It's a beautiful morning and two beautiful people joining us this morning. Carol G.
and Fort A. Jim this year. And we always talk a little bit of nostalgia about resinions
and things you may have enjoyed and were seen over the years. And I mean, over the years
50s, 60s, things like that. And last time we were here, we talked about the school days.
And this is school days, part two. You guys always have a part two, part three, part four.
There's so much to cover done. So much to cover part 100. We're up to 122. Yeah. A lot
of parts. Okay. Um, let's do it. Let's start. Let's start. Oh, you know, we didn't do
we. I'll get on the next break. We didn't get the theme song. That's right. Okay. We'll
get it. We'll get it. It's breath. Right? Okay. We didn't get the theme song in because
audience. These two are fans of so many TV show. Honeymooners. Honeymooners. Should I reveal
it's the honeymooners? I have to sit here and listen to them about the honeymooners and
I actually laugh along with them though I admit. Well, thank you, Don. Today we'll be
talking like Don said about our grade school memories, part two. And we'll try to share
some of our memories with you. Um, so Carol, why don't you summarize what we did last
time? Yes. Yes. Last time we said I went to Lincoln and you went to Holy Trinity.
So we're pretty much basing all of our memories on our own experiences admittedly. But, um,
we talked about the buildings. We talked about our classrooms, you know, the chalkboards,
the cursive writing or black writing. They use chalkboards anymore. What do they use
those marker things, the whiteboards? I think it's the whiteboards with the markers. Yeah.
And we called them blackboards back then. Yeah. Chalking erasers. Yeah. Yeah. I brought
it. We had green, but then in grammar school, they changed them later on to brown. Oh,
we had no addition built on to a school. These brown with white chalk. Okay. What? We were
very progressive. You know, you were going to go green. They weren't green. Yeah. Yeah.
So, uh, now we want to continue on with many more of our memories. Um, but it is amazing.
These memories of 50, 60, 70 years ago remain so vivid. And we know that there were some notes
home to parents and there were some math tests that didn't get passed. But by and large,
these are the pleasant memories we like to concentrate on. So mainly we can start with
our teachers. Yes. Good place to start with the teachers. And, you know, I can probably
say that, uh, most of us still remember our teacher's names. I know I do. Of course,
I had the, the nuns. So I remember, sister, you caress us, sister Marguerite, sister Renee.
We had one late teacher, Miss Galis, for two years. But I remember the nuns as being
very, very strict, but they had complete control of our class. And last time we, we mentioned
that one of my classes, we had over 50 kids. And again, that nun had complete the,
complete control. They, uh, well, they, they use the rulers to snap. Absolutely. They
did do that. Yes. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. I can name every one of my grammar school teachers.
Yeah. Miss Gross was my kindergarten teacher. Today, I'd make fun of that name. Miss
Gross. And we had Miss Healy. Miss first grade. Miss Schmidt was second. Miss Zuckerman.
She started out as Miss cats. Then she got married. So she ended up as Mrs. Zuckerman.
Yeah. Mrs. Beatty was, uh, fourth grade teacher. Mr. Person was our fifth. And Mr. Martin
Tony was our sixth grade teacher. Music teacher was Miss Bowel, which I though was a great
name for a music teacher. Bowel. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And I forgot our art teacher. I forgot what
her name was. I could picture her. But I made her own my teacher. Mr. Dodd was the
prince. I spoke to him up until a few years ago. Yeah. We used to, we used to correspond.
We talked to other body leaders. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. He remembered everything about
it. Me, all his students, he remembered. Yeah. He must have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of them. So I remembered all my, I even pictures this, my class pictures on my phone. Oh,
wow. I remember all the kids. A lot of them are gone now. But I remember. Yeah. Yeah.
It is truly amazing. And it just tells us though how formative those many, many years
and day in and day out, my teachers too. Seven kindergarten on through. Um, now mine
were all women. Uh, by the time I was aware, there were a couple man teachers for like
six grade. Yeah. They didn't have them. And they earlier, you're great. I don't know why.
No, you never find a kindergarten teacher who's a man or first grade teacher. And they're
all like six and six then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just to handle the older kids. Yeah.
