Third Grade

I don't remember much about second grade. Only that everyone wanted the new teacher with the long blond hair. Miss Lavonne was lovely and YOUNG! Most of the teachers were not. I think it was a good year with Miss Ida, I just don't remember much about it.

Now, third grade was different! I loved third grade. Miss Nell Mudd was my teacher and she made school so interesting and fun. There was a sand table (about 3' x 5') in front of the room that we build a town in over the year. I don't remember why, just that we did! I'm sure it had some lesson attached to it because everything did.

Spelling bees were common too. We would line up around the room and spell down until only one child was left. The only one I really recall it the time I misspelled the word 'benefit'. I've never misspelled it since.

That year for a health lesson everyone was weighed and measured. I was the tallest girl and weighed the most of all the girls. I was so upset. I thought she felt I was fat. She never said it or even implied it but that was how I felt. Recently I was looking at pictures of me from grade school and was surprised to see that I was quite average sized. I was tall but not fat. It was a real revelation to me.

There were pictures of the Tom Thumb Wedding that the entire elementary grades participated in. I was one of the bride's maids (one of about 20) and wore a long blue dress that my mother made from a pattern that matched everyone else's dresses. We walked down the aisle two by two and each pair of us wore a different color dress. We all looked so happy and excited in the pictures. I remember that my sister dressed as a guest and the neighbor boy was dressed as her husband. They were so cute! (You know, maybe the Wedding was during the second grade.)

We had a reading book that I loved. The pictures that went along with the stories were lovely. My favorite was a story that must have been set in the alps because all the houses and the mountains are what I remember. I can still see that page in my mind.