Funny, I never knew you had visited with Mr. Jones, Too! Actually, I don't remember his name. But I do remember my visit. I was in the fifth grade by the time I had my one and only experience of visiting the principal.
My Teacher was Mrs Klontz. She was very stern and spoke with a heavy European accent. I always think of her as being German. But I did like her and she was an excellent teacher.
We had Language Arts Workbooks in which she assigned our homework. I got to school one morning without my assignment being done and decided to fake it. We always did a self check and she would then call our names and we would give her our scores. I hardly ever missed an answer, so decided to just make up my grade. I was planning on doing the page later, so I deducted about three "wrong" answers. After she had finished calling the student's names and recording their scores, she got us busy on whatever our next assignment was and headed for my desk. I was ready to faint! She asked to see my book. When she saw the blank page, she just picked up the book and went back to her desk. In a few minutes, she came by my desk and asked me to come with her.
I very reluctantly followed her out of the room and to the principal's office. She explained what had happened and I discovered she had come to my desk to see what it was I didn't understand about the lesson. I outsmarted myself!
I didn't get a paddling. She just collected the library book I was currently reading, (a Hardy Boys Mystery) and took away my library privileges for two whole weeks. Much more effective than a paddle!
Norma
Showing posts with label Norma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norma. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Alan and Charlotte Wedding Anniversary
June 25,2009
Charlotte and I have been married for 43 years today. After our wedding, we headed for New Mexico. We spent the night in Ft. Stockton, Tx. We got up early and drove to Roswell just in time for church at Mountain View. The look on Grandmama's face was priceless When we walked in. She just beamed and then bent over and punched Granddaddy. They were in the Choir loft. We will never forget that look.
Alan
Charlotte and I have been married for 43 years today. After our wedding, we headed for New Mexico. We spent the night in Ft. Stockton, Tx. We got up early and drove to Roswell just in time for church at Mountain View. The look on Grandmama's face was priceless When we walked in. She just beamed and then bent over and punched Granddaddy. They were in the Choir loft. We will never forget that look.
Alan
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Same Family, Different Memories
It's amazing how we could all be at the same place and time and have such different memories. I do remember the little trailer. But I don't remember where we were when we lived in it. What I do remember most about Los Alamos was the tent city. There were wood floors with a half wall about 3 feet high built all around leaving an entry way. The tents were all square with a vent built in the center for a stovepipe and were all heated with small wood burning heaters. I can remember playing out on the creek where there were rocks that were piled up to make a little cave. A couple of the bully boys in the camp teased me one time and wouldn't let me out of the cubbyhole.. Fortunately, they couldn't get in either. When they finally found someone else to aggravate, I took off and ran to Grandmama and Grandaddy's tent and it was so warm and snug and safe!
Do you remember the trip down to Los Alamos from the Base or Laboratory sites? It was that long and scary drive you recall. On one of those trips, we just coasted down the mountain a ways with the engine not running. When we got to a level spot and needed to climb, the car wouldn't start. Daddy got out to check and the battery had fallen out of the car. He had to hike back up the road to get the battery.
We also had to have Identification badges to get back inside the camp. I wish I knew what happened to those badges. We all had our pictures on them. Everyone had to have a badge, even the babies! Amazing what was going on up that mountain now that we look back at it!
Norma
Do you remember the trip down to Los Alamos from the Base or Laboratory sites? It was that long and scary drive you recall. On one of those trips, we just coasted down the mountain a ways with the engine not running. When we got to a level spot and needed to climb, the car wouldn't start. Daddy got out to check and the battery had fallen out of the car. He had to hike back up the road to get the battery.
We also had to have Identification badges to get back inside the camp. I wish I knew what happened to those badges. We all had our pictures on them. Everyone had to have a badge, even the babies! Amazing what was going on up that mountain now that we look back at it!
