52 Week Challenge: 13

52 Week Challenge: Question 13

Where did you go to elementary school? What was school like for you? 

Obviously this is NOT a 52 Week Challenge!! I think I am on year three. Oh well...I am still plugging along and it will take as long as it takes, right? I still think these are important questions to answer.

Elementary School:

I went to multiple elementary schools. I went to Kindergarten at Washington Elementary in Rexburg, Idaho. I went to 1st and 2nd grade at Sharon Elementary in Orem, Utah. I went to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade at Sage Creek Elementary in Springville, Utah. I went to 6th grade at Orchard Elementary in Orem, Utah.

Despite attending quite a few elementary schools I really enjoyed school and made friends easily. I always had a good group of friends. I loved to read and was a good student. I was organized, a hard-worker, and a people pleaser. I loved parent teacher conference because I loved to hear all of the good things that my teachers would say about me. Usually the only critique was that "Kristin can be a bit chatty."

My teachers were:

Kindergarten...Miss Cheryl
1st Grade...Mrs. Beal
2nd Grade...Mrs. Neubert
3rd Grade...Mr. Jacobson
4th Grade...Mr. Whiting
5th Grade...Mr. Strong
6th Grade...Mr. Barlow

I particularly liked going to school at Sharon Elementary and at Sage Creek Elementary. No surprise there since I was at those schools for the longest amount of time. Sage Creek was my absolute favorite and whenever elementary school is mentioned that is where my mind instantly returns.

I was in afternoon kindergarten which I always thought was so superior to morning kindergarten. (Reilly and Kameron were in afternoon kindergarten too.) In my mind, my school and classroom looked exactly like the school and classroom in the book Ramona the Pest. I remember thinking that when I was in Kindergarten and that book was being read to us and it has stuck with me for all of these years. We had naps on little rugs and the person who was the quietest got to be the wake up fairy with a wand. I LOVED being the wake up fairy!! We had cubbies and the smell that I associate with kindergarten is the smell of rubber gum erasers.

I can smell those right now just looking at the picture! Whenever I am at an arts supply store or an office supply store that has these particular erasers you can find me sniffing them and thinking...Aaahh... the smell of Kindergarten.

I loved Kindergarten. My best friend's name was Heidi. Her parents were building a house by themselves and only the basement was done and they lived in the basement. I thought that was pretty cool. My boyfriend was a boy named Anthony who was a 4th grader who used to get into his mom's jewelry box and steal jewelry and give it to me. My mom was always having to return these *gifts* to his mother!! There was also a boy in my carpool whose name was Stanley. Stanley used to lick all around his mouth as a nervous habit so he always had a red chappy ring all around his mouth. If my mom ever saw us so much as lick our lips she would say, "Don't be a Stanley!!" I have used this phrase with my own children!! Poor Stanley. I am sure he turned out to be a wonderful person.

Sharon Elementary in Orem, Utah

In first grade we moved back to Utah and I went to Sharon Elementary. I loved my teacher Mrs. Beal. She took a special interest in me...probably because my mom was a single mother. I remember her being especially kind and getting to know my mom and little sisters. (I love that Bryn's 1st grade teacher's name was Mrs. Beal too.) One thing that always amazed me was that whenever she talked about her husband she always referred to him as "Mr. Beal" never Jim or whatever his name was or "my husband". It was always..."When Mr. Beal got home last night...blah blah..." I always thought that was so weird. She wrote me letters through out the summer and for a couple of years later. She once sent me an intricate paper cutting when she was on a trip to Hong Kong and in one of her letters she said that she and "Mr. Beal" had bought a cabin in the mountains that was shaped like an A.  I especially loved Mrs. Beal because she taught me how to read. The first word that I remember reading was the word "Clean". I distinctly remember when everything clicked for me with reading. I was in the car with my mom and sisters and we were driving down State Street in Orem.  I was looking at all of the signs when they suddenly came into focus and I understood what they all said. I remember screaming, "I can read! I can read all the signs!!"

I accidentally found Mrs. Beal a few years ago on Facebook through a mutual Utah friend. She had stopped teaching when she had children...in fact our class was the only class that she ever taught full time. She even had a picture of our class on her FB page. I sent her a message and she was as charming and delightful as I remembered her.

