You know, Max,
some of my favorite childhood memories are of the years I spent at Charles
Ellis Elementary School. I started there in 1951. It was just a wonderful
school. We were living on Washington Avenue at the time--you know, there
on the corner of Paulsen. Grandmomma would walk us to school every morning,
and then she would be waiting for us in the afternoon for the walk home.
We would walk past Savannah High School, and I would get so excited at the thought that one day I would be a big girl and could go to school there. In the afternoon, the kids would be dismissed from high school close to time that the elementary schools were let out. I always thought the high school girls were so pretty. Almost all of them wore their hair kind of long, either in a "pageboy" or pulled back in a ponytail. Some of them even wore a little lipstick, almost always a shade of pink. Sometimes it was "Love That Pink" by Revlon. Just a touch, you know. Made their cheeks look rosy, too. Now, when your Mom was that age I believe she wore "Persian Melon". Of course it was more suitable for her darker complexion. In the summer time, when you'd been "beaching it" all day--everyday, I believe some of the girls wore "Orange Flip". That was about as close to today's "neon" colors as you could get.
Anyway, Max, I was in Mrs. Martin's first grade class at Charles Ellis. As you go into the front door you would take a left and her room was the last door on the left. Now, I have to tell you, the first few days I was not exactly thrilled when Grandmomma Adele would turn to leave me in that classroom. Not only was I not thrilled, I made it a point to let everyone within earshot know just how unhappy I was. What I remember about Mrs. Martin was just how loving and kind she was during that time. She assured me that it was just fine for me to be upset but that I must get quiet within a few minutes. I always managed to calm down within my allotted time period.
Back then you spent most of your first year learning to write your alphabet and to write your numbers. I remember it was so exciting to take those papers home at the end of the day for Grandmomma and Granddaddy to see. Quite naturally, they always thought they were absolutely wonderful.
In the second grade, Mrs. Lila Rahn was my teacher. I always thought she was so pretty and she always smelled so nice. She said she would use a little of Elizabeth Arden's Blue Grass Cologne every morning. Do you know that is still my favorite to this day. I always loved the Body Lotion. Unfortunately they discontinued it from that line. You know, it about broke my heart. I'd been using it for 30 years. I do still like the cologne very much, but it's just not the same.
I believe that was the year I started my horseback riding lessons. I rode at Miss Rosellen's Riding Academy. That would have been on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Mondays and Wednesdays I took my ballet lessons from Mrs. Ebba Thompson at her dance studio.
Miss Rosellen would drive to school and pick some of us up in her truck. I'd have my riding clothes with me and I would have to change really quick there in the truck because the next stop was to pick up two boys. I took lessons from her riding academy for four or five years. I really did love it.
In the third grade I had Mrs. Edna Gueary for my teacher. I really believe she must have been one of the sweetest ladies on earth. I remember we used to go across the hall to Mrs. Helen Seiler's room for reading. She was just great. She had the prettiest white hair, and I remember that she had a really "big" voice. You could always hear her laughing outside her room. Mrs. Seiler's son, Frank "Sonny" Seiler, is playing the part of Judge George Oliver in the movie. [Australian actor] Jack Thompson is playing the part of "Sonny". Sonny has been practicing Law in Savannah for many, many years now. He's really such a nice person. Judge Oliver was a wonderful friend of Granddaddy's.
I had Mrs. Leach for the fourth grade, Mrs. Lebanon for the fifth and Mrs. Price for the sixth. I'll have to tell you that I just loved them all.
You know, Max, another thing that I remember about Charles Ellis is the food they served for lunch. It was always so good. Sometimes they would prepare extra portions of the children's favorites, and we could go back for a second helping. After we had a good lunch, we could buy a cup of ice cream. Quite naturally, I always had chocolate. It was Sealtest brand. You'd get a little wooden spoon that was wrapped in paper to eat it with.
I used to carry my lunch money in this change purse that I would wear on my arm like you would wear a watch. I always had either two dimes and a nickel or one quarter and a nickel. I believe, to start out, the lunches may have been twenty cents, then went to a quarter. The ice cream, I believe, was always a nickel. Of course, when I was in fourth or fifth grade, I probably started to carry my own wallet or purse. You had to have a wallet so you could carry all of your friends' school pictures with you.
I don't know if it was Starland Dairies or Annette's Dairy that would deliver the milk and ice cream each day to the school. Grandma always had Annette's deliver ours to the house. They had the prettiest Milk wagons and the "most beautiful" horses, so I really don't know why you wouldn't have had them deliver the ice cream and milk to the school.
The principals at the school were Mrs. Clark, and after she retired, Mr. Horace Flanders came to our school. I remember them both as being so nice.
You know, Max, those years were not that long after the war and I remember that all of us children, over a period of a few days, had to go down to the principal's office, and there were nurses there from the American Red Cross to stick our fingers so that we could have our blood typed.
Now, I think they had some sort of a machine right there that they used to make "dog tags" for us to wear. I remember we were supposed to wear them everyday or at least have them with us at all times.
Also, it was during that time that the Salk Vaccine for polio was approved. Once again, all us children went to the principal's office where we were given our first dose of the polio vaccine. I believe that was done by injection. A few months or a year later they came back and gave us the second dose, and that was a few drops of a pink liquid onto a sugar cube, and then we would just eat the cube of sugar. The third dose was given the same way a few months later. I believe that all of this was provided by the Chatham County Health Department.
Also, I remember that, a time or two a month, a lady would come to school and you could buy stamps that we would put into a booklet. When the booklet was filled you could then buy a savings bond. The more booklets you would fill with stamps, the larger dollar amount of a savings bond you could buy. I don't know if we ordered the bonds at school or if our parents would take the booklets to the bank for the bonds.
Oh, I just remembered the May Pole on May Day. It was so much fun to hold a onto a big, long streamer and dance around the May Pole. You always wore a really pretty dress to school that day. I'm sure we had a party afterwards with cookies, cake and all sorts of goodies.
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