Oh Danny Boy!  

Another school semester will soon begin. If you’re in school, are you looking forward to starting classes? If you’re out of school, what do you miss about it — or are you glad those days are over?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us LEARNING.

Rankin Elementary School

I always enjoyed school. The picture above is from around 1956. Our school at that time consisted of three grades: 4th, 5th, and 6th. Facing the teacher the 4th grade was seated on the right, 5th grade in the middle, and 6th grade on the far left. Same teacher for all three grades. I walked to this school. I only lived about a half mile away. Our neighborhood consisted of about  8 houses within a square mile. I only had  four close friends  I attended  school with. Leon,  who lived just  down the road. Sara, who lived across the road (a gravel road  at that) and down one house, and Ginger and Sandra who lived directly across the road. I had crush on Ginger for a  long time. On the next road lived Joanna, Kent, and Jim. Oh, and Junior Childs, who used to bully me  relentlessly. When we played baseball and Junior pitched for the opposing team he would always  tell his fielders to move in because “batter can’t hit” in reference to me. When I did get a hit past the infield I felt like had hit a home run in the World Series. This same Junior Childs that called me out of my house and accused me of taking his baseball bat (I was innocent). He stood there looking like it was HIS yard. We started to fight and I ran back into the house and told my dad I was fighting with Junior but he would not hold still so I could hit him. I don’t know where those  other  kids  in the picture  came from. Anyone living more than two miles away was  a curiosity.

I have always loved books. My wife kids me  my that my mother was in labor  so long because I had not finished my latest book. I remember my very first day at school; my mother meeting with the teacher and going  over the required forms. Me sitting beside  her and looking at all  these new faces that my mother told me would become  my  friends. After my mom left and I was directed to my seat I  just sat there frozen. I didn’t understand any thing the teacher was saying. I remember walking home  around  10 and when my mother saw me a few minutes later she said “Why are you home  so early?” I told her school must be over because everyone got up  and started to leave. She  said “That’s recess silly”, now go back to school. That afternoon I raised my hand  to indicated I had to  go to the bathroom. And yes, raising one finger indicated  you  only had to pee and would be right back; two fingers meant it may be some  time before I return; and raising three fingers meant…well you really don’t want to know. The bathroom was also a hat and coat room. As I began to seat myself on the  toilet I  looked down….and down…and down. It must have been 60 feet before any turd  you released finally made waterfall.

All through school I was considered a “book-worm.” I liked just about every subject that our school taught  except physics. I ended up taking wood shop instead! No real outside activities, although I was considered a fair basketball player but I was too short at 5′ 8″. Which hurt me because  behind our house was  the  new elementary with  an outside  basketball court. I would spend hours shooting free throws. I could make  75 or 80 out of 100. One  time I caught my ring in the net (they  were lower than the pros and were made out of wire mesh  and not nylon), and just about  severed my index finger.

In Junior College I found out that it required two  semesters of math to be able to transfer to the  four year university. I found  out  that I could  instead  take  two years of a foreign language  and that would satisfy the  requirement. So I took two years of German. Today I can proudly say “Hello”, “Good By”, “How are you”, and “bring me the newspaper” in German. All of this comes in real handy today 🙂 I went on to a four year university and received my degree.

I had planned on continuing my learning experience but something called Viet Nam came up that prevented that. I never served but they took away the student deferments.

My learning continued in my professional  career as many positions required certain certifications.

This is the school today.

Rankin Elementary School today 2013, 57 years later.

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