1960-1961

The random subject generator spit this one out: Write about yourself at age seven. I decided to write about the school year I turned seven. Some of it I’ve written about before, so it will be a bit of a skim job.

I started the first grade at Bethany Lutheran. I loved starting the day with singing a hymn, doing the pledge and then reciting our memory work assigned the day before. Every once in a while I will try to find my little book with the hymn verses and scriptures that we’d get our assignments from. Still can’t find it.

I absolutely loved being in a Christian school. I wasn’t a very good student though, and was a bit ambivalent about the teacher. I loved story time though. And sometimes she would play Shari Lewis records. I turned seven on Dec. 11, 1960. We moved from SoCal to Chico during Christmas vacation.

When we moved, there was no Lutheran school, so public school it was. I adored my teacher, Mrs. Norma Vanderley, who I’ve written about before. She’s the one who recommended to my parents that I get glasses. After that, I did better in school. I became a very good reader and my parents made sure I had plenty of books to read at home.

One of my favorite books in the whole world was Little Brown Bear. It was written by Elizabeth Upham and illustrated by Marjorie Hartwell. Published in 1942. I would guess it had been one of my cousin’s books, since he was quite a bit older than me. It had been well read when it came into my possession, but I took very good care of this book. I loved the stories and illustrations. I would read this book long after I’d outgrown that level. A couple of years ago I proudly brought it out to read to Lia and she had ZERO interest in it. Didn’t even let me get past the first sentence of the first story.

On the last day of school, Mrs. Vanderley gave chocolate ice cream bars to all the kids. At that time, my parents thought I was allergic to chocolate, so I had to refuse the ice cream. Mrs. Vanderley felt so sorry for me that she went to the teacher’s lounge and found me a bottle of orange soda pop. Which I proceeded to spill on my white blouse…*sigh*