Or the more difficult subject matter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those men. Well, in the
Royal schools, it was all none. So we didn't have a choice. Yeah. But how the teachers
looked to us. Oh, yeah. Um, now my, the epitome of a stylish teacher, in my opinion, and
also a stern teacher, Miss Mart, my fourth grade teacher, she was the high heels, the
nylons with the seam up the back, the, uh, stylish, a business like suits, not a hair out
of place. But all the teachers, you know, naturally, it was all dresses or skirts. Uh, I don't
think we looked at any of them in our, in my case, and said, boy, is she old? Because,
you know, someone in their 50s might have looked really old to us. But that didn't happen.
They were a bit younger than that. One thing though in my mind, too, is Mrs Miller, two,
two of my teachers were married. Mrs Miller, quite young. She had a yellow teabird. Now, how
could you be any cooler than to have a yellow teabird as a teacher? Yep. She, she got
the top of the car list. Well, well, for the, uh, nuns, they all looked alike. Of course,
uh, they all had their black and white habits. Uh, their clothes were very crisp, uh, white
and black. Like I said, they had a big cross around their neck and, uh, we never saw their
hair because that was covered. Uh, but I did remember that every nun we had had the
same style shoes and the same style glasses. And of course, they had no makeup. And I
think all of us kids thought these nuns were like in their 80s. Yeah. They were probably
in their 30s, but they just looked old, you know. Yeah. So that movie change of habit
with Elvis. Mm-hmm. And Mary Tyler Moore was one of the nuns. They didn't look like Mary
Tyler Moore. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
and I choose Jim, though. Yeah. weren't they kind of black. White shoes. That's right. Yeah.
Stick the heels and ties. Yep. They were all the same. Look at Gerald's face when she's
talking about it because I'm so stylish. Yeah. So stylish. We're sorry. Our late teacher
we had for two years, single, she always wore a suit with high heels, very, very well dressed.
Mm-hmm. So let's talk about how we're looking. Yeah. Well, we looked. Yes. Well, we were
talking about, you know, we had the terms school clothes, play clothes, Sunday clothes.
Not many of us had a lot of clothes and when you look at the homes and apartments we had,
closets were small. Mm-hmm. So we had to have categories of just the mainly few clothes
that we had. So, of course, girls, never any pants. Wasn't even questioned. Dresses and skirts
and blouses with Peter Pan collars and maybe. What's a Peter Pan collar? Yeah. A rounded
collar. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, sweaters maybe that are grandma or aunt or mother knit
for us. We also wore head scarves. You know, I'm thinking back to all my pictures from
grammar school and you're right. There is in one girl wearing pants. No, it wasn't even
thought of. Right. No. I never gave it much thought to you. No. No. No. No. And all the
guys are wearing sport jackets and ties in the pictures. Oh, no, that was for their picture.
But we have a picture taken by the rest of it. And then we wore blue jeans. Oh, no, no. No. No.
No. And girls, we pretty much in those years, it was saddled shoes for us. Um, but our
hair too, um, berets, bobby pins, hair ribbons for bangs, pony tails, braids. How do
about you guys, Jim? Well, I remember the guys wearing their hair slick back with plenty
of brill cream and vitalis. That was the style. It'll be able to do you a little bit. That's
right. Never shoes. I think we wore loafers. We had skinny belts, though. I remember. Yes.
Some reason the skinny belts. Yeah. Yeah. Wally Cleaver on, uh, leave it to beaver always had a
skinny belt. So maybe he was the trendsetter. I don't know. Uh, corduroy pants, of course, in a winter
time. But the cuffed blue jeans that I remember, we used, uh, we, um, had them at home. We never
took them to school. Never wore them to school. We changed that and we changed after school to our
play clothes. That's right. That's right. Once we got home. And then of course, uh, many of our
schools had a hot lunch program. But we get to the lunches. Yeah. We break. Okay. Um,
those cuff pants. I remember when I used to play outside, my mother said, push the cuffs down
because they'll dirt, you know, we get in there. And then they'd be all over the house. That's
used to the cuffs down. And they could put them back up again. And I can't imagine those caps
ahead of mine. Better. But I ain't too hurt on my school yet. It's number one.
our school. We're talking about school days part two with
Gerald G and forte gym this year. Love having you guys in. People responding.
People love you. Got a fan club already. Oh, I'm in radio 50 some odd years.
Nobody ever said anything. And you guys are in air. We love doing this.