Norma
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Before We Moved to Texas
I'm still thinking in terms of my very earliest memories. I'm not exactly sure of the time sequence, but I remember when we lived up on the "hill" in Roswell just behind the New Mexico Military Institute. I remember the house being just a little cottage. Dot, Carole and myself all shared not only a room, but we all had to share the same bed. I know I was a pre-schooler, because I actually started to school in a boxcar school building near Las Cruces, New Mexico. More about that later.
One of the main things I recall is going around the corner to the parade ground at NMMI and watching the cadets do their military marching drills. They were so neat and in perfect lines and movement. I could never get enough of watching. It was actually a neighborhood pastime. We were pretty easily entertained! I have often wondered if people still sit on the bleachers and watch the drills. There were no fences back then. I noticed that much of the NMMI campus is now secured with a high chain link fence. Such a sad commentary on today's dangers.
Another memory that stands out from the time we lived up the hill is Cod Liver Oil! Yuck...Back during those days, measles, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough and even scarlet fever were lurking to attack small children everywhere. I remember getting my first smallpox vaccination and how painful it was until the scab finally dried up and the itching quit. Because the vaccines which we use today were not yet a reality, parents did the best they could to insure good health. I'm not exactly sure what health benefit Cod Liver Oil is, but Mother made sure us three girls got a regular dose! I hated the stuff. There is no way to disguise the taste. And Mother tried to pour a spoonful of the stuff down our throats. But that was one thing I was not going to do; willingly take a spoonful of Cod Liver Oil! I know this is why I loved my Mama Boggs so much; One day she was at the house and Mother was trying to give me a dose of the stuff. I was kicking and crying and heaving and really fighting. Grandmama stood there for a few minutes and then interrpted Mother. "Lois", she said, "Don't give her any more of that stuff. And If I catch you trying, I'll give you a dose!" So far as I can recall, I never had to face that disgusting spoonful of medicine again!
We must have been there about the time World War II started. Daddy was gone a lot during that time and I found out later that he had gone up into Northern New Mexico to build an extension on a dam that makes a small reservoir on a huge ranch. That ranch is presently owned by John Yates who is now married to my cousin Charlotte Boggs. She is the daughter of my mother's twin brother, Louis. I am sometimes so amazed at the things life puts together!
I'm not sure just where we went next, but I do have more memories of those very early days. I'll have to let the memory cells float a while and organize my thoughts for another story...
Norma
One of the main things I recall is going around the corner to the parade ground at NMMI and watching the cadets do their military marching drills. They were so neat and in perfect lines and movement. I could never get enough of watching. It was actually a neighborhood pastime. We were pretty easily entertained! I have often wondered if people still sit on the bleachers and watch the drills. There were no fences back then. I noticed that much of the NMMI campus is now secured with a high chain link fence. Such a sad commentary on today's dangers.
Another memory that stands out from the time we lived up the hill is Cod Liver Oil! Yuck...Back during those days, measles, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough and even scarlet fever were lurking to attack small children everywhere. I remember getting my first smallpox vaccination and how painful it was until the scab finally dried up and the itching quit. Because the vaccines which we use today were not yet a reality, parents did the best they could to insure good health. I'm not exactly sure what health benefit Cod Liver Oil is, but Mother made sure us three girls got a regular dose! I hated the stuff. There is no way to disguise the taste. And Mother tried to pour a spoonful of the stuff down our throats. But that was one thing I was not going to do; willingly take a spoonful of Cod Liver Oil! I know this is why I loved my Mama Boggs so much; One day she was at the house and Mother was trying to give me a dose of the stuff. I was kicking and crying and heaving and really fighting. Grandmama stood there for a few minutes and then interrpted Mother. "Lois", she said, "Don't give her any more of that stuff. And If I catch you trying, I'll give you a dose!" So far as I can recall, I never had to face that disgusting spoonful of medicine again!
