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I went to Clinton Elementary school from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Of all the elementary schools in our school district, I thought Clinton was the most attractive. It was located in the middle of the country with big white columns in the front. I have a very imperfect memory of things so I’ll do my best to write what I recall.

I rode the bus all though elementary school, Jr. High, and sometimes in High School. The bus would pass by our house early in it’s route which meant we usually had a long bus ride. We had to wait at the end of our driveway because sometimes if the driver didn’t see us out there he’d just slowdown and not even stop. Some of our bus drivers would honk if they didn’t see us out there, but there was no time to doddle if the bus was spotted, we were in trouble if we missed it. It wasn’t until my bus days were over or almost over that my family discovered we could cross the street and catch the bus 30 or 40 minutes later on it’s way back to the school when it stopped at the circle across the street.

One time Barbara thought it would be funny to learn the song “Missed the Bus” by Kris Kross and sing it to mom and dad next time we missed it, but we never did.

The fact that we went to a school out in the country where there were many unplowed or rarely plowed roads meant that every winter we had school canceled or delayed for snow and sometimes delayed for fog. At times they’d start off with a two hour delay which would turn into canceled school when the roads didn’t clear up enough for the buses. We had 5 extra days built into the school year for snow days. Once we passed the 5 snow days, they’d start tacking days onto the end of the school year. I remember the school district tried to just cancel school for the kids who rode the bus one year while I was in Jr. High or High school. The absence didn’t count against you if you lived in the country so we stayed home. I can only remember doing that once, it seems like mom took us to school if that happened again. The one time I remember doing that a boy named Ed came over to hang out with us, but I don’t remember what we did. I think he was Barbara’s age and she dated him a few times.

There was some teasing that occurred on the bus, but I don’t remember being a target often. Mostly the bus ride was long and boring. I would draw on the frosted windows with my finger in the winter and trace the leather lines on the tall green seats of the bus. They had some sort of powder they’d pour over puke if someone puked on the bus. One time I remember hearing a classmate named Tim squealing as an older boy gave him a wedgie in the back of the bus. I also remember hearing that it was part of an initiation into some sort of trouble-making club (not quite gang level). The bus also picked up the kids who went to Catholic school. They used to blend in until the catholic school adopted uniforms (white shirts and navy pants or skirts).

I was a painfully shy kid through all of elementary school. I think I must have become friends with Mellissa Shank in either Kindergarten or first grade. I can remember playing at her house sometimes. She had an older sister close to Barbara’s age and her family was very catholic. It was at their house that I first saw someone cross themselves to say a prayer. I remember that they had a big basement that had just a few fully finished rooms. The unfinished part was set up as a playroom.

I was also friends with a girl named Angie Kastner, I can remember playing at her house, but for some reason I think of the Snorks when I think of her house. I either saw someone trying to draw a Snork or I tried to draw one there. I think they had a big family and made good cookies, but again, my memory is really bad.

My first grade teacher was Mrs. Repp. She was an older lady. The only thing I remember about her is that if she caught a bottom in the air she’d smack it. It seems to me that the most common scenario was leaning across your desk to reach someone else’s desk. I think I even remember one day a fellow classmate giving her a swat for having a bottom in the air when she bent down to get something from a cupboard. The whole class was shocked and she was very mad. My mother tells me that Mrs. Repp started writing really negative/mean things on my papers and that they became concerned. I know that in first grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia and my parents and others determined that I should repeat the first grade. They told me that I was taking first grade again because my hands weren’t as big as Mellissa’s. I can remember noticing that I was smaller than her one day as we got on the bus to go home. I know I had trouble with the orientation of letters and I had a letter and number line across my desk. I can remember struggling with knowing the orientation of 5 and S the most and I could never remember which side was my left and which was my right. At sometime during elementary school I figured out that if I tried to snap, my right hand was always the hand that would snap. I used this as my guide and whenever I had to determine left or right I’d think about snapping. Maybe this is weird, but I still use a similar strategy to tell left from right—it’s like my brain just can’t automatically remember that like most people, I assume that’s the dyslexia.

Repeating first grade meant I new set of classmates and Angie and Melissa moved on without me. It was probably when my friends moved on that I became very lonely. I can remember walking around the playground by myself thinking how I wished my friend Erin from church went to school with me because then I would have a friend to play with on the playground.

In second grade I had Ms. Allbaugh. I remember on the first day of school trying to determine whether I liked her or not and I think we did a lot of those worksheets where you have to color each number a different color to find out what the picture or pattern becomes. Ms. Allbaugh was younger and had dark hair done up beehive style. I think she was also single and I have a faint memory of her receiving roses one time. I think I remember that she was allergic to dandelions. I can faintly remember picking a bouquet of dandelions for her, but she couldn’t accept them because she was allergic. Now that I’m older, I wonder if she just made that up so she didn’t have to keep them. I can remember thinking how sad it would be to be allergic to dandelions.

We had two big fragrant lilac trees in our yard. A white one behind the house and a purple one on the street side of the house. When they were in bloom I would pick lilacs from the trees for my teachers. I used to make a foil vase and fill it with water to keep them from dying on the long bus ride to school.