Vada Whitehurst James

Memories – Old Ford School – 1948-1956
Continued

copying many pages from an encyclopedia. (Copying the morbid poem made quite an impression on me, with fears of a horrible death like the little brown haired girl frozen on the mast of the schooner). At any rate. now those two punishments that I remember so vividly seem very fair, and I always felt forgiven in the end. Believe talking out of turn and too much required frequent low level discipline. Mr. Grist loved to tease and read a letter to class regarding his perception of my apparent crush on Harold Willard, which was probably short lived, as my crushes usually were. Believe I liked all the boys but didn't really have a "boyfriend". Maybe having three brothers took some of the mystery away. Of course, we all had special buddies that we felt very close to. Loved events in the auditorium when all the classes were present. This was a chance to see all the boys together in one place (and hopefully they were still enough to really be looked at). Secret's out! Vaguely remember misbehaving by singing silly lyrics to serious songs in assembly—think this was a group effort.

What year was the reproduction film? Remember a little giggling, but think we were fairly age appropriate in our response. Congratulations, class! In one of the early grades a favorite forbidden activity was climbing underneath the coats in the storage area in the back of the room and hiding until found. This probably was stopped after one incident, but I remember the anticipation and excitement as the Vada, Sammy and Swindell Cratch coats moved before discovery—I could hardly breathe. Softball: Terrible at it, ducked when the ball came near me. but loved being outside with my classmates. Envied the boys and their ability (generally) to ploy better, and without fear of getting hit by the ball. Red Rover, Red Rover, send———right over! Loved this—the excitement of being chosen and the running was great fun. Jump-rope and all the silly little "ditties"(is that a word?) that we sang while jumping was great fun. too. I'm pretty sure this was a girls' only activity. Seems we were constantly running and chasing each other, if only to the water fountain. Therefore, knees were embedded with rocks on occasion—remember knocking small rocks from bleeding knees as I continued the chase. The boys seemed to engage in normal roughhousing but, if there was a particular bully, I don't remember it. Did the boys play marbles at recess? Proudly wore "I Like Ike" button (probably before his re-election in 1956). Attempted to share my views on the front steps of the school; no one seemed interested in the subject or my political leanings (which I am sure came directly from my father). 8th Grade Graduation: It must have been very exciting being with classmates, faculty and family and looking forward to moving into high school, but my most vivid memory is that of wearing my first pair of "heels" (believe we called them pumps), white leather. I felt very grown up, but my feet hurt.