On September 9, 1977, the day finally came to embark on my educational journey as I trudged off to my first day of kindergarten class. You might recall that since my birthday was October 2, I had just missed the September 30 deadline to enroll in school the previous year. When my Mom went to have me tested to get me in early, I cried when she left me there. This was something that I had never done before and would never do again. I often wonder what ramifications it may have had to my life had I not cried that day.
But as it was, I most certainly did not cry when it came time to go to school. In fact, I was quite excited. I would be attending Fairbrook Elementary school. The main building of the school was actually located across the busy Fairfield road, which my residential street Echo Hill terminated into. I was to be a walker. Yes, one of those who had to trudge through the rain, sleet, and snow to get to school.
Fairbrook’s kindergarten classes were actually held at the church adjoining the property, St. Andrew United Methodist Church. There were two daily classes for each of the two teachers, the morning class and the afternoon class. My teacher was Mrs. Neff and the other teacher was Mrs. Lynch.
Top row: Mrs. Neff, Keith Campbell, Sunil Doshi, Rhonda Draughn, me. Second Row: Stephen Friel, Brad Funderburg, Laura Gaines, Marci Gauder, Jacque Harrah. Third Row: Karen Henry, Traci Hertenstein, Aaron Kuck, Patrick Leadingham, Dustin Lowe. Fourth Row: Jason Pappas (must’ve been in the bathroom), Steven Parker, Tina Rader, Jennifer Scaggs (half of another set of twins, along with Cathy), Brian Snider. Bottom row: Matt Thomes, Alison Virkus, Trent Woodzell
For the most part, I really enjoyed school, although my tendencies as a mischief-maker most certainly spilled over into classtime. My first best friend at school was Sunil Doshi. He and I hit it off right away as two fun-loving boys who liked to giggle incessantly. He and I would remain great friends for the next several years of grade school often exchanging visits to each other’s homes.
Another friend I made right away was Brian Snider. I quickly learned that he actually lived on my street, so we occasionally hung out. For some reason, our friendship was relatively short-lived as I scarcely remember him being a good friend, but right there in my Sweet Baby Days book, Mom listed him and Sunil as my chums.
Most of the other kids (or at least events involving them) are now consigned to distant memory…unless of course I met up with them again. Some like Aaron Kuck and Karen Henry left Fairbrook during their early school days, but I would meet up with them again later in high school. Rhonda Draughn would become friends with Christi in the mid-nineties and occasionally hang out at my apartment.
Trent Woodzell was a kid who I didn’t much get along with in kindergarten, but I was happy to be able to play with his cool train set when he brought it in for show and tell. He, like Jason Pappas, would re-appear in junior high. Jason had the odd habit of pulling his pants all the way down to his ankles when he stood at a urinal. That is perhaps my favorite memory of all.
Some of the others – Tina Rader, Jacque Harrah, and Pat Leadingham – went to school with me just about all my life. Steve Friel was coincidentally the cousin of my future babysitter Kelly Nye. Brad Funderburg was the cousin of another kid I would meet later, Jay Recker, who later dated my cousin Debby for many years. Odd how some people just continue to cross throughout your cosmic life.
Since there were only two classes in our building, we often mingled with Mrs. Lynch’s class. My biggest crush to date came with two girls who were in that class: Tracey and Tina Bond…twins! They hated me of course, but I thought that they were the cat’s meow. I used to fantasize about rescuing them from the snow on the playground. Just five-going-on-six and already in love with the Bond girls! These two were so joined at the hip that despite efforts from the school to split them into different classes, the parents apparently forbade them from being separated. I have no idea how I found that out.
The original Bond girls – Tina and Tracey. Can you blame me for lovin’ ’em? I’d love to find these gals today.
Back at home, I was only attending school for a half-day and still had the afternoons to be free and bored. One day in the Fall, my Mom got the brilliant idea to have me start a lemonade stand. While this type of operation is generally small potatoes, in my case we actually built it into a mini-empire.
In the backyard…in the Fall…in my Bengals sweatshirt. I always thought that our storage barn looked like my hat
Another Fall day, with another Bengals sweatshirt, sans barn hat
Denise was just happy I was off at school and not there to pick on her
As word of mouth spread throughout the neighborhood, parents began to send extra money with their kids so that they could stop by for snacks and drinks at our house. When it got colder, we took the biz inside and started serving hot chocolate. Mom, it seems, now had a part-time job…getting snacks together for all of the neighbor kids. Of course, she had time to do this now that she was acting as a stay-at-home Mom for Denise.
The snack sales generally occurred without many hitches. There was the one time that a man stopped by to ask for directions and I went to get my Mom. While I was gone, he stole a five-dollar bill that I had left behind. Then there was my brief flirtation with bigotry when I refused to serve a kid who had a cleft lip and another pair of girls who I insisted were ‘chattering’. Mom put me in my place pretty quickly.
I cleared about $1.00 per day after paying for the snacks, which generally included cookies, brownies, and sometimes candy bars. When I had saved about $30 or so, I went out and made my first purchases out of the money: a purple monster puppet. I gave him the unlikely name of Purple Panda (although he in no way resembled a panda) and spent countless hours amusing my sister, myself, and my friend Sunil who would always crack up at my puppet antics. That thing is still lingering around my house here somewhere.
Life couldn’t have been better as we headed into our last Fall season in our house on Echo Hill. I was meeting new kids. School was good. Business was good. The Shields and Yarnell Show debuted (I loved their portrayal of the robot family). The only sad thing that happened around this time was when my beloved cat Charcoal died. Other than that, I was one happy kid.
1977 will continue…
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