Hayter for Aug 13, 2023
School Buds
The past week presented a major change in the lives of millions of people. Oddly enough, it had nothing to do with Taylor Swift. No, I’m referring to the arrival of another school year.
How many has that been now? I’ve been through 50 back-to-school episodes. Back in the day, there was no pre-school going on. There was kindergarten, but since it wasn’t free the seven Hayter kids never went. Each one of us still came out sharp as dull tacks and reasonably sane. Of course, none of us can color within the lines. I’m the worst. Mrs. Smith, my first-grade teacher told Mom not to expect a great deal from me. Had I not been standing next to Mom at the time, I’m fairly sure she would’ve said, “No duh.”
During my school years, I actually learned one or more things that are still with me. I learned that Pluto was the ninth planet even though it wasn’t a planet. I learned several things in math, but have only managed to apply a small portion of it. I took Trigonometry in high school and college, yet haven’t had cause to use a “sine” or “co-sine” since.
I did develop a greater appreciation for reading and writing. The teacher that got me interested in writing was my eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Wolfe. She once had us make up a story with three characters in it about… anything. The key was, the story had to be described from the view of each of the characters. An assignment to create a story would’ve been tough enough. But, Mrs. Wolfe had to toss a wrench into the whole thing. The woman was acting as if we actually had some sense.
Well, after grading the stories, Mrs. Wolfe read mine to the class. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I had missed the point of the assignment, yet, she said I nailed it. -- Talk about a boost to one’s spirit.
The teacher who got me interested in reading was my ninth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Vlahakas. A lovely lady. Had she not been married to Mr. Vlahakas, I might’ve dated her. Near the end of school that year, Mrs. V. agreed to give us bonus points for memorizing different poems that we had studied throughout the last semester. How many points we got for our recitations was based on the length of each poem.
I don’t remember what my grade was before the extra points but I ended up with a solid “A” after the dust settled. I can still recall “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lloyd Tennyson; “Forward the Light Brigade, was there a man dismayed? Not that the soldiers knew. Someone had blundered--and so on and so forth.”
I only memorized a couple of passages from “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe; “ 'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, 'tapping at my chamber door. Only this and nothing more…'” I didn’t memorize all of The Raven, because that thing could’ve been a book. There were a couple of others, but they were so interesting, that I can’t remember what they were.
It’s weird, but I remember the names of more students from my classes in Junior High than in High school.
I made so many friends throughout my years in Elementary, Junior High, and High School. Throughout my childhood, it was always Dennis and me. But when school started I made a bunch of friends over the years. As I go over the class pictures through elementary I still remember quite a few names.
There were no group pictures taken in Junior High, but each year’s Senior High School Class had a group shot taken. It’s odd how some seniors use the photo op as a chance to act like a jack donkey. Mr. Keller threatened death to anyone who tried it at Pasadena High. The man seemed capable of doing it, too.
When the group shot came out, I could’ve named almost half of the 425 students. That’s because we had so many different classes in high school. The photo was taken 56 years ago and is stored somewhere in the closet to my left. If I were to pull it out, I might be able to name 30 students. That has something to do with the functional issues with my brain, something about the photo being taken over five decades ago.
When I look back on my school days, I realize that the biggest blessing of the entire experience came from all of the friends I made. There is just something about living through the same experiences as others that can bring a closeness, It can also bring you closer to knowledge of who you need to stay away from.
During each new school year, there will be a lot of friendships made. Some kids will meet the person they will eventually marry. They may not know it at the time, but stuff happens. Kay and I were friends while in junior high. We were actually members of a clan of kids that had the same classes throughout both the eighth and ninth grades. It was a school program that, uh… I don’t know what it was supposed to do.
After going through high school and while in college at SFA, I went back to Pasadena one weekend and ran into Kay Cross at the wedding of a couple of old friends of ours. It was the first time I realized how beautiful that girl was and how much I enjoyed talking to her. Three years later, she married me. Really!
Had we not gone to the same junior high, and had the administration at the school not tried out a scheme where a group of kids were in the same classes throughout the eighth and ninth grades… well, I might’ve ended up with some girl from my first-grade class. – A crazy time, the first grade. I’ll probably get over it in the not-too-distant future.
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