School Days back then

Here is my 8th grade class picture from Brentano Public School, Chicago, Jan., 1958. I'm on the end of the second row up. Brentano was the almost identical school as shown in the picture "Christmas Story". The outside, interior, classrooms, kids and teachers were so similar. Looking back, it was a typical Chicago grade school, but now I realize it was pretty special.
 

Attachments

  • 1958.JPG
    1958.JPG
    91.7 KB · Views: 11
Mobilman44 said:
Here is my 8th grade class picture from Brentano Public School, Chicago, Jan., 1958. I'm on the end of the second row up. Brentano was the almost identical school as shown in the picture "Christmas Story". The outside, interior, classrooms, kids and teachers were so similar. Looking back, it was a typical Chicago grade school, but now I realize it was pretty special.
Click to expand...
It's so nice how the students were all dressed in white shirts/blouses. You were a cute kid!
Aaaah, if only we could go back to re-live just one day of our youth ..
 

Jules said:
That’s Mrs. Van Arsdale in that photo too, right? She is attractive.
Click to expand...
Yes. Her husband came in two or three times that year to "teach" us kids how to play basketball. That was the start of my lifetime frustration as a Phoenix Suns fan. What's funny is that the next year I had a teacher who I didn't like and his son (Gary Gentry) pitched for the NY Mets in the World Series so I rooted for the Orioles and became a long time Orioles fan because of that. I guess teachers do have a long lasting impact...lol
 
Last edited:
My elementary school playground had a “jungle gym” almost exactly like this. Now what could go wrong with allowing kids to climb all over a network of unyielding metal bars, some well above standing height, with nothing but steel and asphalt to cushion potential falls?

Perhaps they were trying to thin out the student population, and create smaller class sizes… 😸

IMG_2302.jpeg
 
Today, at the pharmacy, I was waiting for my wife's prescription to be dispensed. On the shelf behind the counter, was a treatment that brought back a childhood memory of the early days at school. What I was looking at was the treatment for head lice.

Back in the early fifties lice was still prevalent and our school had regular visits from what was known as: the nit nurse. Nits are the eggs of lice and we were all subjected to our hair and scalp being pushed and pulled about.

Others in the pharmacy must have thought that I had escaped the funny farm, given the grin that the reminisce caused. Nit nurse was quite tame compared to the name us kids gave her. She was known by one and all as: "Nitty Nora, the bug explorer."
 
yep we had Nitty Nora who came to our school. I remember once we caught nits from someone ese.. and after my mother shampooed our hair in some foul smelling stuff.. we were made to sit on a chair in the middle of the garden, while my father dragged a metal nit comb through our hair.. very painfully.... It didn't help us feel better about it when Nitty Nora kept saying.. ooh nits prefer clean heads, it's not because you're dirty''... well somebody was obviously.. 😖
 
When I was in high school grades 10 and 11, I had 2 girlfriends at the same time. I dated one on a Friday night and 1 on a Saturday night. The girls went to different schools. My fear was running into someone that knew me while I was with 1 girlfriend and he knew the other girl too. I ended up getting caught because someone squealed on me. That’s when all hell broke loose and I really got zapped by both girls and then I had none. I had to do a lot of kissing up and damage control. I admitted to both girls that what I was doing was wrong. That’s when I learned apologies don’t go very far in that type of situation.
 
I always loved school. Grades 1 through 6 was in a one room school that I could walk to. Grades 7 and 8 was another one room school but out of town so we were bussed. I started grade 9 at age 13 in a school of about 1800 kids about 15 miles away so another bus ride. That was culture shock. I took the bus to school and most days I hitch hiked home. Very rarely would the bus beat me home. Met a lot of interesting people hitch hiking.
I did well in school and never had much homework and never had to study much, other than Math. I just kind of coasted through high school so my grades weren't as good as in public school.
 
horseless carriage said:
Back in the early fifties lice was still prevalent and our school had regular visits from what was known as: the nit nurse. Nits are the eggs of lice and we were all subjected to our hair and scalp being pushed and pulled about.
Click to expand...
I remember getting those lice/nits checks in school up until the early 80s. I also remember getting checked for scoliosis in PE classes, having to bend over, etc.
 
KSav said:
I remember getting those lice/nits checks in school up until the early 80s. I also remember getting checked for scoliosis in PE classes, having to bend over, etc.
Click to expand...
I also remember the lice checked back in the 60's and early 70's and also the scoliosis check in physical education class. My elementary school the primary classes were all in one classroom and taught by one teacher. The special classes such as Art, Physical Education, Music, and Library we all lined up and went to different classrooms or the gym for those classes.

In Junior High School in the 7th, 8th, & 9th Grade this is when I first had to get a locker and learn a locker combination. Each class was also in a different classroom. Then in High School 10th, 11th, and 12th the locker and locker combination was old hat to me and changing classes was a piece of cake. Elementary School was the only school I was able to walk to.
 
Elementary, Jr High and High School were all on the same street moving north as we progressed. After the high school came the railroad station (Long Island Railroad). Time to hop on a train and get out of town.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top