Miss Ella Wortham's Kindergarden

Kindergarden was wonderful. Miss Ella had taught my Dad when he was in high school but had decided to open her own Kindergarden. It was in the front two rooms of her home. I remember it being a little crowded (I doubt that today's standards would have allowed that many children in a space that small.) but it didn't bother any of us. We sat at tables of four.

When we first arrived we sat in a long row and she called the roll. Then she asked if we'd brushed our teeth that day, and whether the "Cookie Person" had brought the cookies. The "Cookie Person" was also the server of cookies for that day. We had milk each day with our cookies.

At the end of everyday someone would wear home the "cookie card". It was about 4" x 10", said "Cookies", and had a cord attached to the top two corners so that it hung around your neck. That meant that the next day was the day they were to bring the cookies for snack time.

Some of the things I remember doing were growing wheat in cottage cheese containers, pretending to be birds and eating sliced bananas (pretend worms), learning to write the alphabet, a coloring project. The coloring project was to scribble a line in swirls and loops. Then color in each area in a different color (make the color very heavy). Next color over everything with a black crayon very heavily. Last we scraped pictures in the black crayon and the colors underneath showed through. We hung them in the windows for a few days then took them home to hang in our windows. Some people were better at this than others. I remember a girl named S____ whose coloring was very good. Her colors were all very saturated and when she scraped off the black her picture was beautiful. I never could get the black crayon to color over the colored area well enough. It seemed to flake off and I thought it looked awful! Oh the frustrations of a five year old can be terrible!

At the end of the week Miss Ella would hand out little cards (about 1" by 2 1/2") with notes and stars on them. You got a "clean teeth" card if you had brushed your teeth each morning before you got to school. You got a "good" card if your behavior had been...well, good. Also the "Cookie" card when home for the Monday snack. It was shameful not to get a good card. Your parents would be disappointed and worse, you'd feel horrible. It made you work harder the next week though and it was a proud day when you got a good card. There were stars on the cards as well but I don't remember exactly what they meant, if anything.

Too young to go the school following my first year at Miss Ella's, my parents decided to let me attend another year. I remember being thrilled that I could go again. Apparently I really liked going to Kindergarden. I'm sure it also helped my mother who had a young child at home and was helping my father raise chickens.

I begged to be allowed to walk to school by myself. Begged, begged and begged! Finally my parents agreed to let me walk up the hill to school. Evidently I didn't even look back. I didn't know until years later that they sat in the car and watched me as I walked myself to school. I don't know when I've ever felt so grown up. Now when I go back home I realize the hill was not that steep and the walk was not that far, and my parents could see all the way to Miss Ella's front door!

I have very fond memories of kindergarden. The children I attended with there were in my classes throughout school, we all grew up together, and we all graduated together. I'd say we were a very fortunate group of children!