I attended a 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 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 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 had an attic on the third flood which was a great place to explore. I never knew what I would find up there.
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 Landers 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!
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. 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 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. Haley and she was known to be strick. 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 do use my right hand. It didn't work out very well and my writing ws 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 wasthe only "D" I received in grammar school.
