Remembering My First Day of School 1950

 Since I am long in the tooth and may soon join my friends and family on the other side, I have determined to write my memoirs.  My life has been pretty ordinary and mundane and no one will build statues of me in the park, but there are aspects of it that are worth remembering.

I remember my first day in the First Grade.  The year was 1950, I was five years old, and the place was Emerson School in Joplin, Missouri.  My mom accompanied me to my class and I was scared out of my wits.  There were tables along the side of the room, with seats for four students, two on each side.  My mom sat facing me and I faced the front.

Suddenly my mom got up and went to a table closer to the door.  Alarmed, I got up and followed her.  I didn't know it then but she was planning her escape while leaving me to the horrors of the big wide world.   Then she said goodbye, promising to come get me later, and got up and left.  I had never been separated from my mom before, so I put my head down on the desk, covering the sides of my face with my arms, and cried.

Suddenly I was interrupted in my grief by the lady teacher, who shook me gently and said, "We don't allow no crying in here, get up and come up front.  We are going to learn the alphabet."

The next thing I knew I was sitting in the front row, staring at a display of the alphabet, and immediately forgot about being abandoned to my fate.  Hey, this was the alphabet and it was interesting!  I think I learned to spell "CAT" that day.  That lady teacher knew exactly what to do and how to do it, and I still admire her teaching skill 75 years later.