Back to School Meme

1. What is your earliest memory of school?
Walking to school with my cousin Jimmy. My sister was the same age as Jimmy, but she refused to be seen with me. Jimmy actually introduced me to his friends and was very cool about his baby cousin.

2. Who was a favorite teacher in your early education?
My fourth grade teacher Mr. Hay was profound influence. He really cared about kids. I visited him every year while still in school, and many times after as an adult. I invited him to our ten year highschool reunion picnic, and when he showed up, he drew a crowd among my classmates. We all loved Mr. Hay. On the day we got lots of snow and school wasn't cancelled, we worked together as a class to build an eight-foot snowman on the playground. We had a class picnic at my best-friend's family farm. He encouraged us to write with weekly creative writing assignments. He read scary books to us in a sinister voice. He made us excited about math and science.

3. What do you remember about school “back then” that is different from what you know about schools now?
We NEVER had snow days! The first snow day we ever had was when I was a junior in high school. It just happened to be the same day as the funeral of the school board president's wife which was very well-attended. To this day, I believe that had more to do with the snow day than the snow did.

4. Did you have to memorize in school? If so, share a poem or song you learned.
2nd grade:
If Nancy Hanks came back as a ghost,
Seeking news of whom she loved most,
She'd ask first, "Where's my son?
What's happened to Abe? What's he done?"
That's all I remember. We had to memorize lots of pieces of the Courtship of Miles Standish in 7th grade, but that's all gone now.

5. Did you ever get in trouble at school? Were there any embarrassing moments you can share?
Never really got into any trouble. I was a good kid that everyone went out of their way to smooth the path for. I was very fortunate.

Once, while playing soccer with the boys at lunch, I was running along and my pants fell down. I stopped, pulled them up, and kept going, glancing around to see if anyone noticed. NO ONE DID! (Or at least nobody said anything...) One of those potentially embarassing moments from which I was saved.

Precious memories, how they linger!