Teachers and Friends

Teachers and Friends

I started Kindergarten in Orem.  Sometime in October, our family moved to a little house in Salem.  That's where I met my bestfriend, Judy.  She was tall, much taller than me, which isn't hard to believe.  I will never forget the first time I met her.  She had red velvet oxford shoes with green socks, and a skirt that was multi-colored with black netting over it.  UGH!!!  This gal needed help with her wardrobe choices.   I can't believe I can remember that when I was only four years old.  

My teacher was Mrs. Davis.  We each had a mat, so we could take a little rest after lunch.  Mine was blue on one side, red on the other.  The school lunch ladies were very nice.  On Fridays the cooks served bread baked in apple juice cans to make the bread round, chili and wonderful, sugary doughnuts.   For snack, we had a little glass of pineapple or grapefruit juice and a piece of the round bread with butter.  I loved it!  For my birthday, our class had delicious sugar cookies spread with orange frosting with black faces. 

My first grade teacher was Mrs. Hanks, and no she was not a relative. In the second grade, my teacher was Mrs. Nelson, and third grade, Mrs. Massey.  I remember enjoying school for the most part.  I found spelling easy and English was usually easy. I loved learning the times tables, not division so much. I enjoyed reading, but I would much rather be playing outdoors than reading a book.  I struggled with science and social studies at times.  Yet, I liked history.  I went through school with the same 31 or 32 kids until the 7th grade. 

At school, we played softball, jump the rope, dodgeball and some of the boys played basketball.  I loved softball.  I wasn't very good as a batter, but I could catch the ball pretty well, and I usually was the pitcher on our team. Another one of my favorite activities was dance. Every year end, our school would have a big Spring Festival, where each class would perform a special dance. We also would dance during the winter for P.E. classes, when it was cold and snowy outside. We did lots of square dancing.  My favorite dances were the polka, fox trot and waltzes.   

The school year I was in the fourth grade, my teacher was Mr Aiken, an ex-football coach, with a bad temper.  He would throw whatever he had in his hand in that moment at whatever boy was acting up.  Chalk, erasers, books flew across the room accompanied by yelling. I didn't like school that year. 

My fifth grade teacher was Mr. Darling, and he was a very short, gentle man.  Several of my classmates were as tall or taller than Mr. Darling.  I really enjoyed that school year. I enoyed learning fractions, yet I struggled with percents.  I still do.  Go figure.  Mr. Darling combed his hair very strangely to cover up the fact that he was going bald. The boys made fun of him behind his back.  

There was a Catholic family that moved about a block away from us.  They had no father, and 7 children.  I felt very sorry for them because the kids were teased mercilessly.  After Christmas, a whole bunch of us around several blocks would gather up all the Christmas trees no longer being used, build a great big bonfire and roast marshmellows and serve hot chocolate.  The Catholic kids wanted to join us, and several of my classmates and some of the older kids wouldn't let them.  In fact, they called them bad names, pushed them down and chased them into their own yard.  I remember being sick and going home.  Those poor kids had rocks thrown at them, pushed down in the snow, their faces rubbed in the snow, called bad names day after day, just because they were Catholic.  They only stayed in Salem about three months.     

Mr. Thomas, my sixth grade teacher was a dignified, well respected man, who I enjoyed as a teacher.  It was during that year, that my family left the dominant religion of the town, in April.  As I mentioned, I loved to dance and every year end each class would get a dance ready for the Spring Festival.  I had always been quite popular in school, and had no problem getting a dance partner.  This year was different.  None of the boys would dance with me, because I was no longer a member of their church.  Finally, one of the boys stepped forward and said he would dance with me.  His name was Boyd.  Now Boyd and I had a history of teasing each other like crazy. He wore his hair in a buzz cut and I had very long hair that I usually wore in a ponytail.  He called me "Butch" and I called him "Pigtails".  I have always been very proud and thankful for Boyd and his kindness. 

There were several of us girls, Judy, Gaylen, Janet, Camille and sometimes Jeanene, who would hang out together, fight over each other, play dolls and have sleep overs.  On Friday nights, several of us girls would sleep at Judy's and watch "Nightmare movie", which came on at 10:30 PM.  Her family room was down stairs, so we would pick our spots where we would lay out our sleeping bags, eat popcorn and "watch?" the scary movie.  I said "watch?"  because I never saw anything with my tightly closed eyes and my fingers in my ears, so I couldn't hear anything either.  We were so crazy, we couldn't wait to do it again.  Judy is the only one of these friends that I have stayed in contact with since I left Salem the year I went into the seventh grade. 
     
Another dear friend was the only other kid on our whole block, who was a Navajo Native American, named Vaughn Lee.  We were in different grades, even though I was four days older than him.  Actually, Vaugn Lee pretty much lived at our house.  He helped us with all of our chores; feeding the chickens and goats, gathering the eggs, [that was Sharla's job, I was terrified of the roosters], cleaning the house, weeding the garden and whatever else needed to be done.  We went to the same church.  Walked together every morning to the same school.  Went trick-or-treating together on Halloween, were in the same Christmas plays, spent hours every summer sitting in the orchard eating green apples, and walking along the canal bank looking for toads. Vaughn Lee was very much apart of our lives.  When Sharla and I left that church, went to EskDale for school the following school year, and my family moved to EskDale the year after that, we somehow lost track of Vaughn Lee.  I have thought about him through the years, and wished I had kept in contact with him.  I would love to tell him how much his friendship meant to me.