School Days

My twin and I would be ready for school in 1955 and found our elementary school a world of wonder with its kitchen toys for the little girls and building blocks for the boys. On the playground there would be a Halloween parade in the day and a carnival at night. The Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile would sometimes come to the school or a diorama of a huge trailer-sized forest complete with a real live Smokey the Bear. Sometimes Chucko the Clown would come and cowboy Monty Montana! We weren’t as thrilled when the traveling dental bus would come and check out our teeth, and we really dreaded the nurses dispensing penicillin shots to every Los Angeles school child. When we were old enough to go on field trips, the school system saw to it we were introduced to culture at the Shrine Auditorium with ballets and little opera of fairy tales. We were taken to the zoo, the La Brea tar pits, gardens, and the Museum of Natural History.

It seemed our self-esteem wasn’t of much concern to the system, but we thrived despite the taunts from other children, insensitivity of the teachers, and complete lack of political correctness of the day.

As adults my siblings and I have often talked about and wondered why we weren’t scholastic achievers and what about our education held us back. It could be our somewhat similar personalities, lack of motivation, or our parents’ attitudes that valued respect, honesty, and hard work over pre-college grades and coursework. We really can’t put our finger on it, but, regardless, all of us have grown into adulthood as avid readers, politically savvy, hard working, and successful to one degree or another.