School Days: Going to Kindergarten

First Grade Photo, Oaklawn School, 1953-1954
Privately held, collection of the author

School Days: Going to Kindergarten

I remember my first day of school quite vividly because it really wasn't what I expected. I remember the Kindergarten classroom was in the basement of the old Oaklawn School. The steps to the inside of the old school were very steep and many children struggled up them to make it into the school. From research, I learned that the school was built in 1895. 

Much to my shock, there were no desks and chairs, and the teacher made us sit on a large rug in front of the piano. I had on a new dress and decided to sit on the piano bench. The teacher didn't notice because she was herding the other children to the rug. I politely refused to sit on the rug and asked where the desks and books were.

The next thing I knew I was being called out of the room by the woman who I think was the principal, Miss Murphy. We went to her office. I still remember the sunlight streaming behind her big desk and chair through the windows which were high up on the wall. 

She took out a card with pictures of three oranges and an apple and asked me to identify the apple. I asked her if she didn't know? I remember her laugh and she said that I had to show her, so I did. She told me it was a test. I was glad she knew and I felt better.

There were more cards and then I told her that I could read. She took me to the bathroom and came back for me with a book. Judging from the year, it was a primary reader called, "Fun with Dick and Jane". The next thing I knew, I was taken to a nearby first grade classroom. 

Miss Abbey showed me where to sit and told me they called my mother and I was to stay for lunch and go home on the afternoon bus. I was glad to see a "real" teacher and to see desks and a bookcase. 

I was placed in the front row next to a very blonde little boy named Terry. I have later learned that that was because we both were left handed.

Until they published Rhode Island College yearbooks online, I didn't remember what she looked like except for her dark hair and long red fingernails.