What a morbid title for a blog but it wasn’t as morbid as if may sound. My sixth grade teacher had passed away at the age of 97 years after leading a happy and successful life. In addition to that she was the one who opened my eyes to the joy of writing and as a result it became a dream of mine to become a published author.
As I was making the trip to Glenwood, MN where the funeral was to be held I began to reminisce about my elementary school years. I was traveling through the rolling hills of farmland. Some fields were tilled and black as their crops had been removed. Others fields were crowded with rows and rows of golden corn stalks heavy with husk covered grain. But I digress…..what about those elementary school memories?
My first learning experience in elementary school was only a half day long. Kindergarten had not yet been established in the Clinton School System in 1950. Instead new students participated in a half day termed “summer roundup” that took place at the end of the school year prior to us beginning the first grade. I and my classmates met for the first time and became familiar with what the next year would hold.
Would I have chosen a different profession had we been able to attend kindergarten for a whole year? Perhaps I would have become a brain surgeon or an astronaut. Engineering would have also been a possibility. Preschool education has become such a hot topic of late and my “summer roundup” experience pales in comparison. But as I look back I wouldn’t trade my half day of “summer roundup” excitement for a whole year of kindergarten for anything. I spent the ‘lost’ kindergarten year roaming the fields and groves on our farm and it was here that I developed a powerful love for the outdoors. Biology teacher here I come! 🙂
My first grade was exciting. My teacher was a tall blonde, first year teacher who I loved immediately. I don’t remember her last name when school began in the fall but at Christmas break she got married and came back after the first of the year as Mrs. Peterson. I still loved her even though she was now a married woman! 🙂 My most vivid memory of the first grade was also a very embarrassing moment. I had an accident……I messed my pants and I didn’t know how to tell anyone. So I finally told Mrs. Peterson I didn’t feel well. After some prodding I finally admitted the real problem. I went to the nurse’s office and got ‘cleaned up’ and returned to class really embarrassed. Noon hour had arrived by then and Mrs. Peterson picked me up and held me in her arms and consoled me. (I was much smaller then. :)) I will never forget that love which I needed so badly at the time. Before my Mom brought in a clean pair of underwear we had recess in the gym. I can still remember the feel of that cool air rushing up my pant legs and cooling my bare butt as I ran in the gym. It felt kinda good but I knew I didn’t want to make a habit of it! 🙂
Second grade arrived and I met my teacher Miss Allen. She was a rookie…a first year teacher. She was very pretty and had this deep voice and I was in love again! 🙂 The class was a combination class of half 2nd graders and half 3rd graders. At the end of the year Miss Allen announced that she would be getting married in the summer. In fact my family was invited to the wedding and we drove all the way to Herman, MN to help celebrate the day. I think I was a little jealous of the groom but I managed to cover up my 2nd grade feelings pretty well. 🙂
Tragedy struck that year for me. The school nurse diagnosed that I was not reading the eye chart very well. I needed glasses! I was mortified! How could I be in athletics and wear glasses? My athletic career was over I thought. No more professional baseball dreams! Miss Allen assured me that I would still be able to play sports by simply adding a glass guard to the tips of the bows of my glasses preventing them from flying off my face. She was right. But the major league dream didn’t turn out so well…..can you say town team baseball? 🙂
My ‘biology teacher’ potential surfaced that summer when I decided to write Mrs. Lindahl a letter. In the letter I shared about my new lamb Fuzzy Face who had become my pet. In the process I described how I looked underneath Fuzzy Face and determined Fuzzy Face was a she. It was a very natural thing for us farm boys to do, identify the sex of an animal. Well my Mother proof read my letter and she immediately censored the sex identifying part of the letter. I was forced to erase any references to the sex of Fuzzy Face. Hillary Clinton would have been very proud of me. 🙂
When I returned for the 3rd grade what a pleasant surprise I received when I discovered Miss Allen who over the summer had become Mrs. Lindahl was again going to be my teacher. You have all known a teacher’s pet or two in your days……weren’t they disgusting? Well I have to admit I was Mrs. Lindahl’s pet much to my enjoyment. We were going to put on a play called “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”” and I wanted so badly to be the ugly troll living under the bridge. Well, Mrs. Lindahl didn’t think I had the right qualities for the part. But I wanted it so badly that I begged and begged and finally she relented. I can still remember my Mom getting my costume ready as I practiced growling and snarling like a troll. I ended up being a very impressive troll!
