School Years

I began school at 5 1/2 years of age. I remember a few days after school started a neighbor brought her daughter to the bus to ride to school and the girl cried and cried. She didn't want to go to school. I told her to sit with me and I would be her friend. He name was Barbara Jean Nelson...Barb for short. Barb and I became very good friends and spent many good times together through the coming years. In second grade we ended up having the same teacher and did so for the rest of elementary school.

"The friends we made in childhood were the first people outside of our family who had a real influence on us. They were our first contacts with the world beyond our home, and what we learned from them we've carried with us throughout our lives" ~Betty Conway

My kindergarden teacher was the wife of the school superintendent at the time. She was old! Well, to a 5 yr old anyone over age 12 is "old" so I guess looking back over time I would say she was probably in her mid 40's, the same age I am now as I write this. My kindergarden classroom was in the same school as my brothers' high school, at Central School in Temperance, Michigan. Rolland would always come and get me from my class and make sure I got on the bus with him to go home. I don't really remember much about Kindergarden. I absolutely don't remember anything about first grade...seriously. But...second grade put Barb and I in the same classroom and I definitely remember how excited and happy we were to be together in a class. Our teacher was a round lady, very plump, to put it nicely. She was a very happy woman and we loved her! I remember that she was always trying to get me to do my handwriting better. It was one of those things that I really didn't care about. That was a recurring comment throughout my schooling, that I needed to concentrate on my handwriting better. In those days they didn't label kids as ADD or ADHD, but if I had been labeled I would have definately fit one of those categories. I was always fidgeting and could not sit still for very long. I had to have some part of my body moving at all times, even if it was just shaking my leg. I had a hard time concentrating on things that really needed my concentration. As a result I was a mediocre student and one that was told to "Sit still" a lot.

In fourth grade we had half day school sessions and Barb and I had a Mrs. Garcia as our teacher. She got pregnant and she had to quit in the middle of the school year. There was a teacher shortage as well as a room shortage in our district. When the middle of the year came and our class was to be split up to different classes and even different schools in the district I can remember Barb and I were so worried we'd go to different schools or at least have different teachers. We worried needlessly because we ended up in Mrs. Sharp's class in Jackman Road Elementary. It was so wonderful that we got to have the same teacher. I remember that Dale and Dave Thoman went there, too, and were just one and two years ahead of me in school. They were friends from our religion. I felt like I knew somebody there beside Barb. I think in fourth grade is when I began to notice boys too. I had a crush on a boy named Scott Striggow. He had dark brown hair and freckles all over his face. He was so cute. When he didn't understand how to braid (we were braiding streamers) I remember being so happy that I could show him how to do it. In fourth grade, too, I can remember taking a standarized test. I had a bad cold that day and my nose was running a lot. I remember sitting in the cafeteria taking the test and my nose was really nasty. I also was very nervous and ended up messing my pants. Yes, I am human and it did happen. In fifth grade we were back at Central Elementary. My teacher that year was great and very understanding about my religion and would not make me do things that were holiday related. That was was year I had a health class too and learned about menstruation (I had already started though, at age 10). In sixth grade we were moved to Temperance Road Elementary and had our first male teacher, Mr Hess. He was a dream! I think all of the girls had crushes on him. I also had major cruches on Steve Ladd, Jamie Simmons, and Greg Elkins, all at different times, of course. You could say I was boy crazy. I also had my first real boyfriend then. I cannot remember his name though for the life of me. He gave me a ring and we went steady. I was feeding the ducks one day though and the ring flew off into the mire and I never did find it. He is the first boy I ever kissed, too. In sixth grade we learned so much about the earth and plants. Our class took a walking field trip to the field behind the school and we each tried some sassafras bark. That was interesting.

Junior High was different than it is today. We had too many students again. Our clases were either AM or PM again. I began 7th grade in Bedford Public Schools. Barb and I were starting to drift apart in our friendship. She had "cooler" friends and I was kind of left behind. My mom made all of my clothes and her friends and her had store bought ones. I was in a strict religion and she was more worldly. It was bound to happen some day. One of the things I remember about 7th grade was my Math class. The teacher would have "Math Bees" on Fridays. When you answered a question but got it wrong you had to sit down. The last person standing got a huge candy bar as a prize. I can remember usually being one of the last few standing, along with Greg Elkins. Usually he or I ended up with the candy. That was pretty cool.

