Well, there are two elephants in the room this year! My singing career is at an all-time low and those childhood diseases are back.
Which disease I had this year, I do not know for sure. Had to be Measles, German Measles, Mumps or Chicken Pox. This was still the days of doctor home visits and Dr. Gilmore showed up with his little black bag full of unknowns every time. And no doubt kids were confused by these names. I didn't live in Germany nor did I have a pet chicken. The adults weren't any help explaining it either. Had the internet been invented, this would all be moot.
I don't profess to be a great singer, then or now. But I could belt out a song I knew in full voice on the playground or in the tub. I'm pretty sure I learned many pop songs listening to WRAW 1340 AM when I was sick in bed and during summer vacation, which brings to mind "VA-CA-TION", the 1962 summer song by Connie Francis. WRAW published the TOP 40 song list every week as a one-page bulletin, available at record department in stores like Two Guys, Nichols, W T Grants, and Woolworth's Five & Dime to name a few. The bonus for me was the printed lyrics of a popular song on the back of that bulletin. Imagine if we could sing pop songs in music class. Those Cs would be history...well, either way I guess they still are.
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Miss Dawn Schaeffer was a short-haired blonde of average height with a nice smile. She took her vocation seriously and was fair to both boys and girls in the classroom. At the end of the school year, extra supplies of pencils, crayons, construction paper, erasers and glue were the incentive to school kids picked to help the teacher clean up the classroom once school was no longer in session. It's one of my favorite memories of grade school. Going to school in shorts and sneakers to help the teacher put chairs on desks, clean blackboards and remove everything from the cork boards didn't feel like work, it felt special and I was lucky to be picked twice.
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| Mom insisted on rewriting my name on these works of art! |
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