I recently jotted down some memories of my school days in Alaska where the entire school K-12 was about 100 students. Boys routinely brought guns to school for after-school hunting, the basketball team flew to other villages every weekend to compete, being white meant I was a minority, and so much more that used to seem normal to me. I thought I’d share some of these memories with you today. I’d love to hear about your unusual school days, too!
Our kindergarten class went to the community library building and all I remember was watching Sesame Street. Our family didn’t have TV and it was a novelty to me. Big Bird was quite mesmerizing! I also remember going to the ‘big school’ down the street and visiting the first grade class. That was exciting! I couldn’t wait to start school.
Though I was thrilled to be in school, first grade is very vague for me. About all I remember is liking my teacher, Mrs. Randazzo.
Mrs. Knapp entered my life for second grade. She was the most magnificent and wonderful person I knew. I simply adored her. She always had a smile and she always made me feel special and smart. All these years later, she told me I was one of four second graders in that class that could read. It explained why I remember being called on to read the script below the silent films we watched sometimes. She had a reading corner with lots of books and cards you could mark off when you finished a book. I couldn’t get enough of reading, I think mostly because she gave me lots of praise and encouragement.
Third and fourth grades were with Mrs. O’Donnell. She was a spitfire and didn’t settle for any nonsense. Tammy was a year older than me and I remember the two of them getting tangled up one time. It wasn’t pretty. Tammy bit Mrs. O’Donnell and all hell broke loose. I minded my own business pretty well in that class and stayed out of trouble.
Fifth and sixth grades were with Mr. Greer and I was definitely not on my best behavior there. To put it mildly, he and I disliked each other very much. He was a pompous jerk who was only interested in art, cooking, and bragging. (not necessarily in that order) He didn’t really want to teach anything else and would always leave the answer book on his desk for us to look up answers. I wanted to know how to do a math problem one time and he kept directing me to the answer book. I didn’t want the answer; I wanted to know how to do it. He was condescending and rude to me in front of the class –not for the first or last time. I hated fifth and sixth grade.
Mrs. Knapp came back to teach my seventh grade year and I was so happy to see her! Her husband had been offered the principal position and she the teaching job. She had many of the same students as she’d had in second grade. But luckily for everyone involved, we all knew how to read this time. Still, she read books to us and it was fun because she changed voices for the various characters. I hung on every word. She read James and the Giant Peach, Gone With the Wind, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many others. She made mobiles to match the themes of whatever she was teaching. I loved school again. She decided to let us order the movie Gone With the Wind and show it to the community. We had to sell popcorn and charge admission to cover the cost of renting the film. It was a great experience.
A new family moved to town the summer between eighth and ninth grades. They lived in the trailer next door to us. I made fast friends with Darlene, and it wasn’t long before I began calling her parents ‘Mom and Dad.’ We spent most of our free time together and usually ate dinner with each other. We were so close everyone called us “D&D.” We took it one step further and called ourselves “D&D Dynamite Duo.”
Freshman year we did cheerleading with Shelly. Patty was our cheer coach and she had us doing lots of fun moves like round-offs, cartwheels, and splits. For only having three cheerleaders, we did pretty well. Darlene and I were also on the yearbook and school paper staff. We loved having the excuse of taking pictures for the yearbook to have access to the visiting boys’ basketball team. I’m not sure how subtle we actually were, but we thought ourselves clever.
One of our clever ideas involved the visiting boys basketball team from Galena.
We fancied two of the boys and devised a plan to meet up with them after the game one night. Visiting teams always stayed at the school Friday and Saturday nights. Per the plan, we snuck out of my house after my parents had gone to bed. Victor let us in a side door and we hid in the girls’ locker room. He and another boy Darlene liked finally joined us, saying they’d told the coach they had to brush their teeth. They were gone a little too long for teeth-brushing and coach came looking. He found us necking with the boys and we were busted. I don’t remember if the boys had any consequences, but our punishment was not being allowed to travel with the team the rest of the season. We tried to convince the principal that it wasn’t fair to Shelly to be punished for our deeds and to just do something to us. He refused though, and we missed out on the cheer competition we’d been practicing for all year. We felt really bad about the whole thing, even though we did have a good time with the boys! Victor and I wrote to each other for several months afterwards; this was the Alaska version of dating. Then I got a letter saying he and his girlfriend had a one month old baby girl and he wouldn’t be writing any more. How noble of him.
