A Trip Down Memory Lane

From time to time I am going to post memories of things that I remember from my childhood. Here are a couple of memories from my school days.

I went to New Danville Mennonite School for grades 1 through 8. It was a three-room red brick building with grades 1, 2 & 3 together in a basement room, grades 4 & 5 were up the front stairs and to the right, and grades 6, 7 and 8 were in the room on the left. We brought packed lunches every day in neat little lunch boxes. My favorite one was a little yellow school bus which I think was what I had for my first couple of years. We lined them up on a shelf above the coat rack where they stayed until lunchtime when we brought them to our desks and consumed whatever goodies our moms had put in for us.

I loved school and was pretty good at reading and writing.  However math was a little more difficult for me.  I remember one time in 3rd grade I didn't understand a math assignment which we third graders were supposed to be doing while the teacher was working with the first graders.  I started to cry and eventually the teacher saw me and asked what the problem was. When I told her I didn't understand it, she got someone to help me. Later, I was happily doing the assignment and the boy in front of me was struggling with it and I stupidly made the remark that "this math is easy."  He turned around and said to me, "At least I didn't cry!"

Another time when I was in second grade, I was standing on the swing at recess and swinging as high as I could. In back of me, far away, the big kids were playing softball on the ball field.  Someone launched a long ball and it hit me squarely on the back.  I had the wind knocked out of me and my hands came off the chains in midair and I collapsed slowly to the ground. My teacher had been standing near the swings and saw the ball coming and was able to cushion my fall a little. I remember lying on the ground and everyone was looking down at me.  People were excitedly saying, "Mary Ann was hit with a ball!" My teacher carried me inside and it was soon determined that I was fine. I remember feeling a sense of importance at being the center of everyone's attention for a little while :)

I was pretty good at sports and so always enjoyed track and field days. Two events stick out in my mind from those days.

1) There was a boy two grades ahead of me who wore a leg brace for quite a few years. On one track and field day, I remember a relay race that involved him.  The teachers had very wisely put all the slow runners on one team and on the other team they put all the fast runners with this boy. He started the relay and limped, jumped, and hobbled as fast as he could but by the time he got to the finish line the other team was way ahead.  However, the fast runners on his team did their part and in the end they managed to beat the other team.  I remember the pure elation on this boy's face when his team won.

2) The long jump was one of my favorite events and I usually did well.  Since we wore dresses to school, the challenge was trying to jump and land and not let the boys get a glimpse of your underwear. On track and field days, I was allowed to wear culottes so I was free to jump as long and hard as I could without worry of my dress flying over my head. Another girl in my class who was also really good at long jump was more conservative and did not wear culottes so I always had the upper hand on her and through the years usually came in first in this event. Then one year, in either 7th or 8th grade, her parents allowed her to wear a culottes slip underneath her dress. Being released from the worry of her underpants being the sideshow, she flew through the air and jumped like never before. She won easily and I came in second. At the time I was disappointed and a little jealous of her.  Looking back now, I am so glad that she won. It was an incredibly happy moment for her and one that she absolutely deserved.

That's it for this trip down memory lane. I'll post more as the memories surface in my mind.