And, you know, recene and hometown. It's we love it. Okay. Let's continue talking
about lunches. Let's talk about lunch. Highlight of the day, Jim. Yes,
absolutely. Still is of our school. Yeah, still is. We stayed at school for
lunch because our school had a very nice hot lunch program. When the bell
would ring, of course, we'd have to line up like we did for recess and lunch.
So we lined up and then headed downstairs to our lunch room. Now a few kids
walked home if they lived within a block or so they could walk home. But just
about everybody stayed for our good hot lunch program. But there were a few
things which I did not like to this day. I still don't like chilly. And if I
would smell chilly, heading into the lunch room, I would just keep on walking
like I'm going to the bathroom and then out the back door to recess. That
chilly had the big slices of stewed tomatoes, those big beans. And it was
very unappetizing to me. So I just couldn't take it. Well, here's something
I don't understand. We had, you had a choice of bread and butter. Yes, peanut
butter on bread. And it was never a question about peanut butter, peanut
allergy. It never came out. Yeah, never came out. We got a peanut free zones.
Yeah. But it was never an issue. Right. That's true. I just had peanut butter in my
life. But a lot of people did. Yeah. And I just, with the outside one, one
time they had chip beef on toast, they actually had it and nobody ate it. They
wound up on the walls. People would go to class open up their math book. They
would be in there when they weren't looking. They slammed the pool in their
math book. 20 now. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, besides chili, I remember having barbecue beef on a
bun, hot beef sandwiches, spaghetti, chopped sui we had a few days. Yeah, chopped
sui. Ring baloney was another one. Mac and cheese always had mashed potatoes with a
fruit cup for dessert. Now a couple of things which I did not like besides chili
was cooked cabbage. That's one thing. Yeah, cook cabbage and get this stewed plums.
Oh, oh, oh, oh. But the best thing they had there was their homemade bread. You
could smell that when you walked in for the lunch. It was just so good. We never
had any junk food though, like burgers or hot dogs or pizza. And all this was
only 35 cents. Yep. That's right. Jim being the olden days. Yeah. Were these cooked
by mothers or volunteers? Or was this a bit like a government food that? No, this
was all cooked by probably volunteers. Yeah, it was all home cooked meals by the
older ladies from the church. I don't think they got paid, but we regular cafeteria
ladies were the hair nets. Yeah, yeah. Our hair nets. And one of the qualifications
you couldn't smile or be pleasant. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. But we had to finish
everything on our plate. That was one rule. You know, we were always taught there
were so many starving people in the world and we can't waste food. And we had one of
the lunch ladies standing guard where you would dump your plate into the garbage. And
she inspected your plate all the time. And fortunately for us, for me, I should
say, my parents took Mrs. Benachka. She was the guard there to church every day, every
Sunday, I should say. So if I had some stuff left over on my plate, she would just scoop
it away. Didn't say you were a favor. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. She cut me a little slack.
So that was really nice. Now for breakfast, we always had breakfast because we had eight
o'clock mass and we could not have breakfast after midnight in order to have communion.
So we always had breakfast after mass, which was about 830 or so. I remember bringing
my Roy Rogers metal lunch box. I'm sure you had one done. I didn't have a lunch box.
I have paper bag. Oh, really? Okay. All right. My mom would pack peanut butter, sandwich
and cereal and cookies. And the school would always give us this small bottle of progressive
dairy milk. I'm holding one here for Don to take a look at. But very, very small. That's
nice. Glass. Yeah. But that was always part of our breakfast. I wish I had the regular
containers, three cents. Well, three cents. Yeah. If you just approach your own lunch,
you get three cent milk and a little container of milk. And the poor kids that didn't have
the three cents with them. And they gave it to them anyway. But you got to bring it
tomorrow. They brought it to our three cents. That's right. How about you, Carol?
Well, I was on the other side, Jim, of going home for lunch. Yeah. And I tried to look
up what was our lunch time, 50 minutes, maybe. So the bell would ring with that lining
up silently at the door and then racing out to go home for lunch. I was two blocks away
from Lincoln. So I don't know anything about to talk about today on how our multi-purpose
room had tables for lunch. But I do think being in neighborhood school that most kids ran
home for lunch. And, you know, mothers pretty much were home. So no parents came to pick
us up. We were going to be kidnapped. There was not going to be any crime. We just scattered
out the door. Got home as fast as we could. And our lunches. Well, my mother had a thing
for grilled cheese sandwiches, but peanut butter and jelly, campus bread. We did eat a
lot of white bread. Sure. Yeah. And the most horrible thing happened at our high school.
