Elementary School Grades 5 & 6

1963 - 64 school year was a favorite of mine. Subjects were more interesting and social interactions important. Going to the Reading Public Museum for history and civics was awesome, mostly because we were served a taste of the foods original to the country we we studying. 

Our neighborhood had many children and my friends were close enough to visit everyday without getting permission to go off the block. The previous summer's fun didn't wear off until the second report period. Then it was back to soaking up all that came at me. I feel this year I realized I wanted organization in my day. Everything was black or white, no gray areas. And still today I balk at the gray areas in all aspects of life. 

The school chorus became my extra curricular activity.  Mr. George Yorgey, my 5th grade teacher and only male teacher in the building, was also the chorus director. The highlight was the holiday music show at the school gym in December 1963. Being on stage with my mom and brother in the audience was thrilling. Chorus members were split by gender, traditionally to keep the similar voices together. Boys with higher pitched voices and girls with lower pitched voices (like me) were in the center still next to our gender group. Mr. Yorgey was premature bald and we tried not to giggle when we saw the colored stage lights above us blinking on and off his head. Doesn't take much to amuse a 10 year old.

Report card cover

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My 6th and final school year at Thomas H. Ford Grade School 1964-65 seems like eons. My first thought then was dancing to the top 40 on my transistor radio at WRAW 1340-AM. Miss Eshmont, as I recall, was the most stern teacher I had. Definitely different in character and teaching than the others. She presented herself as a younger Granny from the Beverly Hill Billies show on TV. That's how I remember her.

May Day Celebration in the spring of 1965 was the highlight of this grade. It's a European festival of spring celebrated by our ancestors including singing about the new growth of the spring season and dancing around a large pole while weaving long ribbon streamers from the top to the bottom. These ribbons were held by the dancers as they lifted them over a dancer and then under the next. Until now, that's what I always thought it was.  I found this after Googling the subject:

"May 1 marks the Celtic festival of Beltane, also referred to as May Day, which many neopagans and Wiccans around the world observe to celebrate the onset of summer. Beltane may refer to the “fires of Bel,” in honor of the Celtic sun god, Belenus. Though the origin of the practice of wrapping a tall pole in ribbon and woven tree branches is difficult to pin to a specific time and place, historians agree that the Maypole began as a part of the Pagan May Day festival known as Beltane in the UK and Ireland and Walpurgis in Germanic European countries."

The 6th grade students voted for the May Day Court. It may have been by a show of hands, though I could stand corrected. I was hoping to be selected and at the same time preparing for disappointment. I made the cut, phew!  

Then I found out I had to wear a real pastel dressy-dress! Ugh. My tomboy tendencies made this process unpleasant for everyone involved. I was in tears when I first put on the blue chiffon dress with shoulder streamers and a big gaudy fake rhinestone pin on my chest. Fake rhinestone, that's pretty bad, right?  If I had to wear this dress, I made sure that pin was not part of it! Including the pin, the only other thing missing in pictures below is the May Pole. Darn.

The May Queen was Margo, sitting front and center in a white dress pretty as a picture, and my best friend Margie was runner-up on her left in a pink dress. There were several pink dresses worn (parents did not coordinate) so it's easy to spot me in blue.

Oh yeah, my grades. Apparently my 'self control' was in question early on, as well as reading independently and my singing voice. I figure it's just the summer fun taking a while to wear off. 

Getting out of "grade school" was exciting and scary.  I had to find a way to get to Southwest Jr High School in town because the school district did not provide transportation that I can recall. Public transportation, before they called it BARTA, was ten cents one way. 

And last but not least.... my report card cover.  I have NO WORDS for this piece of art! 👀

Elementary Grade 4

School year 1962-63

I'd like to say I remember Mrs. Kamarousky, but I do not. I do remember German class. Not in a good way. To me, the language always sounded harsh. Perhaps the teacher presented it that way. We sang songs to learn counting and grammar rules. I skated through and glad it ended. But how dare I talk; my oral skills in English and Reading needed some improvement, too.

