Antonia - First Grade

Author unknown - Transcribed by Lisa K. Gendron

            We started school out that September 6th, 1957 morning to the sound of laughter and tears, the school bell, and our teachers reading the role. [sic]  We began with almost 60 students, but through the years only 21 of us are left. So as the role [sic] was read it sounded something like this: Sandy Allison, Roger Bentley, Nyla Bowman, Pat Brady, Allen Charlton, Lovetta Clinton, Nancy Counts, Sue Dishbein, Steve Eder, Bill Fahlker, Jack Hall, Rick Halbrook, Rick Klable, Barbara Lindwedel, Terry McGary, Wade McGlawn, Karen Moss, Linda Schneider, Gary Shedron, Steve Steffie and Gordon Thornton.

            It was a year of finding new friends, making projects, printing letters, and making trouble. We read about Dick and Jane, learned to count, and made a gift for our mothers of our very own handprint stuck in plaster-paris. We had a Christmas play with some of us dressed up like reindeer leaping around the stage, while all the others sang "Roudolph." [sic] We visited places of interest too, such as the St. Louis Zoo, and Jewel Box. We elected a king and queen and celebrated with a carnival. We had a school picnic, with rides and a whole roll of free tickets. That also was the year Gary Shedron and Pat Brady put glue on Rick Hallbrook's seat. Rick was a little stuck-up towards them for a while, but they all became friends again. Sandy Allison tried to find her career early in life, for that year she cut her girlfriends long hair off with her toy scissors and when she was finished it was about one inch long all over her head. Then the time came for our polio shots: only one at a time was admitted in the room, it made it easier for the nurse to catch us if no one was standing in the way.

            The summer came and went and another year was under way.