Unforgettable School Days – Part 2

Posted On October 28, 2023

My grandkids just finished the first quarter of school. One reported very satisfactory grades, although he claims not to like school. I haven’t heard from the others about their grades, but they all generally tell me they don’t like school. I wish they, did but understand that they don’t need it for sociability as much as I did because they participate in other activities outside of school and the high schoolers are in constant contact with friends through social media.

This post is about my memories of 5th through 8th grade. Please check out Unforgettable School Days – Part 1 for the 1st-4th grades.

School Days – 5th Grade

Despite this innocent looking face, I think I was a handful for my 5th grade teacher! That is the year I came to hate math when the way it was taught changed from what I was taught in 4th grade.

Unfortunately, math curriculum has continued to change more than any other subject throughout the years since then.

I had my first male teacher, Mr. James Waggoner, and we did not get along well. (More detail in My Battle with Math)

I really don’t remember anything else about this year, except that “Bimbo,” a boy in 6th grade gave me a ring. It’s pretty amusing looking back on that. It was only a ring from a gum machine but my parents made me give it back to him. They said I was too young to wear any kind of ring given to me by a boy!

I could not find my 5th grade report card. Perhaps it was discarded because of my math grades. However, I have this sweet picture of me with a June Allison pageboy hairstyle. As may become obvious from most of my pictures, my hair was usually cut and permed or styled by my mother who had no training in that regard.

School Days – 6th Grade

My favorite elementary year was probably 6th grade. The funny thing is, I can’t remember the teacher’s name for sure. I think it was either Mrs. Wright or Roberts. She was a brunette probably in her 30’s or 40’s. I guess it’s good from an educational standpoint, that I remember more about her teaching methods than what she looked like.

She made class interesting by having us do a daily news show. I think it was supposed to be a radio show. We had a stand with a pretend microphone, and we stood behind it for our broadcasts.

Each day, someone was in charge of reporting the weather forecast, another the local news, another the world news, another local sports and another school announcements (as best I recall). That meant, we had to listen to the news at home before school, take notes and then accurately report it to the class. We also had to get school news from the office.

It was a great way to get the students to listen to the news reports at home and make social studies and science (weather) more interesting to me. And it was an effective way to get us to become more responsible as it seemed the assignment was actually useful and other students were disappointed if you didn’t do your assigned part. In addition, it improved our public speaking skills.

School Days – 7th Grade

For 7th grade I had Mrs. Epperson. I remember her being a bit “quirky” and unorganized. But that could be entirely wrong as I don’t remember much about her either.

I’m guessing that by the time I got to 6-8th grades, I was much more into the social aspects of a classroom than the academic ones and that might be why I don’t remember the teachers very well. I can’t recall any specific memories of this year.

School Days – 8th Grade

Isn’t my hair pretty in my 8th grade picture? NOT! If it was in the days of digital portraits, this one would have been deleted. Not sure what was up with my hair, other than it was “up.” Poofed up on top and the bangs were arched up. LOL!

I also notice that I wore red for 5th-8th grade pictures.

Mrs. Christian was my 8th grade teacher. She was a perky, younger teacher who dressed the most modernly of any of my teachers. I also remember that she had a student teacher, Mr. Burnett.

Again, I have no memories of the academics of 8th grade.

Notice the “autograph” of a friend on my 8th grade report card. I don’t remember that, but since that isn’t my handwriting, I guess it was an autograph.

Social Aspects of Upper Elementary School

I hosted and went to quite a few “bunking” (slumber) parties during these years. The main goal, as I remember was to have fun while staying up all night. Since I was never allowed to miss Sunday School and church on Sundays, it was always a good idea for the bunking parties to be on a Friday night so I could sleep most of the next day.

Bunking Parties

One of the most memorable bunking parties was at Linda’s house. When we arrived, we found out she had a blind sister, who stayed home for school. In addition, we were quite surprised to find that her parents raised parakeets in their basement to sell to dime stores. It was fascinating to go down there and see the many, many cages of birds.

Sports

We had a 7th-8th grade football team that played the other two elementary schools in our school district. Those games were held at the high school and were where we first interacted with others from our grade who we would go to high school with.

For basketball season, we had boy’s and girl’s teams. I was never considered athletic so didn’t think about playing. However, two of my best friends tried out for cheerleading so I did too. I cheered both years. Debbie would choreograph cheer dances. I remember we did one to the song Dizzy.

Being a cheerleader allowed a girl to be more noticed by the boys. I especially liked getting attention from the boys from those other two elementary schools. I first heard of my husband, because he was from one of those schools and one of my classmates was interested in him.

Recess

We had recess all the way through 8th grade. As we got older, we ditched the playground equipment and played ball instead. We would play softball on the school field or dodgeball. I was usually one of the last to be picked to be on a team.

We played lots of tag too. I vividly remember one day when I was running after Gary and Lester through some grass. I did not realize that there was standing water. I slid across that grass and water on my back. Everything I had on was soaked. The office couldn’t reach my parents so my friend, Marsha, called her dad and asked him to bring me clothes to change into. I remember him quietly explaining that he brought underwear just in case I needed them, which I did.

Sense of Humor

I think I developed my good sense of humor in upper elementary school. My parents had raised me to be very self-confident. So, when the kids at school made fun of me for being unathletic or clumsy, I just laughed it off. Since I could take the teasing good naturedly, it resulted in even more teasing. One boy started calling me Eggbert (or Eggburn) the Scary Rabbit (don’t have a clue why) and then a couple more called me that. Two of them, Don and Lester, will still call me that on occasion.

8th Grade Graduation

My 8th grade class and the ones from the other two elementary’s in our district graduated together in a ceremony at the high school. 8th grade graduation was a big deal back then and continues to be so to this day. I think the entire ceremony should be eliminated. The law requires all students to continue on to high school so it’s no great accomplishment. However, I believe my opinion must be in the minority.

We did have an 8th grade banquet at our building which was nice. I was emcee and I remember, a classmate, Loretta, wrote and played a piano piece she’d written for it.

Closing Thoughts

My mother was usually one of the room mothers who helped host seasonal parties and provide refreshments. Unless a student lived in the Stephens community where they had close neighbors, was in 4-H or went to church, we rarely saw each other in the summer, so we really enjoyed getting together during school.

My years at elementary school were fairly uneventful which is a good thing. All the memories were good. I believe most of us felt safe and cared for by the teachers and staff. I don’t remember any petty fighting among students. Most of the students had a stable home life with a mother and father present. There were certainly no worries of school shootings!

The only tragedy I can recall was when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I heard about it on the school bus when one of the riders was playing their transistor radio. I was not really old enough to be very concerned about it though.

I’m mainly sharing my memories for others from my school district, but hopefully some of my other readers will enjoy reading of them.

What memories do you have? Please share them in the comments.