This was devastating for the school. Oh, a hearty's open up across the street. So all
the kids kind of get away. We weren't supposed to, but they went out the door and went up
at heart. He's a great. It was devastating. Change of life. Oh, what? So, um, windmill cookies,
big bars, homemade cookies, but then, um, brushing back to school. And again, no parents
complete safety. And we were back to play tag or whatever. And then hear the bell, hear
that buzzer bell line up. That's a big part of our life. We were always lining up.
Yep. That's right. Back into the school thing. Yeah. Another highlight recess, Jim. Oh,
yeah. That brings us to recess our favorite subject. So to speak, but we had morning and lunch
recesses, of course. And we'd, again, wait for the recess bell. We couldn't wait for that.
And another line up. Our recess was always held at Roosevelt Park 21st and by the sewage
disposal planet there. It's still there. That was very convenient. Yeah. 21st 21st street. Yeah.
I think most schools had playgrounds on their school site, though. We did. Lincoln had a big
playground. Yeah. You look back today, those monkey bars. They were dangerous. Kids hanging
upside down by their feet and they fall straight down. Right. And the teacher would say, get up.
You're going to mess up your clothes. You know, the kids neck is a strange angle. It's not
going to snap. Get up. Your pants are getting older. But yeah, those monkey bars go
sure they were dangerous. Yeah. And that right guy had a kick around. Oh, that was everybody sat
in the middle of you. One kid had a kick it around. Jump on the last Saturday. Yeah. All
metal, all metal. And then all the kids in a typical force. They're going to fly in all over the
place. Good old days. Me. Yeah.
I'm like waking up Dallas Cooper in the morning. Yeah. Jim, the CEO of Carol T and 40 here.
We're talking about school days. Maybe your school days from the 50s, 60s. Yeah. Maybe you never
know. And we left off at my favorite time of day. Yes. Recess. Recess. We're covering the
highlights lunch and recess. That's right. That's right. That's right. I like it.
Our favorite stuff. That's right. We had recess at Roosevelt Park at Holy Trinity.
We'd walk out the back door into an alley and then walk about a block and that would take us
right to Roosevelt Park. I remember at exactly at 1225, the J.I.K. steam whistle would blow.
And that would be our cue to start walking to our lineup place. Because where was this park now?
Roosevelt. That was on 21st and by the lake. By the by the yeah. Yeah. All that. Yeah. Sometimes
you get a whiff of that. Yeah. When the wind is blowing just right. Yeah. And then at 1230,
the whistle would blow again. And then we'd start, of course, walking back. Now, did a
nongo with you? You know, I don't remember that. I think we were just unsupervised. But back then,
we just like walking home for lunch. Just like walking home. Yeah. Just turn us loose.
Yeah. Just loose. Once again, we were in lines. I remember. Yeah. Yeah. That was part of life.
That's right. And some of the things that we played or did on our recess. Of course,
we had a lot of games. The younger boys would play marbles. Remember to cat size and steelies
Don. They're old. They're never played marbles. Oh, you never did. Okay. Older boys would play
baseball. Of course, we played tag games like Red Rover. Remember that? Red Rover. Red Rover.
Let Donnie come over. Remember that Don. They ever play that game. They never did. Okay.
Yeah. You lost out. Yeah. Yeah. Simon Says was another one.
What? Simon Says. Simon Says put your hands up. Simon Says that do this.
Yeah. They got everybody out. Yeah. They do it real fast. Yeah. That's right.
Another popular one was red light green light. And of course, hide and seek. Red light green light
one two three. Yeah. And you turn around to see who's moving. That's right. Yeah.
And you know, the kid didn't catch it. But you always said the kid that get back and he's a big
fight in the game was over. Yeah. If you moved, you were out. Yeah. That's right.
He says being turned into the principal. Yeah. That's right. Hide and seek. Roosevelt Park was huge.
We had a lot of nice hiding places there. How about you guys, Carol? What did you do? Well,
Lincoln had a big playground just right there. Yeah. So we were we were encased by offense.
Okay. So we weren't turned loose into the community. But I guess for speaking from girls,
Tetherball was very, very big at Lincoln. Oh, Tetherball drew a lot of girls and would wait for
their turn. But the typical hopscotch and jump rope. We did a lot of jump rope and jumped right.
