General 1930s Thoughts - School Days
From ‘The Adventures of The McGaffin’s As We Remember Them’ — a family memoir begun July 17, 2003.
General 1930s Thoughts. We had a big field behind the house and we spent a lot of our time building forts, playing tag, hide and seek, etc. It was a great area for kids. There was a large mound of dirt that became a great place to use your imagination. In 1936 I started school at West End School. This was a K – 6 facility that was about ½ mile from the house. All I can remember about kindergarten is that they had a great sand table. They also had a big playground behind that school that we would use both during school and on our own free time. When I completed first grade, they decided that I should skip 2nd and go directly to 3rd. At the time I thought that this was a great move, but as I look back, I am not sure that it was the best thing for me. I remember my fourth-grade teacher, her name was Mrs. Meany. She was very strict and most of us thought that she lived up to her name. Mr. Harris was the principal and also the 6th grade teacher. His office was behind the classroom, with a door leading from the classroom into the office. In the fifth grade I decided that I wanted to play the drums in the band. The music teacher told us to buy some drumsticks and to make a practice pad. This was a piece of wood that was covered with the rubber of an inner tube. It worked quite well but I don't know why I never progressed to a real drum. There was a very nice janitor; his name was Mr. Fody. At that time, I would take my lunch to school. The lunch always had a jar of something to drink. Most of the time neither my teacher nor I were able to open the jar. I would then go down into the basement and ask Mr. Fody to open the jar. He thought that it was very funny that my little mother could screw on the jar cap that tight. When he would see her around the school, he would tease her about it. I think she enjoyed the teasing. Mom and Dad were asked to decorate the room for a PTA supper and card party. There was no money so they went out into the woods and brought back some very nice-looking vines and placed them all around the room. However, the attendees were not too pleased because the vines were poison ivy. Neither Mom or Dad had any problems with the poison ivy blisters. This changed a few years later when they decided to clean up our yard to get rid of the vines because I was very sensitive. They gathered up all the vines and started a fire. Apparently, Mom was exposed to the smoke and she experienced a very bad case.
About this time, we found that there was a much newer house up the street that was for rent and Dad was having some problems with our current landlord. So we packed up again and moved to 650 Rockview Ave. This was a new house with an attached garage. It was a great improvement. It had oil heat instead of coal and there was a refrigerator that had a small freezer so we were able to make ice cubes. This was wonderful. My room was over the garage. This was a nice move because I didn't lose any friends and things continued along. I received my first bike on one of my birthdays and in those days, there were only boys and girls' bikes and they were all the same size. My bike was a used bike with 26-inch wheels. At my size there were only two ways to get on. Take the bike to the curb and then put your leg over the bar to the pedal and go. The second method was the cool method (not a term that was used then). You put your left leg on the pedal, gave the bike a push and swung your leg over the seat while the bike was moving. Coming to a stop when your legs were short was another challenge that I will not bother to describe, as I am sure that you can picture the results. There were a lot of kids in the neighborhood and we were always playing something. I remember Monopoly games that would go on for days because no one would sell or trade properties. There were often very active "Kick the can" games that would last until after dark.
