More Blasts from the Past-6

Caldwell had an unusual school system.  We attended grades 1-3 at Lincoln or Van Buren (you will notice all of the schools were named for presidents of the US), grades 4-5 at Washington elementary, grades 6-7 at Wilson, and 8th and 9th grade at Jefferson Junior High School, then Caldwell High School for 10th-12th.  This is a picture of Lincoln Elementary where I went to 1st - 3rd grade.  This is the front of the building, which honestly, I rarely saw.  Our home was toward the back side of the building, so I walked from that way.  The playground was in the back, only rarely was I in the front of the building.  But this picture brings back three specific memories of the front of the building:
1)  We nearly always played behind the building, hardly ever out front.  I don't think that it was that we weren't allowed to play in front; just that all of the playground equipment was in back.  But I remember playing tag in the front when I was in first grade.  Some of the older girls came up to us and pointed out a little girl, Cynthia who I now know had Down Syndrome.  Behind and to the side of Lincoln was a small white frame building which housed the school for the handicapped.  Cynthia attended school there.  The older girls said that Cynthia would catch us and then hug the breath out of us.  I was terrified.  I did not want to have the breath hugged out of me.  So when Cynthia came near, we would run away, screaming.  I now feel terrible about that.  Cynthia just wanted friends and love like anyone else.
2) On Joan's first day of first grade (I was in third grade), I told her to wait on the step for me at lunch time and we would walk home for lunch together.  I went out and sat on the back steps and waited and waited.  Finally, I walked home and told my mom she never came.  My dad, who was also home for lunch quickly drove to the school and found Joan on the front steps, crying.
3) On November 22, 1963, I was in 2nd grade.  I was at school.  But I got really sick.  I was nauseous and had a fever and aches and chills.  The school called my mom and my dad came to get me ( in the front of the building) as he was home for lunch.  I got in his car and huddled down on the floor where the heat came out in the car.  The radio was on and my dad told me that President Kennedy had been shot.  We listened to the news report as we drove home.  I will never forget where I was when I heard the tragic news.  Where were you?

 

This is Washington Elementary where I attended 4th and 5th grade.  My fourth-grade teacher was one of my favorite teachers from my whole lifetime: Mrs. Engle.  I loved her.  She lived just a block or so from me.  I loved to ride my bike by her house, hoping I would see her.

This is the Caldwell stockyards.  The smell emitted by these is the signature smell of Caldwell, Idaho.  I got used to it.  But visitors would often comment.  To me, it was the smell of home.