FIRST RATE FIRST GRADER

Recently a high school classmate posted on Face Book a picture of children back in the 50’s standing in a classroom saluting the flag. If you were around then: that is what you did every morning. If you were doing time in a Catholic school, prayers followed that routine.

In first grade I had a very old teacher named Miss Langon, who ruled with a iron fist, AND a wooden ruler, which she liberally used to correct equations I tried to submit, by whacking me across the hands. Corporal punishment was in vogue in those days and so teachers were not afraid to use it.

One of the things the old girl liked to do was call attention to those being reprimanded, punished or scolded, and whichever one you chose, I was your boy. If she caught you first thing in the morning, before the day even started, she would haul you up front of the class and hand you the flag. You would stand in front of the classroom and hold it up for your classmates to salute. I felt like a 4-star general, it seemed an awful lot of mornings I was being saluted; the trouble was I felt like an unhappy general. The tears were streaming down my face and the fact that I got caught was too much to bear.

Once the old gal accused me of talking in class, even though I didn’t and sent me to the wardrobe room and closed the doors on me! I was mad, and decided to strike back! On the shelf running the length of the closet, or shall I say my cell, was a shelf stocked with writing paper. I opened one package and began to crumple up the paper and stuff all the pockets of the kid’s coats. As the noon bell rang in the hallway, I was released and we put on our coats to march off to lunch. In those days you could go home to lunch, but had to be back at 1:00 pm promptly. As the kids put on their coats, they discovered the paper and the look of bewilderment crossed so many faces that day I never ever forgot it.

It seemed that the school in those days was very punitive and unforgiving until the punishment was meted out, then: you started with a clean slate. It seems my slate had a haze to it from erasing it so much!