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 There is really nothing to see here. My grades have improved and more consistent. It was the year of book bags carried like an attache with buckle closures, saddle shoes, Crayola No. 8 crayon pack, vaccines, dental hygienist visits to the classroom, civil defense practice, analog clocks, and the Weekly Reader.

The finger-painted report cover this year cannot be commended either. My love for creativity in all things art was not represented well as I critique it 58 years later. However, mom didn't get a chance to write my name on the black border, so that's a win!

Elementary Grade 3

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.

Mom insisted on rewriting my name on these works of art!

Elementary Grade 2

Second grade at Thomas H. Ford Grade School, as I look back,  was a surprise on the academic side. It looks like I gave up. I waivered in English, Writing, Art and Work Habits!. After one year. Really?

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Though I hate to admit it, if my 1st grade report card cover was an indication of this year's art ability, I deserved those Cs. This year's cover is not an abstract work, and looks more like Mr. Potato Head than a self portrait. At least my singing career didn't take a hit!

Grade 2 Report Card Cover 1960

To be fair to myself, attendance played a large roll in grading this year. I had mumps, measles (both kinds), strep throat and the perennial cold during grade school years, so my 13.5 days absent in 1961 can be blamed on one of these transmittable childhood viruses. The go-to remedies for most anything at that time was bed rest, Bayer baby aspirin, ginger ale and saltines, Campbell's chicken soup, calamine lotion and WRAW-AM radio all day long.

Attendance Summary, 1960-61

I do not recall much about my teacher, Elnor K. Thompson.  Miss Thompson was my mother's age I believe. Penmanship was my favorite subject and I practiced hard to print just like her.  Miss Thompson added words to our spelling booklets in black magic marker for penmanship practice and spelling. And yes, I loved smell of black magic marker. Leaded gas came in a close second. Who knew?

My second grade classroom was probably located in the same area as first and third grades, but I have no recollection of it other than the room's interior perimeter was decorated with a large alphabet, construction paper red apples and green trees, and a big green "black" board, maybe two. I was intrigued by the three-pronged chalk holder used to add lines on the board for penmanship class. Not all teachers could draw those lines straight though.

The end of 1961 showed  I closed strong academically (think racehorse) earning the privilege of moving on to the next challenge, third grade.

Elementary Grade 1

First grade was a lot to take in. The day was long in kid time, but I took to it eventually when I realized all it offered.  That should explain the slow academic start my grades reflect. In fact, that's my style every year, so if I was a racehorse, I'd be called a "closer".

My teacher, Miss Beverly Katzenmoyer, was tall and had a great smile.  She had to be my mother's age in 1959, about 26 years old.  But, let's agree her name was a test to say as a six year old.  Looking at my report card, there was no spelling grade for this year, so I can assume I didn't have to spell it. 

My classroom was the middle one of three first grade classes on the side of the Thomas H. Ford Grade School building. A large macadamed play yard, complete with three large white painted circles, was easily accessible from a door in the back of the classroom. Recess time was easy in, easy out.  Tag, Duck-Duck-Goose and Simon Says made the play list over and over at this age.

Arithmetic and Writing were my best achievements, while Social Studies and Science suffered. As I look at all these categories, I can't imagine what each one involved, since the highlight of this grade for me was Bob, Alice and Jip the Dog stories including other three-letter words to complete their tales. 

Thomas H Ford Grade School, Reading PA S.D.

It was a big deal each year to make a construction paper cover for its journey home to get signed and returned. I'm a tad disappointed in this year's holder, but not even surprised that I picked a purple theme. My mother felt the need to identify my report cards more than was necessary in my opinion, but I discovered our printing style is very similar in that we mix caps and lower case letters freely. Let's hope creativity improves as we peek at second grade in my next post.

Grade 1 Report Card Cover