School Starts Very Soon

Its almost time for school to start. I can feel it in the air. All the stores are offering sales on school supplies and clothes. I see that Chester High School had its Freshman Academy this week - an orientation for 'newbys'. The Boys of Fall are already having football practice. It's almost time for school to start, for sure.
I get a little restless this time of year. I think that feeling reverts to the days when my own son was preparing to go back to school at the end of summer. I was excited for him, but sad for me. I loved having him home for the summer and dreaded the day when our summer would end. I remember years ago, when he was about 9, I started working at the Randolph County Herald Tribune in May of that year. It was a tough summer. I hated working while he was out of school. When May came around the next year, I gave my notice at the H.T. because I just didn't want to miss another summer. My boss, good ol' J.T. Akers told me that if I'd write youth baseball news over the summer - from home essentially - that I could come back in the fall. That arrangement worked for a couple of years, until I felt like I could actually bear to be away from home. I'm still so grateful to Joe Akers for that - and for lots of things.

Going waaaay back to my school days, I too remember feeling torn when it was time for school to start. I missed my friends. And I loved getting the new school supplies, notebooks, pencils and pencil bag, all that good stuff. But leaving summer behind was difficult. My sister and I didn't  have a schedule during the summer. Other than going to Chester's swimming pool, our time was pretty much our own. Back then there was no summer ball for girls. We just chilled for three months. Yes, three months. We didn't go back until after Labor Day, remember? Summer, when I was young, seemed endless. So carefree. So magical. Staying outside till late.....sleeping in.....just a feeling that I haven't had since. Can anyone relate?

I attended Chester Grade School where it now sits. I believe Chester's earlier grade school, which sat in downtown Chester, closed a year before I started Kindergarten. My sister, Charmaine, did attend the old school for one or two years. What I remember most about that old building was the large outside fire escape, a tubular thing that one could slide through. It went from the top floor to the ground. I don't think I was ever inside the building and I never tried the fire escape, but for a youngster, it was fascinating to look at!

The current grade school opened in 1954, following what at the time was the passing of a large public bond issue to provide funding for the construction of the school. Anyone from my era who visits Chester Grade School now will see a much changed building. Wonderful improvements and additions have been added and that's a good thing. However, feeling a little sad over what had been, it eased my grief a little to see, during a tour of the facility, that portions of the school still look somewhat the way I remember them.

I had some wonderful teachers in that school. Looking back, almost all of them were single women, having never been married. They had a name for that back then. People called them old maids. I wonder what those wonderful, dedicated, loving women thought of that phrase. Who remembers Mrs. Zeiger from Kindergarten? Or Mildren Plog, Helen Proctor, Hulda Rickenberg, Margie Bryden, Blanche Garver, Leta Fricke, Mary Gladys Ervin, Marie Bollinger? There were many others. Junior High brought us Clara Taggart, Bernice Woolcott, Waldo McDonald and Warren Buescher. I know one thing. Teachers in that era certainly didn't look like teachers look today. Teachers today look younger because, for the most part, they are younger! But one thing they all have in common is the dedication. Teachers today are still dedicated to educating children. With an occasional exception, in my opinion that has not changed.
Just recently someone shared with me a lot of old composite class pictures of the years I was in school. These pictures included 1955 through 1962. I hadn't seen them in years and it brought back so many wonderful memories of schoolmates and teachers. These pictures had belonged to a former classmate of mine, now deceased. His widow wanted me to try to identify the kids in the pictures. Wow. I did a better job than I thought I would, but could not identify them all. A couple of the girls' pictures haunted me. I knew their faces but could not think of their names. Then one day, I picked up the pictures and their names just came to me! Dixie Laramore and Doris Davenport, where are you today and do you ever think of those years you lived in Chester and attended Chester Grade School? I hope so. I remember you.

Chester is rich with good schools, St. John Lutheran, St. Mary's Catholic, Chester Grade School and Chester High School. For a small community, it's a really good thing that all of these schools are still open and thriving, in spite of funding issues, etc. I hope they all continue to thrive for many, many years to come. I know all three local elementary school principals and am proud to call them friends.....Wendy Lochhead at St. John; Janelle Robinson at St. Mary's and Tim Lochhead at CGS. With their continued guidance and love, I'm sure these schools will be around for a long time. I am also acquainted with Dr. Sara Gass, principal at Chester High School. She too is working hard to see that our high school students receive the very best possible educations.

Yes, it's time for school to start. And in a very few days I'll watch, from my porch, as those school busses pass by, filled with children who are probably just as torn as I was about another summer being over.