Smelterville: First Grade

I started first grade at Silver King Grade School. My first-grade teacher was Mrs. Morical (unsure of spelling). I remember the first day of classes I was pretty scared to have my mom leave me there. I only knew 2 kids in my grade so far, LJ and MR from kindergarten. I think LJ, the girl was in the other first-grade class, so I really felt strange.

One of the first things Mrs. M would do each day, was to ask us 3 questions. If the answers were yes to all three questions, we would get a star by our name on the board. She made the stars out of colored chalk and they were the kind you make by drawing a + with an x written over it.) I was in awe of the colored chalk and really wanted to have those stars by my name. The three questions were: Did you comb your hair? Did you brush your teeth? and Did you bring a clean handkerchief? (Yes, handkerchief. . .I'm not sure if Kleenex was invented yet, or if it was just a luxury item that no one really could afford at the time.) I always felt bad if I forgot my hankie, because I couldn't get a star that day.

Highlights of first grade were: learning to read, making butter & cottage cheese, and playing Mrs. Santa Claus in the Christmas play. It didn't occur to me until about the time we did the play, that I did most of the talking. I don't remember learning my lines, but I do remember getting to wear "red lipstick" the night of the play. (Raymond Pert played Santa and I look forward to his post about that event.)

I also remember being really homesick in first grade. I had a lot of stomach aches, and later found out it was called separation anxiety. (I wanted to be at home). My most embarrassing moment in the first grade was the day I discovered I had worn my shortie pajama bottoms to school under my dress. (No one else knew, but I was mortified to think I had done something so stupid). Later I found out it happened to other girls as well.

The day we made butter, we took turns churning the butter in a large glass jar with wooden paddles inside. When the butter was ready, we got to eat it on Hi Ho or Ritz crackers. It was the best butter I have ever eaten. The cottage cheese was another story. The curds and whey were upstairs in the lunch room, and each first grader from both classes got to take a turnlifting the curds from the whey with a screened scoop of some kind. The whey stunk, and I wasn't interested in eating any of the curds when we were done. (At least now I knew what "Little Miss Muffet" had been eating, and I really felt sorry for her.)

Learning to read was fun. We had several reading groups that took turns sitting in little chairs around the teacher. She had flash cards with phonics on them that we learned, repeated, and read. Later we graduated to "Dick, Jane, and Sally" books, and latter Dr. Seuss books for take home reading.

Dr. Seuss was all the rage at that time. I don't know if it was the first year his books were out, but a lot of the kids were getting them for their home libraries. I think I got five. One of my friends from Pinehurst, got all the books in the series. I liked to go to her house and read the ones I hadn't read.

My favorite Dr. Seuss book was One Fish, Two Fish. I had half the book memorized and could recite it years later. The only thing I didn't like about the Dr. Seuss books were the drawings and stories of made-up creatures. I thought the drawings were creepy and the creatures were dumb - but I was just a kid. (I still think that about the books, and wondered why they didn't at least improve on the pictures.)

What was your favorite Dr. Seuss Book? Did you like his illustrations?