This is a photo I took of photograph (I love technology) from a yearbook dating back to the mid 1950's. It is a picture of the front of the school my siblings and I attended, from Kindergarten thru Eighth Grade. The actual room I was in for Kindergarten is located all the way to the right, behind those posts. And it is the same room where my oldest granddaughter now attends Pre-K.
Isn't that amazing? Half a century from when I first went to school I now have a grandchild sitting in the same classroom. Also, my mother was a volunteer secretary at the school for many years. I doubt she ever thought that some day her first great-grandchild would walk thru the same doors.
I recently went with daughter #2 to pick M up from school. What a flood of memories! As I got out of the car, holding on to granddaughter C, I found myself looking every which way, saying, "and there's building two, and the gym, and that's where we used to line up...."
We climbed the hill and went inside with the other parents and grandparents who had come to collect their wee ones. I found myself standing in the hall, in the exact spot where I met my first best friend, Eileen. I could see into the classroom, with its vast windows and remembered the overhead light fixtures, which had characters from nursery rhymes circled around them.
Understandably, none of my recollections mean anything to my children or grandchildren. It sailed right over Little Miss' head when I excitedly exclaimed, "This used to be Grandmom's school!"
Several things in the building have changed, as they should, but enough remains to make it feel familiar. And bring back memories of a wonderful time in my life, when, like M, I was excited to go to school to learn and "play with the kids." May this be just the beginning of many similar happy school memories for my granddaughter.
It's much easier when you can't remember anything! There is no way I can remember my first, second or third school.
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