I recently attended a book reading given by Suzanne Strempek Shea about her experiences at St Peter and Paul school and it gave me the idea that I should write something about my time at grammar school.
I attended Thorndike Grammar School in the village of Thorndike ( a village of the town of Palmer) where I grew up. The school was a large brick building on Main Street. It was built in 1912. It housed grades one thru 8. I lived in a four family house right across the street from the school for my first three years of school. My uncle Donnie and aunt Fran lived in the first apartment along with my three cousins. My Nana lived in the second apartment with her husband Charlie. My family lived in the third apartment and someone I didn't know very well called Fanny lived in the forth apartment. One of my early memories of living there was I could have two breakfasts. I ate the first breakfast with my family and then I would go to my Nana's for a second breakfast. I think she was the first person to give me tea to drink. She was Irish and always had tea with her meals. She also had a pantry in the kitchen that had many different things in it. One thing that I can remember was the cookie jar. If you were good, you could go into the pantry and get a cookie.The house also had an attic on the third floor which was a great place to explore. I never knew what I would find up there.
Living there made it very easy to get to school. I just had to cross the street and I was in the school yard. My mom said she would watch me from our house and was proud when I stood up to the bullies. There was time to play in the school yard until the bell rang signaling us to go inside. We would then line up on our "cubbies" one on each side of the school. The boys were on one side and the girls on the other. It was the same when recess was over too.
The classes in Thorndike grammar school were double classes like Suzanne describes in her book. First grade was with second, third with forth and so on. Mrs L was my teacher for the first two years. She was a very kind teacher and I never saw her get mad. She would teach us in the first grade and then would give us something to work on while she taught the second grade. I always thought it was interesting to listen to her teaching them. There were other teachers that would come to our grade also. There was an art teacher who always had something fun to do, a gym teacher that played games with us, and a music teacher. I had a love for music even at that early age and would sing loudly when the music teacher led us in a song. Mrs Landers said I had a voice like Perry Como! Class sizes were fairly small. There were probably 15 to 20 students in each class. Several of my friends went to either the Polish school or the French school in Three Rivers.
Recess was part of the school day at Thorndike Grammar. There was two periods of recess every day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. As long as the weather was nice, recess was outside in what was called the schoolyard. The schoolyard had the usual equipment for play. There were swings that would go very high and if you were brave you jumped off them.. There were also seesaws which could be a little dangerous if the person you were sharing the seesaw jumped off while you were in the air. There was a merry-go-round that could be pushed to a very fast speed and falling off usually meant some kind of bruise or cut. There was also a slide which was made of metal and could get very hot in the sun. I'm sure there were a few burns from sliding down it. In the middle of the playground was a large cement structure called the Bandstand. My mother told me that there were concerts on it when she was growing up. Now it's just something that students weren't allow to go on during recess.I
There was a special rule for the playground. Each day one grade had it's "day" for the playground equipment. This rule meant if that someone from another grade was on the thing you wanted to use, you could tell them it was your "day" and they would have to let you use it. One teacher was outside at recess to watch over everyone. It must have been difficult to keep an eye on eight grades of students all outside at once. I will tell about other activities during recess when I get to the later grades.
After two years I graduated to the third grade. The teacher there was Mrs. H and she was known to be strict. My first encounter with her was not a good one. I was born left handed but Mrs. Haley decided that I should write with my right hand. She would stand over me while I attempted to use my right hand. It didn't work out very well and my writing was barely legible. After many tries, Mrs.Haley finally gave in and let me use my left hand. One thing that I still remember to this day is my report card from her. I'm not sure what grades I received in all of the subjects but I do remember that Mrs. Haley gave me a "D" in penmanship. I believe that was the only "D" I received in grammar school.
There was a large room in the school where movies was shown. It was always a good day when there was a movie which meant a break from the usual classroom teaching. Usually a few of the grades got together for the movie. The movies were mostly about nature or history. An no, unfortunately there wasn't any popcorn. One thing that could always be counted on was the movie reel breaking or getting jammed. The lights would then come on while the problem was fixed.
Fifth and sixth grades were on the second floor of the school. I was moving on up! I don't have too many memories of those grades but one event sticks out. The day before this certain school day someone did something that made me mad. I can't remember what it was but I knew I wanted to get even. But what I do remember, at recess I went up to this person and punched him in the nose. I was so mad! A fight started and was broken up by the teacher who had recess duty that day. What happened next was burned into my memory. The teacher of the fifth and sixth grades, Mrs. J took me out into the hall. She shook me and said the following words that I still remember to this day She said "Who do you think you are? King Tut?" I don't remember my response but I knew I wasn't King Tut. I don't remember ever getting into another fight after that in grammar school.
By the time I was in fifth grade we had moved to a house on Pine street which was a little longer of a walk to school. And yes, I walked uphill both ways in the snow! Walking that far gave me a new job, a safety patrol member. I got to wear a white belt across my chest and I felt very important. I had to stop traffic while everyone crossed the street and then I would walk in front of everyone until I got to my street and then someone else would take over.
After sixth grade I graduated to the seventh grade which was back on the first floor. I was now one of the "big" kids! The teacher for the seventh and eighth grades was Miss H.. She was also the principal of the school. She was nice most of the time but if you did something really wrong you would see another side of her. She would bring you into a small office off of the classroom where the "belt" was. Nobody wanted to get the "belt". It was usually a tap on the hands but I think the embarrassment was the worse part. Everyone knew where you went. That would never be tolerated today. I also remember her watching the students on the playground from her office. If she saw someone doing something wrong she would rap on the window with a ruler. It's a wonder the window never broke!
Being in seventh grade brought on more responsibilities. One job I had was delivering the milk to all of the classrooms. Every day all students would get a pint of milk in a small glass bottle. The milk costs three cents a day or fifteen cents a week. I would sometimes get a chocolate milk from the person who delivered the milk to the school.
Recess was different now that I was in the seventh grade. We didn't use the equipment as much as we did when we were younger. There was always a few games of marbles going on. A hole was dug in the part of the playground that was dirt and we threw the marble from a distance to try to get it in the hole.Getting in in the hole meant you would take all of the marbles that missed. Another game that we played is one that would never be allowed now. Back in the fifties we were allowed to bring jack knives to school. The game we played was throwing the knife to see if we could stick the blade in the ground. I don't remember if there was any prize for that but it was fun. Today you would probably be arrested for carrying a knife to school.
One thing that still sticks in my mind is a recess on November 22, 1963. I was out at recess on a beautiful sunny day when someone came up to the fence and said that President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas Texas. I didn't believe it at first but when I returned to the classroom I could tell miss H had been crying so I believed it. I don't remember who came up to the fence but I remember time. It was about 2:20.
