Thinking about elementary school

[ashling]

I'll be 61 in September. I am remembering elementary school. Those were the days!

My old school, Valley Oaks Elementary in Houston - really Hilshire Village - is being torn down at the end of the month. Apparently they are using it for a SWAT exercise.

I remember the Western Jamboree and Spaghetti Suppers, and paper drives, and watching the Mercury space shots on TV. Senora Trevino used to come in once a week and teach us Spanish - "bate, bate, Chocolate" (batay batay Cho kola tay)
5th grade social studies, recess-


We had our Western Jamboree set up in that parking lot - musical chairs and the cake walk.

lots of memories

[Loryn]

1. Nice memories!

I remember watching the space launches, all the kids would cound down 10,9,8....

I still do that when I'm waiting for the microwave!

[pinboy3niner]

2. I don't remember much about elementary school

It was around the corner from my church, but it was a public school.

I do remember being chastised by a favorite teacher when I threw the bat while playing baseball--and I never threw the bat again.

And I remember the busdriver coming down on me. It was when the kids on the bus were raucous and rowdy, and I joined in, shouting something--just when all the other kids had gone silent. The driver instructed me to report to my teacher, and I did. And 2 years later, in my school yearbook, my teacher memorialized what I told her in her inscription: "Be better on the bus."

[femmocrat]

3. My old elementary and high schools are both long gone.

Last edited Wed Jun 12, 2013, 01:05 PM - Edit history (1)

The elementary school is now an ugly asphalt playground complete with graffiti. I don't know what is at the high school site.

We walked to elementary school and went home for lunch. I can still remember the names of my teachers!

My old elementary school:

[pinboy3niner]

4. When I returned to CA and told someone my HS, they said "Oh--Drive-by High?"

You really can't go home again.

[femmocrat]

5. Sounds like a rough neighborhood.

So much has changed for the worse.

[pinboy3niner]

8. Not at all

It was a suburban HS that never had any problems when I was growing up.

When I checked out what I'd heard, I found that there'd been shots fired at a bus stop a few blocks away from the school and another nearby 'shots fired' incident.

Apparently that was all it took to create the 'Drive-by High' myth.

Things did change, though. My old Catholic church, down the street from the HS, was near a major intersection with a liquor store on the corner. When I returned for a visit after 10 years away, it had become a hooker corner.

They also were bulldozing the Falk Ranch, the ranch at the end of my old street where Betty Grable and Harry James used to train quaterhorses.

And the craftsman home I'd rented while attending USC had been razed for new townhomes.

Like the man said, you can't go home again.

[pipi_k]

6. You are

a month older than I am.

Funny thing...I was thinking about my elementary schools too not long ago.

I went to three of them. Sounds like a bad joke, but they were:

Jefferson, Lincoln, and Washington.

The first one has been turned into an apartment building...the other two, as far as I know, are still functioning school buildings.

This is Jefferson School, which I loved because it was so old, and looked like a castle...



I can still remember the smells...the old wood floors...the wooden desks...the smell of the oaktag and manilla paper we would draw on...the crayons and pencils.

It's also where we learned to "duck and cover", although we didn't hide under our desks. We went down into the basement and lined up against the walls with our hands over our heads.

I also remember the mid-morning milk breaks we had. My mom paid 15 cents per week. The milk guy would drop off trays and trays of milk for us kids. Sometimes we got it while it was still cold/cool. Other times it had warmed just a bit. Warm milk makes me think of Grades K - 2.

[Arugula Latte]

7. It's funny, the "Bate, bate, chocolate" chant was on Dora the Explorer

about eight years ago when my kids were little, and to this day I say that to my daughter when we bake stuff.

[tabbycat31]

9. My elementary school was torn down about 10 years ago

But they built a new school on the lot (former playground area) and it still occupies the same property. The new playground is where the old school once stood. They built the new school for an increase in population (there were two elementary schools in town and they sold one off in the 70s--- they accommodated population changes by first moving 5th grade to middle school and then building the new school). IMO they should not have sold the old school in the 70s.

[dr.strangelove]

10. I went to a Closing Party for my elementary school a few years back.

It was a new school when I was there. My dad, and some other dads, hung hooks in the first grade class to we could all hang our coats and such up when we came in. When I visited, those hooks were still there. A few had been replaced with similar looking hooks, but most of the hooks were the ones my dad and his friends put up. Made me miss my dad and the good times I had as a kid. Brought back lots of memories. Thanks for sharing this.