By Sitting on my front porch in the sun, thank you Lord, and, still reading Haven Kimmel’s memoir, “She Got Up Off the Couch,” I remembered a moment from first grade.
One day, the speech lady came to the classroom and called my name and and the names of maybe two or three other kids. What, was I in trouble? What for?
We were seated around a table in the nurse’s office and shown flash cards with drawings on them: a car, a star, and we had to pronounce the words. And we had to crow like a rooster. “Rr-ur-urr-ur-ur.”
Apparently, I hadn’t been pronouncing the full extent of the R. Good grief, I was embarrassed. A failure at age 6.
We met several times, each session with fewer and fewer students sitting around the table. Finally, one day, I must have been able to “rrrrr” well enough and I was no longer forced to attend the “R” class.
That is tooooooooooo funny Cheryl————
That reminds me-/of a teacher I once had———–now I was raised on a farm & we had a dairy & we milked on an average of at least 35 head of cows every night & morning—for many years—I helped with the chores & milking & feeding the bucket calves—–etc/etc———
But at school they gave us pee warm gross milk out of little cartons!!!!!!!! It was awful & I gaged on it———-
I was use to drinking good cold raw milk——high fat content milk———& lots of it!!!!! And you know the kind-/one night in the refrigerator——& there was 4 inches of cream on the top of the gallon glass jug———you only strained it off —-when you needed to make whipped cream-/or butter- & the rest of the time–you shook the jar— & drank that cream along with the milk——–I was a skinny kid –even if I ate good & drank tons of milk with loads of cream———
Anyway this teacher who thought God had died & she needed to fill in for Him! Would see me gag —-on that pee warm milk——-in those little wax covered cartons———-& would proceed to yell at me———at the top of her voice ——–that I was unhealthy——–& I needed to drink milk- & eat correctly————& she was going to see to it that I did!!!!!!!!
She would not only make me drink my whole carton of pee warm milk—-but them make me drink two- or some times maybe three——before I threw up my cookies!!!!!!!!!!!! All the while telling me—at the top of her voice in front of all the other students—-I needed to drink milk——& what a sick child I was for not doing so- etc-etc.——-
Then one day this same teacher came into our Class room & said-well kids were are going on a field trip this week———we are going to a farm & watch them shear sheep—–& watch them milk cows- & see all of their livestock— such as chickens & pigs- & horses——–etc/etc——-
And she looked right at me– & said———I think these people– where we are going on our field trip might be some of your—- distant relation-/as they have the same last name as you———-
I kept my mouth shut didn’t say a word—-& on our field trip to “OUR FARM”———–& when this same teacher watched me milk the cows——-feed the bucket calves—-help shear the sheep——-etc/etc/etc/———& then my Dad said—— we have a treat for all of you as we have made— home made ice cream out of our own milk & cream———& Dad said—–my daughter who goes to school with all of you——–drinks more milk than all the rest of our family—–but she can’t stand that weak store bought milk—–my teacher just glared at me!!!!!!!
But I didn’t have to drink two & three cartons of pee warm milk any more-or get lectures on how to eat properly!!!!!!!!!!!!
And she found out I was related to those folks where we went on our field trip!!!!!!!!!
OK, you lost me at “pee-warm milk.”
Never thought of grade-school milk that way. But, I too, gagged on the milk, all warm and bubbly, and it was all I could ever do to get it down at lunch and during our afternoon milk break.
I can’t help but compare both of your experiences with mine. First grade in Bushton we had our afternoon cookies and milk, and the nice cool milk came in little glass bottles with a paper stoppers. When I got to the second grade…no more milk and cookies…except on special occasions. It might have been that there was an overabundance of the government milk on those occasions.
I think that there were those little GLASS bottles when I first started teaching first grade at Hope and about once a week some little darling would DROP their milk, shattering the glass–milk and glass pieces everywhere. ….I was glad when those paper cartons came out. One day I noticed a terrible smell in my classroom, and after opening desks (remember those desks that you had to open from the top?), I found several milk cartons in one little urchin’s desk–yep, full of milk, which was weird because I NEVER made them drink their milk (remembering how much I hated school milk when I was a kid, no doubt). I could care less if they didn’t drink their milk, or clean their plates at lunch, for that matter. (hamburger gravy? —yuk, yuk, yuk)