What I Remember About School

We lived three blocks from the elementary and high schools. Therefore, I got to walk to school each way. The Junior High school building was on the same block as the elementary school and was built in 1918. That helped me remember when Alabama came into the Union in 1819!

All I remember in the 1st grade was my teacher's name, which was Miss Grace Jones, and she had three reading groups, the red,blue and yellow birds. I don't remember which group I was in.

In the 2nd grade, it was the math I remember. I had trouble with math. I remember on the big test they gave to see how everyone was doing, I couldn't divide two number into three and I would just make up a number and put it on.

The teacher in the 3rd grade had traveled a lot and we saw lots of pictures of her travels.

I don't remember 4th & 5th grades but I have good memories of the 6th grade. I can even remember the teacher's name, which was Mrs Johnson. We had a club, the Correct Talking Club. All through the week, when we heard someone use incorrect English, we would write their name down and put it in a box and on Fridays we would have a meeting of the CTC and would pull the names out of the box and would give the person time to correct their mistake and if they couldn't, we all would help them. It was a fun time!

The Jr. High building was right next to the Elementary School. It had wooden floors and the bathrooms smelled bad but I used them anyway. The lunchroom served fish every Friday for the Catholic students. I was in the beginning band and played the clarinet. I was also in the choir 7th and 8th grades. When we got out of the 8th grade, we went to Sheffield High School.

Since I lived 3 blocks from the high school too, I walked to school. I played in the band all 4 years. I didn't like marching band and the football games but preferred concert band. I don't remember the names of the teachers but I remember their classes. I had good English teachers. Our graduating class was the largest so far with 160 students in 1961. I was in the senior play and enjoyed drama and acting.