My 2nd grade teacher's name was Mrs. Neubert. She was awesome and loved parties. When she was my teacher one of her sons was on a mission to Hawaii. We used to hear all about his experiences and adventures. Once we had a big Hawaiian Luau. We got leis and ate pineapple and poi. We even got to crack open coconuts. I remember thinking that it was the greatest party ever!! We had big birthday parties with punch and cupcakes...even the kids who had birthdays in the summer like me were assigned a time to celebrate during the school year! We celebrated every holiday in a big way. We went on amazing field trips...the zoo, the Monte L. Bean Museum, Liberty Park, BYU, and even a beaver farm off of Geneva Road!! That beaver farm still remains a highlight!! Tyler and I were just talking about that place last week. I was late for school that day and the school bus had already left for the field trip without me. (I was a latch key kid and a dawdler.) I called my Grandma McKinnon from the office and she immediately came to get me and drove like a bat out of !@#$ trying to catch up with the school bus. Which she did!! She was not going to have her "little sweetheart" miss out on seeing that beaver farm!!  We also learned about Egypt and I thought that it was fascinating and terrifying. That was the year the King Tutankhamen exhibit came to Utah. I also attribute my love of audiobooks to Mrs.Neubert. Whenever we did art we got to listen to a book on record. Our class particularly loved all of the Francis books...Bread and Jam for Francis and Best Friends for Francis etc. I still adore those books and have shared them with my kids who also loved them. I had a blue plastic Snoopy lunch box and whenever I think of 1st and 2nd grade I always think of the smell of a fresh box of crayons (still a favorite smell) and the smell of my blue Snoopy lunch box which was NOT a favorite smell. My best friends were Lori and Renee. The boys I liked were Richard and Teddy. My favorite thing to play a recess was kissing tag... with tether ball a close second!! Ha ha!

This looks just like the smelly lunch box that I had!! I found a picture on Ebay!

When I was in college I worked at the front desk of the Howard Johnson Hotel. One of my co-workers was one of Mrs. Neubert's sons. I was so excited when I made the connection...and even more excited when she came into work one day to say hello!

Sage Creek Elementary School in Springville, Utah

In third grade we moved to Springville, Utah...not to be confused with Springdell. I loved Sage Creek Elementary so much! It is really where all of my best elementary school memories were made. In 3rd grade my teacher was Mr. Jacobson. When I found out that I was getting a "boy" teacher...he was more like a 60 year old man...I cried my eyes out!! I did not want a "boy" teacher and went into hysterics. What a waste of tears! Mr. Jacobson was the kindest teacher that I ever had. I loved him. When I think of him I always see him leaning up against the radiators during recess and lunch and talking with his best friend Mr. Whiting (my 4th grade teacher). In Mr. Jacobson's class we learned our times tables aka multiplication facts. I remember having to go up to his desk and reciting them to him so that I could pass them off and our class could have a pizza party. We also used to get fluoride treatments in there. Once a week the secretary Mrs. Crandall would come in with a tray of little Dixie cups with our mouth wash in it and we would swish our mouths out and spit it into the sink. This was also the year that our school caught on fire and our classroom burned. We had to move all of our things into the library and the library got moved into one end of the lunchroom/gym. We were in the library for several months while our classroom was repaired. When we finally moved back into our classroom the burnt smell lingered all year. (Tyler's house caught on fire and burned down when he was in college. He lost most of the things from his childhood and mission. The few things that were salvaged are singed and have that same awful and sad burnt smell...the exact smell of 3rd grade.)

My best friends in third grade were Lori and Amy (and my neighbor Christine who went to another school.) At the time that I moved in one of their best friends had just moved away...Britney...I heard over and over how amazing she was and how they all missed her so much and I hated her! She once came to Lori's birthday slumber party and I was right...I didn't like her at all and she didn't like me! Later in 7th grade... Britney and I would become best friends and would stay that way all through jr. high and high school until I moved to Kansas City. So crazy!!

In third grade I was obsessed with wearing knickers and zip up riding boots. It was hilarious when those riding boots came back into style. Lori and I loved the movie Grease and got satin jackets to wear. We also loved the movie Xanadu and we each got the record and would sing all of the songs. I loved roller skating and slumber parties. I liked to play kickball at recess. We had mini-courses at school every few weeks. That meant we could sign up for different classes like computers (this was even before floppy disks...we inserted a cassette tape into the computer drive!), macrame, pottery, gymnastics, basketball...and things like that. It was really fun! Our auditorium/lunchroom/gym was the same big room and during lunch we would sneak onto the stage and go back behind the heavy big curtain where there was a trampoline and we would jump on the trampoline in the dark all lunch recess.

This was also the year that I got bullied a lot for not being active in the LDS church. Utah in the 70s was rough for inactive kids. My mom had stopped going to church and my step-dad moved in with us. The girls in my class were okay...but I remember the boys being pretty mean when they realized that I was supposed to be in their ward but didn't ever come to church. The worst was the boy I liked the most...my neighbor, classmate, and crush Brad...who is now a dear family friend all of these years later but he could be a real jerk and a bully at times...and yet I still loved him. He was also my next door neighbor.

