Thursday, September 10, 2009

Remembering Those Elementary School Days...

My mom didn't buy my school portraits or yearbooks every year, but she did buy them occasionally. Here is a picture of my 6th grade class, Whitmore Bolles Elementary School, 1968. This was the last year of grade school for me. Junior high was 7th-9th grades, and high school was 10th-12th grades. If I could get my scanner working, I'd show you my report card from that year. But you're not missing much, it wasn't all that impressive.

Let's see how many names I remember from my 6th grade class...
Left to right...
Row 1 (top): Mrs. Martella, Paula Davis, Marla Shooshanian, Paula Rohatynski
Row 2: Sue Johnston, don't remember, don't remember, don't remember, Mark Smith, Tina Santioni
Row 3: Esther Griffiths, Peggy Werth, Margaret Strachen, Robert Lesberance, Don Brown, Ron Carmen
Row 4: Steve Best, Donna Roesler, Judy Strahota, ME, Tim Hughes, Don Beyer
Row 5: Cynthia Motley, Diana Fugett, Mary Ann Novack, Jon Swank, John Gilmore, Ed Sedo
Row 6 (bottom): Cheryl Jackman, Debbie Skorich, Sue Hostetler, Karen White

Not too bad, I remembered 28 out of 31. Let's see, that's about 90%... wouldn't get me an A but it would probably warrant an A- on this test. That would pretty much sum up my grade school years. I wasn't a straight A student, but my GPA would have put me in the A- category.
From the same yearbook, here's me in the orchestra (I played violin). Can you find me? I'm in the front row between Laurel Schuff and Donna Roesler (3rd on right from center, fingering my red velvet jumper). I could name just about everyone in the orchestra but I won't bore you with that. ;-)

And here I am pictured with the Service Squad. Can you find me? This time I'm standing between Donna Roesler and Judy Guinan. (Hint: I'm wearing the same jumper and checkered top.)

And to complete the story, here's a picture of the school building from "back in the day".

I lived about 4.5 blocks from my elementary school. It seems like a short walk in retrospect but it felt like a long walk during those cold Michigan winters. I liked my school and most of my teachers. I have lots of fond memories of those grade school days...