School days

School Days, School Days, Dear Old golden rule days. I loved each day in the classroom whether in my desk or sitting at the big desk facing my students. This love started in 1941, early days of World War II. My home on Church Street was only three short blocks from the primary campus. On the beginning day, my mother took me into the first-grade building and into my classroom, and I immediately fell in love with my teacher, Ms. Clair Scarboro. She took my hand, led me into the classroom, and assigned me a small desk with seat attached. Bobby Sasser was already seated in a front desk. Bobby and I were alone in the room with Ms. Scarboro until a big yellow bus arrived and several of the riders entered our room. Ms. Scarboro assigned each to their desks which already had their name taped across. “I am Shirley, who you?” “Annette is my name.” From that day forward, we have continued to be friends. We both opened up our book sacks and brought out a lined pad, several unsharpened pencils, and a box of crayons. We were prepared to start learning. I always remember Ms. Scarboro and her teaching me to read and the love of reading.

Soon I was “grown up enough” to walk to school since I did not have to cross a busy street. My Daddy stood on the sidewalk in front of my house and watched me walk up the street until I entered the hedge surrounding the campus. Inside the hedge were separate buildings for first grade, higher grades, and a lunchroom. Now it was time to walk further up Church Street to SHS, and the class of 1953, and become the first class to graduate after twelve years. I value the years that I spent in Swainsboro School District, and the quality of my teachers. I also am thankful for the twenty years I spent in the big desk in front of a class.