just there’ … I didn’t make much of a splash during any of my school years – even in high school.
That’s one reason I feel such overwhelming joy with my life as an adult and as wife of this old geezer and mom to these little rascal Comer kids, now grown with their own homes. Because I really started out as a devout nobody and this old geezer and these little rascals made me feel like the most important person in the world.
There are times even now when I’ll walk into a store or flea market or something and something in there gives me just a ‘whiff’ of life as a first grader and my mind zooms back to those days of so long ago.
I know now … that we were not all made to be bright shining stars … but I also have learned that no matter who we are or what our lot in life is … we can all twinkle just a little in our own little corners of the world.
Peace and love from the canyon … I love you all gobs and thanks SO MUCH … for stopping by!