Mrs. Lindahl is still alive and doing well. I had a book signing in Ortonville for my latest book “Holiday Adventures for Kids” several years ago and only one person showed up….Mrs. Lindahl. We visited for over an hour. When I received her Christmas card that Christmas season she announced that she had read my book and she gave me an ‘A’ grade! I had no idea in 1953 when I was in third grade that I would be getting my last grade from Mrs. Lindahl sixty three years later!
It was hard leaving my favorite teacher after two consecutive years but fourth grade became the next challenge. Miss Peterson was my teacher. We were both in the fourth grade for the first time, me as a student and she as a teacher. That was a traumatic year for me as I was almost kissed by a girl for the first time! The class was suffering a shoe lace tying problem and every time a student needed a shoe lace tied they would ask Miss Peterson for help. Finally she had had enough and announced this shoe lace tying problem had to cease. She led the class in a discussion on what could be done to eliminate or at least slow the problem. As I look back I wonder why we didn’t do a lesson on ‘how to tie a shoe’ but I guess that would have been too simple of a solution. 🙂
After much class discussion it was decided that if a girl needed her shoe tied she would have to kiss a boy and if a boy needed his shoe tied he would have to kiss a girl. Can you see where this is going? Remember this is Miss Peterson’s first year of teaching so she is still learning the ropes. She was about to learn something very important at this juncture of her career.
I went home that afternoon and shared the new ‘shoe tying rule’ with my very strict Catholic Mother and she said, “That won’t be happening and if it does Mickey you tell Miss Peterson I’ll be in to visit her after school tomorrow.” Well the next morning even before the bell rang little Norma, not the cutest girl in my class, hurried up to the teacher’s desk and asked Miss Peterson to tie her shoe. As soon as her shoe was tied (I can still see her in my mind like it was yesterday.) Norma with a big smile on her face headed straight for me! In a voice full of panic I repeated to Miss Peterson exactly what my Mom had told me the night before. Wisely Miss Peterson cancelled the new rule just seconds before Norma would have laid a sloppy kiss on my cheek! I spent the rest of the day trying to recover from the humiliation of the attempted ‘near miss’ kiss. 🙂 That’s just the way fourth grade boys were made back then.
Miss Reisdorf was my fifth grade teacher. I thought she was ancient but she was probably only in her late forties or early fifties. She was considered an ‘old maid’ which is not an acceptable term now days unless you happen to be playing a card game. She was my hero because I wanted a baseball mitt and the Farm Journal Magazine had a deal if you sold five subscriptions of the Farm Journal they would send you a baseball glove. Miss Reisdorf lived with her brother on the family farm so she was happy to purchase a Farm Journal subscription from me. I owe the successes of my baseball career to her. However those successes could be summed up in one short paragraph and this is not the time or place for that. I believe I have already mentioned “town team baseball” earlier in this blog.
When I released my first volume of “Children In The Outdoors” I received a very nice letter from Miss Reisdorf. She congratulated me on the book but best of all she sent a check so she could receive a copy.
Well I see I’m arriving at my destination as I just passed the sign indicating I’m in the city limits of Glenwood, MN. Now to locate the church where my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Sager’s (Nelson) funeral will be held. In an earlier blog I described how Mrs. Sager inspired me to become a writer and to her I will always be indebted.
I enjoyed and respected all of my elementary and high school teachers. It was my admiration for them that influenced me to become a teacher and a full year of kindergarten wouldn’t have changed that goal one bit! Hopefully my forty two years of teaching have had similar positive effects on my students.
Until next time!
