GRAMMAR SCHOOL DAYS

I was talking to my Granddaughter one day and I told her that her mother and I went to the same Grammar school.  She looked at me and asked “What is Grammar School?”  Today it’s called Elementary School (K-5), and then you go to Middle School (6-8).  I told her in my day we went to Grammar School K through 8 and then on to high school. 

I started school in the Bronx, but we moved to the suburbs at the start of 2^nd grade.  In those days, they had an A & B class for each grade.  The teachers did not like kids who transferred from the NYC school system to their “superior” system.  So, after we finished the “A” semester (September – January) they made 4 of us transferees repeat “A” again.  We were told to bring our mothers in and then they told us that we would be ½ year behind our class.  But, they said, if we worked really hard, we might catch up.  The 4 of us never caught up.  My Mom got really upset and began to cry – that got me really mad.  I think I became one of the worst students they ever had. 

Somehow, whenever we lined up and marched down the hall to the lunchroom, the fire extinguishers would go off – just after I passed by.  The same thing happened to the fire alarm system if I happened to be in the area.  Two weeks before school got out for the summer, we would take the steam valve off the radiator in the boys’ room – which happened to be right across from the Principal’s office – and pee into the radiator.  We would also unlock a window on the first floor. 

In the summer, we would go to school, climb in through the unlocked window, and go up to the third floor so we could slide down the fire escape shoot. When our feet hit the door at the bottom, it opened and kids would be going up and down the slide all day. 

Back to the pee in the radiator – No one knew anything until the heat was turned on for the first time the next school year and the yellow fog floated across the hall into the Principal’s office. 

When I was in Grammar School, I was growing like a weed.  There is a picture of my third grade class and I am taller than my teacher.  In 7^th grade, the President of the US said that most school kids were in bad physical shape and he wanted everyone to compete in endurance tests.  A friend of mine held my legs while I did sit ups.  The Navy record at the time was 108 sit-ups in a certain amount of time.  I did 110.  Everyone was cheering when I broke the record, but, when I bent over to take my sneakers off, I doubled up and fell off the bench onto the gym floor.  I was sore for a week. 

In 8^th grade, they made us take music appreciation.  I didn’t like to sing.  The class was in the auditorium which had wooden seats.  The teacher would walk up behind each student and put her hand on the seat back.  If she could feel the vibration, she assumed you were singing.  When I saw her coming, I would start humming and she thought I was singing.  I liked to dance, though, so when there was a school play or show, I would take dance parts.

I was also on the school basketball team.  I was the center only because I was the tallest one.  We didn’t win many games.  When I graduated to High School, I think my Grammar School teachers and the Principal were happier than I was.   

My Dad had told me that I was there on a trial basis.  If I screwed up, I would be going to Catholic High School where the brothers wouldn’t put up with me.  Even though I turned out to have dyslexia and I had so much to catch up on from Grammar School, I wound up to be a good student and graduated in the upper half of my class.  The first 3 years, I was the classroom representative; in senior year, I was voted class treasurer.  We had the largest graduating class the school had ever had – 365 students.  I applied to 4 colleges and was accepted to all 4 – but I made a REALLY bad choice.  That’ll have to be another story!