SCHOOL DAYS

Back in the olden days, there wasn't kindergarten in the public school system.. My mother was involved with a small private preschool run by one of the ladies in our ward.  That small kindergarten was my only exposure to a school setting until I started first grade.

If I remember correctly, the age cut off date for starting first grade was at the beginning of September.  But if you were going to turn six between September and the end of the year, you could take a readiness test to qualify for starting school before you turned six.  I took the test and passed.  So in September of 1952, I started first grade at Charles A. Stewart Elementary.

Stewart Elementary School, Arlington, Virginia

When you walked in the front door of the school, there was a large staircase that went to the second floor.  I seem to remember that there were five classrooms upstairs and five downstairs, all opening on to a center hall.  I don't think there was a cafeteria.  Everyone probably brought their lunch from home and we ate at our desks in the classroom or outside on the playground.  Some kids who lived really close to the school actually went home for lunch. Each classroom had an area at the back of the room for coats. The school grounds were surrounded by a heavily wooded area. Some of the fences around the playground were covered with honeysuckle vines.  When the honeysuckle was in bloom, my friends and I would pick the blossoms off the vines and suck the honey out.


I walked to school every day, usually with my sister, Linda, who was in the fourth grade when I started school.  It seemed like a very long walk when I was young.  But on a trip back east several years ago, I drove the distance in a car.  It was less than a quarter of a mile...not very far at all.

It wasn't appropriate for girls to wear slacks or pants to school back then.  I wore a dress or skirt every day.  We played recess games, hung upside down from the monkey bars, and climbed the jungle gym all while wearing skirts.  Sometimes, we'd wear shorts underneath our dresses, but not very often.  I'm sure that we girls were completely unfazed by having our underwear show while upside down on the monkey bars. Oh, my!