Sunday, October 19, 2014

MEMORY MONDAY

 

My mother has written her memoirs and has been after me to write mine. I have been resisting for a while however I am creating Memory Monday to help me along. Come join me with your own memories. Each week will be a different prompt to encourage the writing of your memories. Link your memories and share them with everyone.

Our prompt is: My First School

My first school was Leslie Street Public School. We lived right across the street from the school. My mother would stand on the veranda and watch me cross the street. We had to be in school by 9 am so I would leave home at 8:45 am. This gave me a chance to play with my classmates before school. The bell would ring and we would line up in 2 straight lines because we would walk up on both sides of the stairs.

My first I was in kindergarten. My first teacher was Mrs. Heal. I was 5 1/2 years old because my birthday was in February. I remember that the room was round and very big. We had painting and colouring and a sand table. I remember playing in a kitchen. Of course we had story time and singing time as well.

My second year was in a grade one – two split class. Being the curious child I was I always wanted to do the grade 2 work. My best friend was Suzanne. She was just as smart as me. I do not remember my first grade teacher’s name although Miss Pratt sticks in my head. I will have to look further back to make sure.

In Grade 2 I was in a 2-3 split. Again Suzanne and I were still best friends. We used to skip double-dutch at recess. My teacher was Miss Thompson. One activity I remember was morning news. We used to make a television out of a box and roll the news on paper rolls.

I skipped Grade 4 so my Grade 5 teacher was Miss Draper. She had the most beautiful handwriting. We had inkwells on our desk and had a nib pen for writing. You had to pass a test before you could give up your pencil for a pen and blotter. Derek Blissett never got a pen because he was a messy writer. I also disliked Miss Draper because she was a smoker and was very disappointed in her.

I finished at my first school in Grade 6 with Mr. Turner. He was getting old and tired. He disliked the new school which had been built the year before. It was smaller and had low ceilings. I was a monitor in his class. He rewarded my work with a ball point pen. Refills could be added when the ink ran out. It was my most precious pen and I loved writing with it.

I loved school and I wanted to be a teacher.

 

Next Week’s Prompt: My First Date

My daughter made us a Memory Monday button that you can grab from my sidebar if you want.

Retired Not Tired Memory Monday

Please link up your posts to this continuing linky so we can watch each other’s memoirs develop over this year.  Please use the format of “PROMPT – BLOG NAME” so we can follow each week’s writing.