Kindergarten - Terra Bella School

I have some strange, random memories of Kindergarten.

This was in 1953, and the baby boomers were just coming of school age. Apparently, the schools were unaware of the new tsunami of students that were entering kindergarten that year, because the school was way crowded.

My mom was just about to have a baby, and so a neighbor ended up taking me to school to enroll. I don't remember if it was the same day, or another day, but I remember standing in a crowd of people with all of us waiting to hear what class we were assigned to. My name was never called. I was one of a handful of 5 year olds left standing there.

The neighbor took my hand and went up to the platform (that seemed to be six feet tall at least) and asked the principal what the deal was. She was told that I would have to be on a "waiting list" to get in kindergarten. I guess they were going to hire new teachers or whatever. The point is, I had to wait.

After a few weeks (believe it or not, I seem to think that it was in November) I started school. I loved kindergarten and I loved my teacher. Her name was Miss Schmidt, and I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was blonde and wore fancy makeup and clothes. She played the piano so we could sing, and she taught us all sorts of amazing things. We played with clay, painted, played with blocks, played in the playhouse, and did music and dance. I honestly don't remember if we learned ABCs or anything like that. I kinda think we didn't.

I was in morning kindergarten, but in February (when the new semester started) I switched to afternoon kindergarten. I remember one day arriving late. Apparently, I didn't know I was late (who knew, right?) and I walked onto the kindergarten playground and just sat on a bench--all by myself. I remember thinking that it was strange that I was the only one there, but it never occurred to me that everyone was already inside.

At some point I looked up and saw my all classmates at the windows looking at me. It suddenly dawned on me that I was late for school! I sheepishly trudged up the stairs and entered the classroom. I remember being embarrassed!

One of the things that would happen each day is that Miss Schmidt would do a milk count. It meant figuring out how many milks we needed for the students who ordered milk. All I remember is that she had these green tickets (like the kind that you get at the carnival) and for each student who ordered milk she would tear off a ticket off of the roll. I remember thinking that it looked like fun to tear off the ticket. What can I say? I was easily entertained!

Every day, we would go and get our little mats, spread them out on the floor, and have rest time. I hated rest time. I am not sure why they did it, because I sure don't remember anyone ever falling asleep! Maybe the teachers needed a break?

I loved school, and kindergarten was just the beginning!