Thursday, September 1, 2011

Back to School

School started in my town this week. I watched my neighbor's kid tugging at her new clothes, fixing her hair, and proudly displaying her very cool high tops while waiting for her parents to drive her to school on the first day. It makes me very nostalgic. In fact, living in New England with the deafening sound of toads, crickets, and katydids all day and night, it's more than a gentle reminder of those first days of school. Check out my brother Bob's plaid jacket! And Bill's red shirt – buttoned all the way to the top. And yes, I can still remember that pink dress with matching printed blouse. Ah, what fashion plates we were back then.




These three photos were together in an envelope, so they may have been taken the same year. I believe Bill and I were attending Hollow Tree while Bob was finishing up sixth grade at Baker School (before it was closed and razed to accommodate a park – due to the end of the baby boomers entering school). It must have been hard for my mother to have us in two different schools. She must have attended multiple after-school activities, volunteered at both school libraries, and contributed to two different PTA groups!

Kindergarten class: I'm the only girl sitting on the floor with the boys.

On Facebook, I've joined a couple school groups. Since my family lived in both Connecticut and Ohio during our K-12 years, I actually attended three elementary schools, two junior highs, and one high school. It's odd reading some of the posts people write now on FB, some thirty to forty years later, talking about certain events like it was yesterday. Many people can still rattle off all their teachers' names. I can hardly remember one or two. (Although having old photos with the names scrawled on them helps!) Below are my class photos from Tremont Elementary in Upper Arlington, Ohio. I can see why my parents were somewhat worried I'd be six feet tall by the time I stopped growing (which didn't happen). I was the tallest girl in my class all three years – sometimes even the tallest person.




I suppose everyone has these old classroom photos if you're a baby boomer. Do schools still take these group photos or are they all individual portraits? What do you have in your family archives?

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