In the middle of 7th grade my parents sold our farm and we moved to Holland Ohio to a mobile home. We moved ON my 13th birthday. It was very stressful for me to move. I was leaving all that I had ever known, all of my friends, everyone I ever knew. I was leaving a country school that was 99.9% white and going to an integrated school in a suburb. I had never been to school with Blacks or Mexicans before. It was definitely a major culture shock. I missed having our own pool and huge back yard. My first day of school there was an eye-opener. The girls wore mini skirts, something our old school would not allow and the boys had longer hair!! Boy, I was not ready for those changes. I was scared. I knew no one and it was really hard for me to adjust. There were 2 other new students that day so they gave me a locker to share with one of them, a girl named Cindy Nichols. She was so suave, and knew things. Our locker was across from the cafeteria. I remember that much. I also remember that on my first day of school there was an assembly. I can remember guys calling me a "bitch" and I had no idea what they were talking about. I was really naive! It didn't take too long, though until I started to figure things out and found some friends. One of my very first friends at Springfield Jr High was Angie. She was kind of shy and I guess we kind of found each other somehow. She was my BEST friend at school until we graduated. No one else could ever replace Angie in my life. We've lost contact through the years, except an occasional Christmas card. Some of the others I hung out with were Janet Wirick, Diane Pawlicki, and Linda Graham. During the course of time I also hung out with Becky McClosky and Teri ...can't rememebr her last name. Mostly it was Janet, Diane, Angie and me. We would go "cruising" after Janet got her car. Angie was always afraid we'd get caught or some guys would pull us over and rape us. Angie was always a afraid of what she didn't know and I was her courage. The summer after we moved in I made a new friend whose name was also Sue, so I will call her SueJ. She moved in next door to us and she was 2 years younger than me. We became instant friends, though, and spent a lot of time together. She taught me about smoking cigarettes. I went with her to their campsite at a lake in Indiana a few times and there we experimented with cigarettes. Her parents both smoked as did her brother, Eddie, who I had a major crush on for years. He was a lot older than us.

Outside of school I had friends I had made at the Kingdom Hall and one of my best friends through high school was Kathy Jay. She was awesome...my very best friend. She taught me about make up and boys. She had a crush on Greg Ferguson...I think we all did at one time. I loved her brother Steve. Steve was a year younger than I but he was my first "real" love. I still have feelings for him. I don't know if they are just nostalgia or real. I wish I knew what he is up to. Steve was my first serious relationship. When Kathy turned 18 she left home and she ended up doing what no one thought she would ever do...she became a prostitute. She and I had made so many plans to move to Denver or to even share aplace in Waterville, but she chose her way of life and I lost all connection with her. One of my other good friends at that age was Peggy Speer. I introduced her to Greg Ferguson, who I was dating at the time, and she stole him from me. Peggy and Greg ended up getting married and having 3 daughters. They are now divorced.

Then of course, there is my niece Sue. Sue and I were born only 4 1/2 months apart and we became best friends all through our childhood and even into adulthood. As kids, we would spend as much time together as possible. There were jealousies, of course. I was jealous of her relationship with her cousins on her dad's side and she was jealous of my best friend Barb Nelson, who lived 1/2 mile away. Sue and I got into a lot of mischief, though, and that was always interesting. Once we made some mud cakes and told Bill (my nephew, her brother) they were chocolate cake and he had to try one and he did. To this day I don't think he likes chocolate cake. LOL When Sue was younger she used to get whipped by my brother-in-law to the point of bleeding and she used to tell me that if he didn't hit her he didn't love her. I can remember he being upset because her dad hadn't hit her in a while and she thought he didn't love her. Our parents used to say things like "I'm only punishing you because I love you." What a mixed message that was. This was being said as they were beating the crap out of their child. Sue denies to this day about the scars and bleeding I saw on her. I wasn't hit after I turned about 5 years old but I saw the abuse and the spankings my father bestowed on my siblings and I was scared of him. That is another story, too. Let's get back to my niece, Sue. Sue was always skinny with naturally curly hair. I always had a little more meat on me and had big bones, with naturally straight hair. We were as different as night and day. She grew up in the inner city and I was on a farm, relatively sheltered. Sue "knew" things I wouldn't know until I was a teenager or even older. She knew swear words at a young age and I was totally naive about those. I had never heard them before so I didn't know what they were and once I accidentally said "shit" when we were anagramming words and I had the word "this" and Sue told me it was a bad word and I had no idea. One thing we did a lot of as kids was play with Barbie dolls and baby dolls. My mom wouldn't buy me Barbie dolls but she bought me the other 11 and 12 inch dolls. We used to play under the billiard table or under the steps (in my play house) in the basement. One time we were playing with Barbies and we heard a weird noise. It sounded like bats, according to Sue and she was freaking out, screaming and holding her head and of course, I freaked out right along with her. My dad and Rolland came rushing downstairs to see what the problem was. We finally found out it was not bats at all, but it was the plumbing upstairs. My niece, Becky was using the bathroom and when she flushed the toilet it made a weird squeaking sound. It scared us, though. It's funny now as I look back at it. As Sue and I got older we were boy crazy, as a lot of teen age girls are. We even liked the same guys, especially Pete Portillo. He was so cute and Mexican. We also liked guys named Marc Modak, Greg Lutz, Tom (something) among others. It helped that Sue's brother (my nephew) Bill was just a little older than us so we could swoon over all of his friends. As we became teenagers in high school we started to spread our wings and had new friends and new experiences. Sue started to do things that I would never dream of, like drugs and getting intimate with boys. I tried to stay a good Christian and stayed away from things like that until I was 17 or so. Sue experimented a lot earlier. She had an unhappy life and ran away a few times. She needed help but no one saw that and no one helped her. My sister and her husband fought all the time and he had an affair. He was also abusive and I know my sister had a temper, too, so she fought back and maybe she even started the fights a few times. It was not a happy home. I can understand how Sue was upset with her life and why she did the things she did. When Sue was in 11th grade their family moved to the country and we grew apart. She made new friends and things were never the same.