In 4th grade I had my very favorite elementary school teacher, Mr. Whiting. He was an absolute character!! He was funny and liked to tease. He had twinkly eyes and a big grin. His name was Juan and I thought that was so exotic for 60+ year old man from Springville who didn't seem to have any exotic ethnicity. Mr. Whiting loved animals and basketball!! We learned so much about animals that year and played a TON of basketball. We had a snake in our classroom that I loved to hold. We did reports on snakes...mine was on the Black Mamba! I can still regale you with all kinds of facts!! We read books about animals... Where the Red Fern Grows, Summer of the Monkeys, Brighty and the Grand Canyon, and Island of the Blue Dolphins to name a few! My very favorite book that Mr. Whiting read to us was The White Falcon. I thought it was the best book ever!!

It was in 4th grade that my friend Dayna moved in and that was when all of the usual girl drama seemed to kick in. I don't really remember it before 4th grade. Dayna was cool and lived in a big house. Everyone wanted to be her best friend. She had feathered hair and wore Nike tennis shoes. She was pretty cool. It seemed that whole year Lori and I took turns being best friends with Dayna and then also being left out. By the end of the year Dayna and I were consistent best friends. She lived up the street from me and we would walk to and from school together every day. We used to beg our moms to take us to Fashion Gal, a clothing store in Orem, and buy us matching clothes to wear on the same day. We loved Dittos clothing! I also begged my mom for a pair of Nikes just like Dayna's. We loved to be twins and would call each other the night before to plan our outfits for the next day. In class we were pretty chatty and we didn't often get to sit by one another so we learned sign language from a Boy Scout manual that we checked out from the library so that we could talk to each other across the room. The boys quickly tried to learn it too so that they could understand what we were saying. Ha ha! I also liked a boy named Peter in 4th grade...mainly hoping to make Brad jealous which never happened. :) But Peter and I used to have long phone chats and would spend hours trying to call K-96, a radio station, to *dedicate* songs to each other!!

One of my VERY FAVORITE things in elementary school was the SRA Reading Kits. I loved it so much when this box was brought out! It was full of files with stories that represented your reading level. You would read the stories in a particular color and then take a test on the reading material. If you passed you got to move up to the next level. The goal was to read your way through the rainbow and be the top reader in your class. My other love was the Book Fair!! That was paradise to a bookish girl like me!!

This was also the year that we could work in the lunchroom and be a lunch helper. I thought this was so fun...if...and only if...I didn't have to touch the milk cartons. (Your hands smelled like sour milk all day) or be a tray washer. I can gag just thinking about that!! I loved helping with everything else and getting leftovers...cinnamon rolls, cookies, second helpings etc. My favorite lunches were Tacos, Chili (because we always got a sugared donut), and  my very favorite was the fish sticks meal. We had really good buttery potatoes with this meal and we also got a chocolate peanut butter bar!!  Tyler and I found a recipe for Lunch Lady Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars about 6 years ago and got on a real kick. Apparently we made them one too many times because not one of our kids will touch one now!!

In 4th grade Dayna and I would get dropped off at the mall. We used to walk around for hours and take crazy pictures in the photo booth and buy lip gloss and eat at the food court. We thought we were so cool! We also used to walk to the swimming pool and swim for hours almost every day in the summer all by ourselves. We perfected our underwater somersaults and flips in the lap lanes. We would buy Fanta Red Cream Soda and Moon Pies from the vending machines for our walk home. Also her dad was a doctor and one of the most exciting things that we were allowed to do was spend the night at the hospital in the physicians lounge. We would eat at the Pink shop (the coffee shop) or in the cafeteria and then would watch TV and eat Whatchamacallit candy bars all night in the lounge. It was the best! My mom also worked at the hospital, as the Director of Nursing, so she would let us go look at all the new babies in the nursery!! We also used to ride our bikes down to the Sage Creek Store which we called the candy store and would buy our favorite Dinosour Eggs...I still miss those! They were like giant gobstoppers.

And ... Jolly Rancher sticks. They could last for days in your desk at school!!

Dayna's mom, Carol, also made one of my very favorite meals. It was so delicious that I asked her for the recipe...the first time that I ever did that! It was for Hawaiian Haystacks!! I still make it to this day and it is one of Kameron's very favorite meals.

This is also the year that I went from reading Roald Dahl to reading grown-up books. The Outsiders was the gateway book. My babysitter, Andy, introduced me to that book and I never looked back. By the end of 4th grade I had read The Thornbirds!! It was a mini-series that was on at the time and I wasn't allowed to watch it. I tried to hide and watch it while my parents were watching but I always got caught. I heard that it was based on a book so I rode my bike down to the Springville Public Library and checked it out. I read it and hid it under my bed. Mind blown... I couldn't go back to the Bobbsey Twins after that!! (Side note... I cannot even imagine Bryn who is currently in 4th grade reading The Outsiders...much less THE THORNBIRDS!!) Both books are still favorites and are on my bookshelf today!

I loved that we could ride our bikes all over town back then. We used to head off on our bikes with the Ropers in the morning and not come back home until dinner time! It was the best!

