Smelterville: Second Grade (1) - Fire drills & Smelter Heights

Still at Silver King in second grade, I had Mrs. Hokanson as my teacher. We learned poems and sometimes got to put our art work on display. She usually had one section of the chalkboard where she would draw a picture for the month in my favoite: colored chalk! I remember in December she had a wreath drawn on that section of the board.

I remember different things about second grade than first. First of all, I remember the coat room. It was like a little hallway outside of our classroom where we took off our coats and boots and put on our shoes. Each student had their own coat hook, and there was an area under the hooks that was raised that we could sit on, and also left our boots on after we removed them.

The lunch room was upstairs at Silver King. Every class would line up single file and go to the end of the southern hallway then up the stairs. Each class would line up behind the next until there was a line of kids running from the lunchroom at the top of the stairs all the way to the bottom and sometimes around the corner. We all lined up on the left side, as that is the side the kitchen was on and where we would pick up our trays, silverware, and food. Then each class was seated together at one long table with the teacher maintaining control and seeing that we cleared our plates.

There was no smorgesboard in those days. We took what they gave us and we ate it all - or at least some of all we were given. We even had to drink our milk. When everyone was finished at our table, the entire class was dismissed to line up and go back downstairs for lunchtime recess. I can't remember if we exited via the attic on the back side of the lunchroom beginning in the second or third grade. When we did, we would walk through the back door into a dark area that had boxes of stuff stored on each side of a walkway. We were told to stay on the board walkway and go straight to the stairs that went down to the right. Our teacher would often monitor us inside the attic, so no one strayed. I think this was my favoite part of lunchtime.

The scary part of lunchtime was when we had fire drills. (Some kids loved this.) To get out of the lunchroom on a firedrill, we had to go out a large window that opened on the east side of the room. From the window we stepped onto a metal walkway that ran over the slope of the roof below and to a very long slide. We had to sit at the top of the slide which faced south, and slide down. The first time I went out the window on a drill, I was scared to go down the slide, but I had to. Afterwards, it was kinda fun, but I always hoped we wouldn't have another drill in the lunchroom.

Also in second grade I made a new friend KV. She was a cute blonde girl that had just moved from Kentucky. She and I just lived a few blocks from each other in Smelterville. A lot of times we would sit together on the bus ride home from school. Most times the bus would take those of us who lived in Smelterville home first, then take the kids home who lived up Smelter Heights.

Smelter Heights was a housing area that was on the hill behind the Smelter. I hated it, when the bus went up there first. One reason was because of the switchback at the end of the route, just before we headed down the hill. The second reason was because KV told me a story about a school bus that went off the road in Kentucky and killed a bunch of kids. Now she told me this story as we were nearing the switchback one day. (The switchback for those who do not know, is when the road is heading one way, then turns nearly 180 degrees to go back the direction you were coming from only in this case - downhill.) The Smelter Heights switchback took place at the top of the hill. Since there were no trees on the hill, there was nothing to keep the bus from going over the edge, except a good driver.) Everytime we went up Smelter Heights first, I was a nervous wreck! I would pray under my breath, "Please don't let us go over the edge" - especially in the wintertime. I don't know how the kids who lived on that last road, right by the switchback could stand it.

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?