The first school I attended was Eastside Elementary School, located in Florida. I only attended this school for three years, and haven’t seen the school since 1963. However, I did manage to find the following image of the school on the internet:
Google photo of Eastside Elementary School
I don’t have many memories of the time I spent at Eastside, and the few memories I do have aren’t good ones. I’ll share them anyway.
I remember stepping on the grass on the first day of school, then getting hauled to the principal’s office, by an over-zealous ‘patrol boy’, for doing so. You see, it was against school rules to step off the sidewalks and onto the grass. I got very upset and cried, but nothing bad happened to me, thank goodness. The principal just asked me not to step on the grass again–and you can be sure I didn’t!
In trouble on first day! (Google photo)
I also remember getting a paddling, along with most of the rest of the class, during my second grade year. The teacher left us unattended for a good while, and told us not to get out of our seats. Well, kids will be kids, and after a while, most of the class was out of their seats and ‘dancing’, myself included. We all received a ‘lick’ (or two) with the teacher’s paddle. I was mortified, and have never forgotten it.
Google photo
My next memory is one of misspelling the word ‘girl’ on a spelling test, then having to write it on the chalkboard over and over, in front of the class! Another humbling experience I’ve never forgotten, but I’ve never misspelled the word ‘girl’ again either!
My final memory of Eastside Elementary is that of recess, which I always hated, because of the’organized games’ like Red Rover or Dodgeball. I hated any kind of organized game, and was often the last one chosen for a team.
My family moved to Georgia in 1963, and I began fourth grade there. My school memories in Georgia are much more pleasant than the ones I have from Florida. I lived across the street from the school during part of my fourth grade year, so I was able to go home for lunch every day. I could also walk across the street, to play on the school playground, whenever I wanted to. My fourth grade teacher, “Miss Rogers”, had also been my daddy’s teacher, and was very nice to me.
Sixth grade, eighth grade, and twelfth grade stand out in my mind as my favorite years of school. Sixth grade was a favorite year because the teacher was my parents’ friend and our next-door neighbor. Eighth grade was a favorite because I made great grades and was inducted into the Beta Club. My senior year was my favorite year because…well, because it was my senior year, of course! I made excellent grades, that year, plus I got out of school, at 1 o’clock, as part of the school-to-work program! I only had to attend four classes, instead of the usual six.
I never really minded going to school, but, during my senior days, I much preferred going to work and earning a paycheck over sitting in a classroom and studying. My preference never changed, but I did take some on-line college courses–thirty years after I graduated!
I’m linking this post with other ‘Memory Monday’ posts at Retired-not-Tired. Thanks to Judy for hosting this fun new meme!
Reflections...by Kathy 
Thank you for sharing your memories. I also hated organized games.
Not all memories are going to be good ones unfortunately. So glad the later years were better.
Oh, bless your heart! How sad that someone would treat a little child like that on the first day of school. There certainly were a lot of ways to humiliate someone in those days and sometimes the people with the power (like the school patrol) misuse it to make themselves feel important. I’m glad your memories later were better.
That was a pretty strict rule about the grass. We never got paddled in school. Glad you had better memories in Georgia. I had so many words spelled wrong that the teacher pulled me out in the hall and told me I didn’t have to write each one 500 times. She gave me a lower number but I don’t remember what it was!
I try to remember bad times when I was in school and try very hard not to be that way to my students. I want to inspire them, not crush their spirit. I have more good than bad memories but the bad ones sure do tend to stick out. I enjoyed reading about your school days. 🙂
Oh my, what terrible start. Luckily your Georgia school memories are more pleasant. But I’ll bet the memories of how bad you felt made you a compassionate “para”.