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Ah, Loddy, you bring back such pleasant memories of my grade school days....

Getting smacked with a teachers ruler? Each class had its own set of bad kids who got smacked with that ruler...but in 5th grade, I had this teacher, Mr. Deans, who took no nonsense from anyone, mainly the bad boys...he walked around the room like a general, always a yardstick(never just a foot ruler), in his hand, or a long pointer...if ANY boy so much as look at him crooked, WHACK...that kid got it...almost every boy got whacked by him at one time or another, even the well behaved boys, who sometimes also got out of control...

He never smacked a girl, not ever....and we had our share of bad girls as well...if a girl acted up, she was sent to the corner...

And when Teacher-Parent time came, everyones parents came up, even the bad kids, whose parents did wish for their children to be better...they personally would thank Mr. Deans for smacking their kids, and tell him to continue doing that should their kid act up...he was strict, and that yardstick got a good working out(One time he hit a kid so hard, that yardstick splintered into pieces)...but he was also fair, and demanded that we learn and teach us he did well...I have often wondered about some of those bad boys, and is it no possible, that Mr. Deans made a big influence in their lives, perhaps making them think twice about their bad behavior, and perhaps setting them straight in life...

Being that we lived in Chicago, and went to a neighborhood school, we always went home for lunch...few of us had moms that worked, so most everybody went home...we had an hour to get home, eat, and get back to school....the school did have a lunch room downstairs, for kids whose mom worked, and the kids packed a lunch and ate down there...

But we loved running home for lunch...mom always, always had soup and crackers, and PBandJ or bologna sandwiches, and potato chips, and milk, and some sort of cookies or sweets...and we watched 'Uncle Johnny Coons' on TV, a local guy with a kids program of skits, and Three Stooges and cartoons...so lunch time was indeed glorious, with a great lunch and fun watching TV...then back to school, prepared for the afternoon session...

When we were in the upper grades, 6th, 7th and 8th, gym, as we called it, or phys ed, as I guess they call it today, was always strictly just the boys together, and then the girls together....but once a week, the boys and girls had gym together...our gym teacher, was going to teach us to dance...usually square dancing, or slow waltzes...

It was all too comical....the girls would line up in one long line, and the gym teacher told the boys to ask which girl they wanted to dance with...after some of the boys had made their choices, the gym teacher would then pair up the boys who were too shy to ask, with the leftover girls who were not asked....

I always was asked to dance by, I guess, my first 'boyfriend' Daniel....he was so very cute, at least to me, and he always asked me to dance, and my little girl heart would throb....I guess its just toooo cute, in that innocent time, with the boys and girls first really getting to know each other, and dancing together...sounds sooo simplistic, I suppose to todays children of that same age, but we were young and so very innocent, and so very cute, and so very anxious to act all grown up, and dance...

On the last day of school, it was just a 1/2 session...we usually just talked, and the teacher recapped the year, and sometimes we sang...it was just a little get together...then just about 1 hour before dismissal, the teacher passed out the report cards, and you got to see your final grades, and then it was also written down, whether you passed on to the next grade, or failed, and had to repeat...you could always tell who failed...the failing girls would cry, and have to comforted by their classmates and the teacher, the boys would get mad and commiserate with their boy buddies...

Altho there always seemed to be at least one or two who failed, by and large we all passed...in those days, kids did generally respect the teacher, the parents wanted their children to succeed, and made them work hard, and the teachers really did teach the good old basics, and with repetition, and perserverance, most of the kids passed to the next grade...

Grade school memories, memories of a child of the 50s...they were wonderful, innocent times, a time when we knew our dads worked hard, our moms were at home for us, our teachers really did care about us, and did teach us well...I may be getting on in age, but I am so very thankful, that I was a child of the 50s, especially when I look at the kids of today...I am not sure if they will ever view their childhood school days, with the same nostalgia and love that I can view my own school days...