We had about 100 students kindergarten through twelfth grade. High school comprised about 40 kids then. The whole school had the same schedule of 9-4. We walked to school, walked home for lunch hour, and back again. Sometimes kids would ride bicycles, motorcycles, 3-wheelers, or snowmachines to school, too. We’d just leave the keys in the ignition since everyone knew each other’s machines there was no point in stealing. I only remember school being cancelled due to the cold once, and that was when the water pipes broke when it was 60 below zero. Boys brought .22 guns to school for rabbit and squirrel hunting after school. There was never an incident with a gun at school, accidental or otherwise.
My senior year we made a ‘time capsule’ and put a local paper, some pictures, and we each wrote what we thought the town would look like when the capsule was to be opened in 20 years. I heard it got opened early because of a construction project remodeling the school. I wonder how close any of us came in our predictions. My graduating class consisted of 5 girls and 3 boys. Shelly and I were graduating a year early, which meant we increased the graduating class size by 25%.
How about you? What was something unusual in your school days?
Dec 23, 2014 @ 16:18:47
That is an interesting story about how small your school was. I can’t think of anything out of the ordinary about my school life, but it was interesting for the most part. It is good to see that you are still friends with your childhood friend.
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Dec 12, 2014 @ 06:29:41
I grew up in the southernmost part of Deep South Texas. One would think there would be a lot of Mexicans and Hispanic there, and there were. Just not many in the schools, so our elementary, middle, and high schools were predominantly white.
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Nov 24, 2014 @ 08:49:43
It’s fun to look back on those days, isn’t it!?
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Nov 27, 2014 @ 11:23:24
Yes, it gives a whole new perspective 😉
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Nov 18, 2014 @ 07:54:50
Such fun hearing of your schooldays adventures, Denise!
I have lots of memories from school…to many to go into here…
My 2nd-4th grade class was only about 12 students. Even our high school class was small…only about 100 graduating students. The classes both ahead of and behind ours were twice that size. The smaller class did mean everyone was a little closer, I think.
I’ve enjoyed recently becoming reacquianted with several of my former classmates, via FaceBook.
Thanks for sharing!
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Nov 19, 2014 @ 08:20:07
I’ve been surprised how many people also went to such small schools. Fun to hear about it! That’s really fun that you’ve kept in touch with so many classmates -I can see the advantage of FB for that. Thanks for stopping by Joe!
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Nov 07, 2014 @ 03:22:51
Fascinating, engaging, and educational. Who knew? We all have experienced so much ‘different’ in our lives, yet in the end, we seem so much the same. I loved this post and the photos. All I remember of elementary school (in a small New Jersey town) is that it went by too slowly – I was ready for college and independence by the time I was 7!
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Nov 07, 2014 @ 16:38:38
Now that’s really something! You were really ahead of your time!
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Nov 06, 2014 @ 18:24:43
My elementary school had about 50 kids in it – 1st through 4th grade. My hometown had a total population of under 200 people. I’m friends on FB with a few people I went to school with – even my most favorite teacher ever. So, I can imagine what your experience means to you. Very special.
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Nov 07, 2014 @ 16:37:12
Wow! Even tinier than my hometown of 500.
That’s neat you are still in contact with so many from back then.
I have one classmate I’m in touch with, and Mrs Knapp! 😉
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Nov 05, 2014 @ 20:10:05
How fun to remember, even though it always entails a number of low lights along side the highlights. Thanks for sharing something of your youth with us!
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Nov 05, 2014 @ 15:24:06
I think my high school graduating class had 359 students. 🙂 And we weren’t considered that big when you compared us to the suburban (Chicago) schools to the east. I think my favorite grade school teacher was Mrs. Bell from 2nd grade. It’s funny—I can’t remember anything specific that I enjoyed that year. I think it’s more that she seemed to really understand my introverted personality and shyness and could get through them and make me feel comfortable.
