While we lived in the house in town, I would walk home from the grade school every day for lunch. It was about a mile, so I was happy when the school began having a "hot lunch program". For 25 cents you got a fairly nice lunch with little cartons of milk. To this day, I am leery of drinking chocolate milk from little cartons, because half the time the choc milk served at the school was sour, and there is almost nothing more nauseating than taking a big drink of sour chocolate milk.
Back in those days, the grade school still had recesses. Twice a day, morning and afternoon, the school bell rang and the little urchins were let out of class to go out on the playground and get dirty. This was the day before school liability, so there were big swings, slippery slides and merry-go-rounds on which the kids could damage themselves. But we could also play football and softball or just sit and watch bigger kids beat-up each other. One day playing softball, somehow I managed to rip open the back of my jeans so that my underpants were clearly visible to all. But I continued playing ball, went to class, and the defect in my pants did not bother me at all. However, my father, who was very straight-laced, was mortified that his son would run around school with his underpants showing.
Some days as I got older, instead of spending the 25 cents for school lunches, we would go across the street to the Hilltop Café, where for that price you could get a hamburger, coke and, best of all, an ice-cream sandwich. There was nothing better than the ice-cream sandwich, and to this day I remember the taste whenever I think about the Hilltop Café.
Other days at the grade school were not so pleasant. When we were in the sixth grade, I believe, there was a group of boys who formed a little gang, and proceeded to terrorize the other boys in the school. As I remember, the terror seemed to be mostly by verbal intimidation rather than physical. However, one day they passed the word that any boy who came out onto the playground at recess would be beaten. I can't recall about the rest of the boys, but I did go out and they hardly noticed me. So much for intimidation.
4 comments:
I did get more than verbal abuse from those boys. I can well remember running home at top speed so I could outdistance the rocks they would throw.
I remember going to the Hilltop for a Hamburger using money I was supposed to use for piano lessons. Needless to say I still don't play the piano.
I have good and bad memories about the recesses. We learned how to play most of the games we played later in life like baseball, softball, football and basketball plus we burned off a lot of energy. I remember that I had teased one of the boys about a certain girl and the next day he and a few of his friends including Arle Rainbolt caught me before school and twisted my arm behind my back and made me say uncle. I didn't tease him anymore. I was also injured a few times. Bob Hays threw a rock over the hedge the size of a baseball and hit me on top of the head. He also pushed me into the metal building by the basketball court and cut my finger requiring more stitches. I think Bob was druming up business for his dad. Bob Cable hit me in the head with a baseball bat while swinging at a pitched ball.
Boy, Dick, I don't see how you survived those recesses. Maybe that blow to the head with a bat explains a lot???
I well remember you "kids". I was ahead of you , class of 53. my sister, class of 49 sent me the articles she had received from another family member. Cedar Vale used to be wild on Saturday night... Reba[Hull] Thompson
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