You know, you would do the peppers where it was fast and then how to jump into the rope.
Um, I what I was thinking of today, even though it's getting nicer out, we get would get soaked
playing out there in our clothes. It's a down the rain. Well, I'm thinking snow. Yeah. Yeah.
And and our clothes absorbed the water. Our mittens would be stopping. Yeah. Well,
we would hang them up. They'd be dripping down onto Lincoln's wooden floor. So, but amidst all
this gym, we actually have to learn something. Oh, we did have some subjects to learn.
And those teachers had to guide us into some concentration. So turning to our subjects now,
like reading and printing and spelling and arithmetic. Oh, yeah. Yep. You don't call it that
anymore. Do they? Math math math. Yeah. No, no, it's math. Yep. So in first grade, I would say at least
in in the public schools, we knew the word phonics. And that meant sounding out the letters.
And the words sounding out. Yeah. So that was a big part of our reading. Yeah. And then we had a few
um, uh, catch phrases like the vowels. Mm-hmm. A-E-I-O-U. And sometimes sometimes. Oh, right.
Yeah. You had that over New York too. Yeah. I mean, he's close. We had vowels. Yeah, sweet.
There were so far ahead of us. And the only other one was that I before E. Except after
C. It sounded like way or neighbor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That goes into our reading and spelling. But,
now, one of our basic books were the Dick and Jane books. And we learned words like
go, go spot, go the dog. And we learned run, run baby Sally run. And we learned no, no, no.
Like if we were in a tree and we're falling down. So that was our family. Dick, Jane, baby Sally,
father, mother, spot, and baby Sally's, um, teddy bear, Tim. Now, at that time, though, too, as we
got further into grade school, I wanted to add, after school, we did read things like the Nancy
Drew books and the Hardy Boy mysteries, uh, Trixie Bellden. And we loved it when the teacher would
read aloud to us. So what I brought in, Jim brought in a milk bottle from Progressive Dairy.
And I brought in for Don's viewing pleasure. The book from my third grade. It looks like
it was your third grade. It looks all beaten up. Yeah. It's a little, a little yellowed.
But anyway, third grade Mrs Hudson read to us Charlotte's web. And you know, it changed my life
about reading because it was so interesting. And here it was about a pig in a spider. I mean,
talk about a great writer that could turn that into I looked it up in my research, you know,
how I researched these programs. Very deeply. Yeah. 45 million copies of Charlotte's web have been sold.
And do you think this is worth anything? Like 55. Not in that condition. Put it on e-base.
You can buy a brand new copy. That's all beaten up in the weather. And what else do you remind Jim?
We also had a publication called The Weekly Reader. Oh, yeah. The Weekly Reader. Yeah.
It was a weekly educational publication, a classroom magazine with many interesting articles in it.
It was for elementary schools. It was basically news for kids. And they had articles about western
heroes like David Crocket and the moon, et cetera. But for prokule schools, we had another publication.
It was actually a religious comic book called The Treasure Chest. The Treasure Chest. Very educational.
And there were times we pulled that out and the and the teacher would have you read that in class.
What some of the guys did, we brought a comic from school or from home to school, like Superman or
Batman, put that inside the treasure chest and then we read that. And that's boys. And we got
away with it. No one the way you turned out the way you did. Yeah. Too many Superman.
So I guess the nuns didn't patrol up and down the aisle. No, they just assumed we were reading
The Treasure Chest. So we were reading comic books, all right. Well, then we also had to turn our
reading into spelling and printing. And we spent a lot of time on writing, you know, printing our
letters. Yes. And then also we had those big pink erasers. You and I talked about that. Yeah.
In Slanya Racers, because, you know, we were just learning this spelling. Yep. Now, probably,
I think you did too. Every Friday was a spelling test. Spelling test, right? Yeah. Yep.
And this is where we, in discussing this, Jim, we got into the problem of
lesser students trying to copy us. Yes. That's right. Yes. Kind of peaking over. Yes.
Snitch, or you? A tattletail. One of those aboard students. Give me the mark of the squeal
or request your case. Yeah. Raise my hand, teacher, teacher. Yeah. And so we would put kind of our
arm around our answers. So the neighbor. Yeah, you put your, you put your arm like this. Yeah,
yeah. Yeah. But that teacher would always say, and keep your eyes on your own paper. Remember
that? Keep, did they say that or East? They said, don't make the same mistake your neighbors are
making. Oh, that was psychological. Yeah. And of course, we had arithmetic. No, wait,
wait, Jim, I wanted to say that the spelling. Oh, yeah. We had to pass those test papers. Yes.
