Mrs. Lena retired after teaching our first grade class. Mmmmm… I’m not sure, but I think she taught my mother. I know she was old – real old.
I’ve forgotten many things over the years, but two incidents from first grade refuse to escape my memory.
First: Betty Jean Arnold had polio and wore braces. She grabbed my best friend’s yellow pencil and I slapped her. Why did I do that? I must have been a brat. Maybe being child number ten… Naw. I still feel bad about slapping a crippled child.
Mrs. Lena bent me over her lap at her desk in front of the whole class. She pulled my dress up and paddled me good. I can still see the gawking kids – some laughing. I quit slapping.
Second: Jimmy Lentz, my neighbor, had to use the bathroom after Mrs. Lena left the room for awhile. In the back of the class the boys circled him as he unfastened his overalls and made a stinky deposit in the trash can. One of them ran and grabbed tissues from Mrs. Lena’s desk. The girls giggled, anticipating her return.
“Here she comes,” the look-out yelled. We dashed to our chairs. She entered, sniffed, and everyone pointed at Jimmy, then the trash can.
“Why didn’t you go to the rest room?” she demanded.
All of us knew you didn’t go to the restroom without permission.
He didn’t answer. Just sat there with his head down. She took him and the trash can to the restroom.
At least he didn’t do it in his overalls.
