First Grade

First grade came in September of 1953. I had been 6 years old for less than 30 days when school started, but made it in under the wire for age restrictions. I was to be reminded that I was younger than my peers for the next 12 years. That was OK with me. Mamma and I rode the school bus to Magnolia School that morning. I still remember going in by the front steps and going to the auditorium for the "sorting." About 40 of us were selected for Miss Shealy's first grade class and we moved in a line to the classroom. Mamma faded away at that point and I was on my own. I will always remember the kid in front of me because of his obviously super scrubbed very pink neck. His neck was like that all that year. I sat in the next to the last seat in the last row of the classroom.

When we started out, Nita sat behind me, but later on she was moved to my left and Johnny was moved behind me. He and I developed a fairly close relationship that lasted all the way through public school. Other people that I remember in that room were Gay and Thomas. Thomas was to become my best friend for the first six years and Gay was a girl that everyone fell in love with as soon as they saw her. She eventually married one of my college roommates.

I couldn't read when I started, but Miss Shealy introduced me to reading by putting a big easel full of Dick and Jane right in front of me and within a couple of days I was ready to go. "Run Spot Run! See Spot Run!" I still remember "getting it." I don't know if we did any arithmetic in that class or not. I do remember pictures of balls with stars on them. Maybe that was about learning to count. First grade wasn't bad and I'd like to know what happened to Miss Shealy. If she was 21 in 1953, that would make her 76 years old now...

Lets take a moment for a silent prayer for the souls lost on Normandy Beach on this day sixty five years ago.