Monthly Archives: November 2010

Kindergarten

Can you find me? Hint: I’m the only girl with pigtails!

School! So exciting. This is the class photo that some kind relative sent me after the fire. I can’t name all the kids anymore, but I do remember many of them. And of course, my teacher, Mrs. Wiley. I think she liked me. She used to come up behind me and tickle my neck with those pigtails. It gave me the shivers, but it also made me feel special.

(I’ve stepped over the border into the next half decade here, but since I was not quite five yet in this picture, I’m still in the spirit of this thing.)

Oh, boy — who were these kids? Jerry, Tommy, Howie, Donald, Ella, Gary, Gloria, Kathy, Carlos, Karen, Kathy, Carol and Ronnie… I was good friends with Gary. Carlos liked to kiss the girls and run away. Ronnie wore cowboy shirts all the time. One of the Kathys had bright red hair and a million freckles. So did Donald. Carol was sneaky even then. Ella (or was it Della?) was tall and thin and in this picture looks like a little Katherine Hepburn.

Painting at easels, recess, nap time, snack, stories. Our own little room away from the big kids. Lots of time to be creative and play games. Rainy day sessions.  I loved kindergarten!

 

My old school was torn down and rebuilt this year.


J.O. Ford school is still there, on Maricopa Avenue in Richmond, but it doesn’t look like this anymore. The new name is J.O. Ford International MicroSociety School. And it has its own facebook page. I’m going to post my class picture. Maybe a Karen or a Kathy or a Gloria will see it.

More Little Me

My excellent penmanship Awwww. This is the thank you note I mentioned earlier — the one my sister and I sent to my dad. It was tucked inside the envelope with my mom’s letter to him. A pretty good signature for a not-quite-three year old! ( I may have had some help.) My sister Susie and IContinue Reading

Cubby!

I was sad to read that Annette Funicello passed away. She was one of my favorites on the show. This was an early post in Zero to Sixty in One Year, but I’m dusting it off for any old-timers out there who loved the show the way I did. He was my first crush. CubbyContinue Reading

These letters were written by my mom to my dad during the Summer of 1954. He was in New York, at Columbia, doing graduate work while my mother, my sister and I stayed with my grandparents and uncle in Detroit. Reading these letters (which we found hidden in a dresser drawer after my parents passed away) shouldContinue Reading

In the Beginning

Here’s the scene from Gone with the Wind as I remember it, without actually looking: Scarlett, Melanie, India and Mrs. Meade are seated in a tight circle around a table. The clock on the mantel ticks loudly in the dimly lit room. The women have needlework in front of them. There is tension in the air.Continue Reading

Day One

It’s my birthday. For a couple more hours, anyway. I’m starting this blog with the intention of keeping it up for one year. It’s a challenge I set for myself: look back over the last 59 years and try to make some sense out of what I remember. Each month I’m going take on aContinue Reading