We must have been there about the time World War II started. Daddy was gone a lot during that time and I found out later that he had gone up into Northern New Mexico to build an extension on a dam that makes a small reservoir on a huge ranch. That ranch is presently owned by John Yates who is now married to my cousin Charlotte Boggs. She is the daughter of my mother's twin brother, Louis. I am sometimes so amazed at the things life puts together!
I'm not sure just where we went next, but I do have more memories of those very early days. I'll have to let the memory cells float a while and organize my thoughts for another story...
Norma
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
My Earliest Memories
I was sitting the other day trying to think of the earliest thoughts or events I can remember. I know some very early happenings, like Uncle Vernie pulling me out of the horse trough when I nearly drowned. But I was told about that and have no memory of the event. My own personal recollection is hard to pin down. I'm thinking it might have been an event that happened when I was around 4 or 5 years old. Mother and Daddy went to California and Carole was still just an infant. I remember having a fire that burned all the grass in the yard around our house and finding my rubber doll burned beyond any salvage in the yard. I did ask Mother about that, but she doesn't remember my dolly being burned in a yard fire...But that always comes to my mind when I try to go to my earliest recollections.
I do remember a trip to somewhere that was in a very hot car...at least the weather was so hot that we were all crying and fretting and Mother kept dampening down a diaper (real cloth in those days) and hanging in the windows so the wind blowing by the windows would provide evaporative cooling. Anyway that had to be long before Alan was born as there were only the three of us girls. And Carole was still just a toddler..(she was so cute). But no one had or even imagined an air-conditioned car.
Now that the memory cells have been activated, another early memory I have is of Daddy when he would get the shaving brush and soap and his razor and do his shaving. We would all stand around and giggle while he made silly jokes. No fancy throw away razors, but we did have safety razors by that time. He shaved in the kitchen because we had no bathroom. He had a little stand-up mirror that he used and a white enamel wash basin. He would poke his shaving brush at us and get lather on our noses.
I also remember sitting around, either before bedtime or before dinner and daddy would come in from the fields or the job he was on and freshen up. Then he would sit down, take Dorothy or Carole on his knee and make up funny songs. I was much too big by that time to bounce on daddy's knee.
I think those very good times must have come to an abrupt end as we entered into World War II. Daddy helped build army bases and so forth and was gone a lot of the time. He was a bit older than most of the guys who went into the military and had a large family and was in work essential to the war effort. But that is getting into a whole other time of which I do have many memories. More of those later.
Those very earliest times are very hazy in my mind. But I associate a very contented and happy family life with them.
Norma
I do remember a trip to somewhere that was in a very hot car...at least the weather was so hot that we were all crying and fretting and Mother kept dampening down a diaper (real cloth in those days) and hanging in the windows so the wind blowing by the windows would provide evaporative cooling. Anyway that had to be long before Alan was born as there were only the three of us girls. And Carole was still just a toddler..(she was so cute). But no one had or even imagined an air-conditioned car.
Now that the memory cells have been activated, another early memory I have is of Daddy when he would get the shaving brush and soap and his razor and do his shaving. We would all stand around and giggle while he made silly jokes. No fancy throw away razors, but we did have safety razors by that time. He shaved in the kitchen because we had no bathroom. He had a little stand-up mirror that he used and a white enamel wash basin. He would poke his shaving brush at us and get lather on our noses.
I also remember sitting around, either before bedtime or before dinner and daddy would come in from the fields or the job he was on and freshen up. Then he would sit down, take Dorothy or Carole on his knee and make up funny songs. I was much too big by that time to bounce on daddy's knee.
I think those very good times must have come to an abrupt end as we entered into World War II. Daddy helped build army bases and so forth and was gone a lot of the time. He was a bit older than most of the guys who went into the military and had a large family and was in work essential to the war effort. But that is getting into a whole other time of which I do have many memories. More of those later.
Those very earliest times are very hazy in my mind. But I associate a very contented and happy family life with them.
Norma
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