To the person in front of you or in back of you. Right. Yeah. And this is where our pleasant memories.
Yep. Our, our good or bad, because if you couldn't spell your neighbor, your classmate knew it.
Don't make the same mistakes. Your neighbors are making.
Talking to Jim Bessier, Carol T and 14 school days, part two. Let's continue on.
Okay, let's talk about arithmetic. Now, math, of course. And those days, Don, we had no calculators,
as you know, I don't believe that. I remember the first kid who brought one in the school. Yeah.
Michael Fears. They were his gathering. All it was Ed subtract the multiplying divide.
That's all right. You're gathering around it. Whoa. We can get this problem. I think you were in.
Yeah. It was grammar school. So maybe fourth or fifth grade. Yeah. We had the multiplication,
tables, addition and subtraction, flashcards. And I'm sure we still remember all that stuff.
Don, if I would ask you real fast, what's nine times eight? You would say 72 because it's, it's
said, yeah, it's engraved in your, in your head there. Yeah. And we had to spend a lot of time
with those. Oh, we did. And time tests for them. Yes. And the time test, remember a long division,
which took up half the blackboard. Yeah. There was numbers all over the place for long
division. I was thinking this morning about decimal points. Wasn't that part of long division?
Yeah, it was. You had to put the decimal point on the right place. Yeah, or a fraction or whatever.
Yeah, you're right about the time test. We had to finish up a test in a matter of whatever it was.
And if you didn't finish too bad. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, then I remember what was it?
What year? Sputnik happened. All of a sudden Russia had the satellite over us.
Yeah. And I remember a big change at Lincoln School. We knew this. And we were told we were
going to really concentrate on a rhythm attack. We needed to be stronger. Oh, I was about to say
that would prevent any attack by the Russians. Yeah. You're right. You're killing with math.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, we didn't have those, I shouldn't say extras, but music, art,
fight, ed. So you and I've been talking about music. Yeah. And we left because
when we had to sing these songs, there was one item, a piece of equipment that every teacher had to
hand the pitch pipe. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I didn't help. We all sounded awful. I didn't help.
Yeah. True. So these songs, songs at Lincoln, like home on the range, Ossuzanna, and I was
mentioning to Jim, oh, and I guess you're saying it too, but Billy boy. Oh, where have you been,
Billy boy, Billy? Well, probably it was second or third grade. I can still think this. We had
a Billy in our room. And Billy and I were the tallest kids there. So I would say picture this
gangly tall guy, Billy, but I was right up there too. And the teacher always made him sing soul
the answer. Where have you been, Billy boy? Billy boy. I think he was in a misery. How terrible
that he had to sing that answer all the time. I wanted to change his name to Wilbur or something.
What else did you sing? Well, we used to sing. I remember a lot of the like military songs,
like anchors away from the halls of Monizuma, wild blue yonder.
Merrick had a beautiful, you know, my country, Tizadi, and quite a few more. But yeah, I remember
Roll Roll Roll, you're both two. We all had to sing that. The rounds. Yeah. The harmonizing. Yeah.
This group would start here and then this group and then this group. And we've probably sounded
terrible, but back then. But it was amazing. Yeah, it was something different. That's right. Yeah.
Of course, the highlight of the year was Christmas concerts. Yes. Yes. That's right. So we prepared
our songs. Yeah, that's right. And where did you do? We went down to our lunchroom for our
Christmas concerts. It was done by grade. Of course, the boys always had the white shirts and the suits
and the ties. Girls were, you know, dressed up in their nice dresses. Black pant leather shoes. Oh,
yes. That's right. Yeah. Ribbons. Yep. That's right. Yeah. And then we had art. Remember,
either individual or a group project, like a maybe a mural. Yeah. Large paper, water colors,
finger paints for those big projects. I remember our teacher always telling us about a human face,
though, which was amazing. She told us that the eyes were halfway down the oval shape of a face.
