Fading Memories
Remains of Riverside Park
Things come and go. People come and go. Things and people usually change before they go. Memories are like that, too. I have memories of Huron’s Riverside Park, mostly good ones. Lots of flowers, walks, making out and more. All of that’s gone now. This wall is what’s left of the Park but my memories remain…fading a bit, but still there. And speaking of fading memories, I have a story about elementary school that will not leave my head. Well, actually three stories.
I went to kindergarten in a brand new school….Washington! I still remember when my mother abandoned me at the front door, but that’s another story. Sometime before I started first grade, the school board decided to reorganize school districts. My school became Lincoln Elementary instead of Washington, a five block walk vice a three block walk!! The kids who lived DIRECTLY across the street (you know who you are Gwen) still went to Washington. Did I mention that Lincoln was an old, old school? Old.
Lincoln was a square, dark brick building with hardwood floors and very high ceilings. I think there were three floors, the bottom floor being a gym (and you know what I think about gyms). The first floor was where the principal hung out. I think her name was Ms. Sargent. She was a small woman but I often saw the fireball that she really was.
My fourth grade teacher was in her first year of teaching. I really don’t think school systems should put brand new teachers into the fourth grade. The year was 1958, I walked to school most day’s with a friend, Dave C. Dave was much more daring than I, also a head taller. We normally walked the few blocks to school in the alleyways.
In those days, there were no plastic trashbags and most people put their garbage directly into large oil cans or metal trash cans that were located in the alleys. If one looked in the cans, you might see something really interesting. And, of course, being fourth grade boys, we looked a lot. One day, Dave pulled out a Playboy magazine. Wow. A treasure. But certainly, we thought, we should not keep this to ourselves. We hatched a plan.
Our teacher was Ms Wiebel. I sat in the back of her class, Dave sat in the front row so he could be closely watched (he had a reputation). Our plan…I would make a very loud noise that would make everyone look to the back of the class and Dave would stand up, turn around to face the class and display the Playboy foldout completely unfolded for everyone to see. Of course we had no idea of what might happen afterwards.
Our plan went off perfectly! I dropped everything that was on my desk onto the hardwood floors making a loud clatter. Everyone turned toward me, Dave stood up, opened the Playboy and unfolded that month’s star. Everyone turned back to the front and saw Dave and the magazine. There were shrieks and hurrays and laughter, then running teachers and yells for the principal. It turned suddenly quiet as Ms Sargent came storming up the stairway.
We were both marched down to the principal’s office. I don’t remember what she said but I do know that she called my mom. Dave’s, too. We were picked up and taken home. Yay.
I was not a quiet kid in fourth grade and I drove Ms Weibel crazy. So did the other boys, she often cried when we misbehaved. And she punished us by keeping us after school. For days she made me open this huge dictionary that was on a stand at the back of class and copy words and definitions from the book onto my note paper. I think this actually helped me with my fascination for words and I owe her a debt of gratitude.
A few years ago I thought I should apologize to her. I’m pretty good at finding people on the internet so off I went on the quest. I found she’d married. She had passed away several years before my search. I wanted her to know that I’d mostly changed and part of the positive was because of her, I think she’d have liked that.