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Nov 04, 2014 @ 12:51:08
This is a wonderful post, Denise. I attended three schools and I didn’t really like any of them. I was a ‘problem’ student and always bored with lessons because I was (and still am) a daydreamer 😉
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Nov 03, 2014 @ 19:18:06
Such a wonderful life story and I wouldn’t have imagined that first image of the town is in Alaska. This is a place that you can’t get away with anything as everyone knows your parents. 🙂
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Nov 04, 2014 @ 08:41:25
Alaska has so many different types of terrain -interior, Southeast, Arctic Range etc. Where I lived there were a few hills but no mountains. When I moved to Fairbanks I always enjoyed the view of the mountains.
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Nov 03, 2014 @ 07:52:35
Interesting! I think the longest I was ever in the same school was 2 years – sometimes it was only one. But I loved school and always did well. My school days were quite boring actually. Other than being told that since I was a girl, I couldn’t take science and math in high school (this was the early 60s, but my dad went to bat for me and I did well in both).
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Nov 04, 2014 @ 08:40:05
Sounds like you and your dad were ahead of the times! Nice he stood up for you!
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Nov 03, 2014 @ 07:12:06
What a great post. And, so wonderful that you were validated for being a good reader in an early class, that you read during the silent films is such an endearing image. I wonder how this positive feedback impacted your life. It’s amazing how feedback to children does affect them. Reminded me of my favorite teacher, Mr. Bondy, biology teacher in H.S. He was a dancer and would do dance steps to demonstrate anatomy and physiology information. I have always wondered if I got into the medical profession because of him.
Thanks, Dinese. 🙂
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Nov 04, 2014 @ 08:39:27
That’s a funny image, Paulette! A science teacher dancing around the room! I think it’s enough to make a student be interested in the field 🙂
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Nov 03, 2014 @ 06:57:44
Thanks for sharing your school days with us! I love that your teacher read Gone with the Wind to her class. Mine were full of reading as well and I used to write stories with my best friend. ♥
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Nov 04, 2014 @ 08:38:34
Your writing has a history, then! I hated writing back then, I only wanted to read.
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Nov 03, 2014 @ 03:28:18
This was so interesting!!! I would have loved to live your life! My school experience was just routine. sigh.
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Nov 04, 2014 @ 08:38:04
Ah, there is definitely something to be said for routine, too!! 😉
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Nov 03, 2014 @ 00:00:02
Great memories Denise, and amazing that you and Mrs Knapp are still in touch after all those years!
I never stayed in one school more than two years as my father was in the Army, so we were constantly on the move. It was cool though, because the schools I went to were for the children of soldiers, so all us kids were in the same boat so to speak. We often ended up attending the same school in another country!
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Nov 04, 2014 @ 08:37:38
Wow Barb! Meeting up the same students in different countries must have been so cool! I imagine starting school in a new place was like a treasure hunt wondering who you’ll see again since last year? 🙂
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Nov 02, 2014 @ 19:39:22
Hi Denise,
That makes an interesting reading! What struck me the most was how we start disliking the teachers who are not sincere to their work and how we love those who have a word of appreciation and encouragement.
Thanks for sharing lovely memories!
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Nov 02, 2014 @ 19:55:51
Thanks Balroop! Teachers sure do make a permanent impression on us, don’t they? I am still in touch with Mrs. Knapp, after all these years! My husband and I went to see her in Montana last summer and spent one night with her. It was so fun!
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Nov 02, 2014 @ 19:36:54
I love this, Denise! I spent 3 1/2 year at my high school in California, the longest I ever spent at one school. I think that school was the 7th school I attended. I always envied the kids who went to school with the same kids all the way through and never had to be the new kid. I was always the new kid and instead of learning from it and getting over it, I hated it and each time it got worse. I loved school…could always get along with my teachers…but hated all the other parts of it. Thank goodness I finally got over that!!
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Nov 02, 2014 @ 19:54:47
That would be really hard, changing schools all the time. My parents moved there when I was two and didn’t move away until after I was out of high school so I never experienced that situation. The bummer of my school was everyone was like a sibling!
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