Cute little thing, isn't she. This is my school picture from kindergarden. I went to school in AuSable Forks, our class was held in the basement of the church. My sister & brother got to go to the real school.
When we arrived in ASF we were fresh from Turkey, where we'd lived for nearly 4 years. We came by ship, of course, moving our entire household. We watched the film "Heidi" on board and what I heard in my tiny little mind was that the girl's name was "Clora," as opposed to her real name of Clara, pronounced with a British accent. When my sister & I were taken to meet our teachers I told mine that my name was Clora. "What an interesting name," was the response. Well, truly, is Betsy much better?
One day most of the dogs in the neighborhood (i.e., town) came barreling down the steps into the classroom. How cool was that!
This was in the days when the paper mill was still running and dumping chemicals in the river. The river divides the town and you cross a bridge to get from my grandfather's house to school. I walked to school (I remember it as walking by myself--maybe my siblings had different schedules) and in the morning the river would be one color, in the afternoon it'd be another color. Ah, the magic of pollution. In history this river is known as The Rainbow River, or The Magic River.
One day I got to school before anyone else arrived. This did not please me, instead I freaked out. Who knew that someone who couldn't stand to be alone there would end up living such a peaceful and happy solitary life? Anyway, I ran home to tell my mother that there wasn't anyone else there (this was before I would have though "yahoo! no one's here, there must not be any school today). She told me (as I recall) that someone has to be the first one there. My life was spared more trauma, though, because I was late when I went back, so everyone else was there.
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