Haysboro Elementary School

Sondra and I were just talking.

The family is all getting together next weekend

to celebrate Mom's 80th birthday.

More about that another day.

(I won't be there...  more about that another day...)

Anyhow - she was lamenting that we wouldn't

be able to walk over to Haysboro together

and check out our "Centennial Trees" we all

planted in 1967 to commemorate 

the Centennial.

And then we started talking about memories.

Mr. Bateman, the principal. We both remember

his as quiet and gentle.

Mrs. Summers.  

She was HUGE!

And hid candies in her tissues.

(I had her in Grade 5, but on the third day

of school she fell and broke her leg, so

we got Mrs. Hearst, a substitute for the

ENTIRE YEAR!)

Talk about dodging a bullet!

Mrs. Hearst was the teacher who germinated

the seed for reading.

Mrs. Payne in Grade 4 planted it.

We read lots in her class.

But Mrs. Hearst got mismatched carpet squares

and made a rug out of them in the corner

of the room.  We could lay on the floor

and read for an hour every day!

I honestly can't remember if it was Mrs. Payne

or Mrs. Hearst who read to us everyday.

A chapter after lunch.

We did The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Charlotte's Web.

The Borrowers.

And I was HOOKED.

I've been an avid reader ever since.

And of course Mr. Bateman left and we got

a new principal.  A woman.....  (nope, blank...)

The assistant principal was a man whose name

also escapes me but started with an S (I think)

He was my homeroom teacher.

But the Principal taught us Language Arts.

I sat in the first desk in the row right in front of her desk.

She squished herself in the tiny space between her

desk and mine.

And her breath was AWFUL!!!!!

Somebody (NOT me, I'm pretty sure it was

David Sharpe) snuck a bottle of Scope into her desk.

The entire class did detention for that one.

LOL

Our room had a back door that went right into

the principal's office.

Scared me STRAIGHT for sure!

In fact, years and years later I was applying

for a job with the school board as a school

secretary.  I had to interview with the

Principal.  When I met with him, I told him

it was the first time in my life I had actually

been IN a Principal's office!

And it didn't look anything like what I thought it would.

I've always pictured "the office" as a dark,

dungeon-esque place.

But his was bright and airy and had TOYS!

Sheesh!  What I missed out on for all those years!

Thanks Soni for the trip down memory lane!