As our country was turning one hundred, I was turning six years old.And as our country was changing almost daily, there seemed to be a lot of change in my life, and in our family life as well.
In fall I would start school, walk through the doors of that building up the street, that building that my father so admired and was so proud of.But that was a few months off, and the early months of the year continued much as before, in a kind of carefree routine of going to the babysitters some days, and staying home when my father was off work. War movies and cowboys and Indians in the afternoons, never mind that those movies were not providing me with especially good ideas or attitudes about some of my fellow human beings. Then, in the spring, there was time to ride around my neighborhood-I was still on a tricycle, and play with my friends Kenny and Johnny Bast...I mean Johnny Basterache, when he wasn't in school.
At home, a lot of what was going on was directed at getting me prepared for school.At Christmas, one of the gifts that we received was a small blackboard with colored chalk.My father showed us how,if you drew on the board, you could later take anything you had written on it, and wipe it away with a cloth, or an eraser that was made for just that purpose.That kind of amazed me at the time, because I was used to thinking that once something was written down, it was written down for good. So we drew pictures in chalk-sort of.I tried to draw stick men, but the efforts looked rather Neanderthal. My sister drew as well, but between the two of us it was mostly just scribbles.But then, when my father was home from work, he would show us how to make words.The first word that I can ever recall making on the blackboard was C_A_T. Cat! And then several words that rhymed wit cat.Hat, Rat, mat and a few others.Then he taught us dog as well.And pig.And big.Big Pig! Then car and far and more.Before the snow left the ground I was even spelling really hard words like fish. There was a line of letters at the top of the blackboard too.The alphabet.So I learned all of the letters and how they sounded. Then I learned numbers up to ten, and the fact that one and one makes two,two and two makes four, or, a bit harder,two and three makes five. I would not be going off to school totally unprepared or ignorant.My parents wouldn't have that.
Along with all the new words and numbers, my parents prepared me for the etiquette of attending school,well in advance.In school,you were not to talk unless the teacher asked you a question.No talking with the other students.You were not allowed to eat or chew gum.That didn't seem like much of a problem, as we were not used to eating between meals, and I didn't even like gum.If you went to school, you needed to be able to tie your own shoes, because you couldn't ask the teacher.So my father started teaching me.It seemed to take a long time getting it right, and I practiced all the time.Even our babysitter helped me with that. You had to line up when you were going in and out of the school. but at home there was only my sister and I .so there wasn't much way to practice that.Two kids hardly make a decent lineup.
There were a lot of other things to do to get ready for school as well.I had to go to the doctor, for a routine medical check up.And to the eye doctor to find out if I needed glasses.And then the dentist to have my teeth checked.And in those days,everyone had to go get a needle, called a vaccination before you could start school.It was a sort of rite of passage.
One day, while we were talking about school, and what it would be like, my father said,"You'll likely have a girlfriend when you are in school.Most boys do." I wasn't certain at all that I liked that idea. What good were girls, I thought.They didn't play with trucks or guns, and just stayed with each other and did their own thing,like playing with dolls.That was something that I had no idea how it was even done.The only girl I really knew, aside from my sister was Karen, who lived across the street.We played together a lot, but she wasn't a girlfriend, though she seemed agreeable enough to me. No,I thought, by girlfriend, my father had something ekse altogether in mind, but I wasn't certain what.I had a lot to learn about going to school, before I could actually go.
In fall I would start school, walk through the doors of that building up the street, that building that my father so admired and was so proud of.But that was a few months off, and the early months of the year continued much as before, in a kind of carefree routine of going to the babysitters some days, and staying home when my father was off work. War movies and cowboys and Indians in the afternoons, never mind that those movies were not providing me with especially good ideas or attitudes about some of my fellow human beings. Then, in the spring, there was time to ride around my neighborhood-I was still on a tricycle, and play with my friends Kenny and Johnny Bast...I mean Johnny Basterache, when he wasn't in school.
At home, a lot of what was going on was directed at getting me prepared for school.At Christmas, one of the gifts that we received was a small blackboard with colored chalk.My father showed us how,if you drew on the board, you could later take anything you had written on it, and wipe it away with a cloth, or an eraser that was made for just that purpose.That kind of amazed me at the time, because I was used to thinking that once something was written down, it was written down for good. So we drew pictures in chalk-sort of.I tried to draw stick men, but the efforts looked rather Neanderthal. My sister drew as well, but between the two of us it was mostly just scribbles.But then, when my father was home from work, he would show us how to make words.The first word that I can ever recall making on the blackboard was C_A_T. Cat! And then several words that rhymed wit cat.Hat, Rat, mat and a few others.Then he taught us dog as well.And pig.And big.Big Pig! Then car and far and more.Before the snow left the ground I was even spelling really hard words like fish. There was a line of letters at the top of the blackboard too.The alphabet.So I learned all of the letters and how they sounded. Then I learned numbers up to ten, and the fact that one and one makes two,two and two makes four, or, a bit harder,two and three makes five. I would not be going off to school totally unprepared or ignorant.My parents wouldn't have that.
Along with all the new words and numbers, my parents prepared me for the etiquette of attending school,well in advance.In school,you were not to talk unless the teacher asked you a question.No talking with the other students.You were not allowed to eat or chew gum.That didn't seem like much of a problem, as we were not used to eating between meals, and I didn't even like gum.If you went to school, you needed to be able to tie your own shoes, because you couldn't ask the teacher.So my father started teaching me.It seemed to take a long time getting it right, and I practiced all the time.Even our babysitter helped me with that. You had to line up when you were going in and out of the school. but at home there was only my sister and I .so there wasn't much way to practice that.Two kids hardly make a decent lineup.
There were a lot of other things to do to get ready for school as well.I had to go to the doctor, for a routine medical check up.And to the eye doctor to find out if I needed glasses.And then the dentist to have my teeth checked.And in those days,everyone had to go get a needle, called a vaccination before you could start school.It was a sort of rite of passage.
One day, while we were talking about school, and what it would be like, my father said,"You'll likely have a girlfriend when you are in school.Most boys do." I wasn't certain at all that I liked that idea. What good were girls, I thought.They didn't play with trucks or guns, and just stayed with each other and did their own thing,like playing with dolls.That was something that I had no idea how it was even done.The only girl I really knew, aside from my sister was Karen, who lived across the street.We played together a lot, but she wasn't a girlfriend, though she seemed agreeable enough to me. No,I thought, by girlfriend, my father had something ekse altogether in mind, but I wasn't certain what.I had a lot to learn about going to school, before I could actually go.
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