They are. They are. But none of us believed it. We thought it was maybe a quarter of the
way down. But in actuality, it was a half way down. How have you put this knowledge to work in
your life? Oh, I use it every day. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. I know. I know when you have time,
but quick story. In the first grade or father's day, we got a juice can. Mm-hmm. And we put
felt around it. Yeah. And then we cut a picture. And we started, you know, a picture of our dad
and felt we cut it out. Yep. And that was in 1961. My father had it on his desk through all the
businesses he's had up until he retired. Yep. And when he passed away, I found it. He kept it on
his bookshelf. And now it's on my dresser. Oh, I'm so glad. 1961. We brought in for show and tell.
You better bring that in next month. Well, you know what it is. He put it on his desk,
any of the executive desk he was the owner of the company. And he had this little juice can.
Oh, it's not touching. Three years ago. And he still had it sitting on his desk.
Oh, I love that. I love that. I remember our artwork was always displayed in the hallways,
especially for an open house. Everybody wanted to see little Johnny's artwork, you know.
And we hosted. We do. We had that we made Christmas cards and Valentine's Day cards. You know,
cards for the holidays. I remember we made those all the time. What do we do? I think we talked
about Christmas cards and Valentine's. Yes. I mean, next week, next month, we're going to do our final
part three to grade school. And that's going to include special days like Valentine's Day parties.
And but I'm thinking for some reason, I'm still fixated on how to do Thanksgiving cards.
Because you just trace your hand fingers to make the turkey feathers. And that's how you do the
turkey. I'm so glad I learned how to do that. I'm still thinking about how to do a turkey.
Well, we're almost out of time and we're not quite finished. Should we do more of our subjects?
Yeah. Yeah. Well, what about our science subjects, Jim? Oh, uh, well, oh, if I had, we could
have I had. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Why don't you start? Oh, okay. Well, uh, we used that
multipurpose room. I had explained last time about when we talked about describing our buildings.
Here were some of the castle type grade schools built in the 1850s. And then in the 1950s,
we all got multipurpose rooms. These big boxes, state of the art, blonde brick, but it was our
kitchen, our stage, the big wooden floor. And so if I had there, no, I felt so bad for Billy and
Billy, but I was so tall, I always had to be the boy when we were dancing because we learned
how to dance like square dancing. Hey, we did square dancing doing Jim. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
How about your fire, Jim? We, um, our school really never did have a fire department or whatever.
We never did anything like that. But we did have sports. Um, we had a baseball team and a basketball
team. Uh, we played other pre-ocular schools, uh, which was a lot of fun. As a matter of fact,
I brought a trophy in here from 1957. And it says, uh, 1957 try, uh, what does it say, champs,
or something like that for baseball. And, uh, participation trophy. Yes. Yeah. Everyone
got one. Yeah. It's just, it's made a genuine plastic. Yeah. It is. Yeah. That's right. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So that was our, uh, our sports, uh, uh, you know, in our physical head. Yeah.
Well, next time we'll talk about some subjects like science, right? And, uh, constellations. Yep.
The planets and what was big at Lincoln School during my, my memory, I think 1956,
food groups came out. Yeah. The United States government. But I was looking up that,
at the same time, so the TV dinners come out. Well, you know, the funny thing is, in school,
you learned there were nine planets. Yeah. They don't teach that anymore. There's only eight.
Pluto is not a planet anymore. Is it the warf when though? Isn't it? No, it's not even considered
the planet. They're eight planets. Well, it's there, but it's not a planet. So we're going to enjoy,
and as, like I said, the special days we're going to talk next week, winding up about the
discipline we encountered with the rulers you mentioned. Two notes hauled into the parents,
standing in the corner. Oh, yeah. Next to the teacher's desk, report cards. So a mixture of fun
and, uh, a little, uh, well, yeah, some things you want to forget. Yeah. Right. Thank you. We'll bring
it up anyway. Well, thank you guys for coming. Carol Cheyenne, Forty Jim Bessier. We've got
the part three next month in March. Yes. That should be good. I'm looking forward to it. You guys
are really good on this stuff. You got it all together. Thank you. And we may have some big news
next month about something else we don't have it yet. Don't give me the, don't give me the stink
eye, Carol. Don't give me the stink eye. I didn't mention it. I just said possible good news.
All right. Yeah. Okay. So this should be good. And, uh, but you got to wait till next month and
maybe. Yeah. We'll have it. People aren't even going to sleep now done. That's right. That's fine.
They're going to just be waiting. That's fine. All right. Thank you guys for coming. Thank you.
Don for having us.