My teacher in 5th grade was Mr. Strong. He loved history and was very patriotic. His full name was Robert E. Lee Strong. I have a memory of him often wearing a buckskin jacket and a bolo tie. He made us memorize all of the Presidents and learn to play the harmonica and sing in a class choir (which I hated). I learned so much about American History in Mr. Strong's class.I loved that! I remember having some very interesting discussions as we would sit on little benches in the back of the room and he would talk to us. He gave us reading challenges and would tally all of the books we read on the wall. He also posted our class rankings. Hence my status of "Kristin McClellan 3rd smartest girl" which I still quote sometimes. We were always ranked with a boy of the same academic status: 

1.) Jonathan and Lori

2.) Peter and Amy

3.) Brad and Kristin

We also got to make and launch rockets in that class which I thought was a lot of fun. We played a lot of sports...and picked teams old school style. Was I often picked first? Never. I was terrible at sports (except for basketball) and Mr. Strong always chose two boys as the team captains. Ugh... This was the year that we got to earn "gold certificates" and then buy things at an auction and have businesses and earn more "gold certificates" to spend at the auction. For my business I made homemade suckers (my mom HATED this unit and dealing with sucker making) and toothpicks dipped in Binaca...mint and cinnamon. (This was my own idea and secret merchandise...and best seller.) Chewing on a flavored tooth pick was quite the thing in 1982. This was also the year of square dancing!! I loved it! Brad picked me as his partner and I was beside myself with joy! There are several pictures of us square dancing and they continue to appear regularly on social media thanks to his sisters!!!! This was also my greatest disappointment...when I choked (figuratively...not literally) at the tryouts for the Christmas Program. Brad was trying out for Joseph and he told me to try out for Mary so that we could be a couple. I got so nervous and did terrible. All my friends got big parts...I still recall it being a very cool Christmas program...and I was relegated to the chorus. Brad was furious...he didn't like the girl who got the part of Mary...a poor picked on girl who actually really needed a win in her life...and I cried my eyes out. 

This was the year that there was the most social/girl drama. Two sets of twins moved in...Nephi and Helen and Britni and Brandi. This completely disrupted our class social structure. I remember that everyone wanted to be best friends with Britni and Brandi...who were super cute and all the boys wanted them as their girlfriends too. Best friend groups kept forming and then breaking up and reforming. The boys all took turns "going with" them. Brad and Brandi were quite the couple and I felt like I was always being left out of the girl group. I remember crying a lot in the bathroom at school in 5th grade.

To this day... I am still friends with Dayna. Her best friend from high school lives in Spokane and is a friend of mine. Brad and all of his sisters are dear dear friends. Brad and I even went out a couple of times in college. Lori, Dayna, Britney, and I all reconnected in college. Lori used to live near me at BYU. She and I went to Britney's wedding reception together and cried tears of joy for our mutual beloved friend! I am FB friends with Lori, Dayna, and Amy and I enjoy following them on social media. Amy has a fantastic blog and is an amazing writer.

Orchard Elementary School in Orem, Utah

The summer after 5th grade my parents bought our house up Provo Canyon in Springdell. We were bussed down the canyon to school in Orem. They were building a new elementary when I moved and when school started it wasn't ready yet. We had to *share* a school with another elementary school which meant that two schools attended Northridge Elementary. One school (Northridge) met early in the morning until noon and then our school (Orchard) started at 12:30 and went until 6pm. It was crazy. We had a big snack time in the lunchroom at 3 pm. That year will always remind me of the drink Proffessor Pooles Trio Orange Drink. This was the first year in my elementary school career that we got a choice of beverage instead of just milk (which I hated) before that the orange drink was only for the kids who were allergic to milk. 

This was also the time that they were widening the road up the canyon and were blasting away part of the mountain. This created a huge nightmare for the people who lived up the canyon. Sometimes we would get stuck either up the canyon or at the mouth of the canyon for up to two hours. It made getting to work and school very difficult. Sometimes we were super late to school because our bus would be stuck or we would get home very late from school and when school ended at 6pm that meant that sometimes we wouldn't get home until 7 or 8 pm. It was crazy! Luckily sharing a school only lasted for a few months and then we had a beautiful new school to attend. The canyon construction continued on until 9th grade and the "Canyon Kids" continued to be late to school on a regular basis which we loved!!

One thing that was kind of fun was that several of my friends from Sharon Elementary now attended Orchard Elementary and we were reunited. My 1st grade and 2nd grade best friend Lori now went to Orchard as did my 1st and 2nd grade crushes...Richard and Teddy...and so did several other people from our class. It was fun and it made moving to a new school much easier.

My 6th grade teacher's name was Mr. Barlow and I was not a fan of him...nor were my parents. He had a very odd personality. That winter he got into a skiing accident and ended up seriously injured so we had a substitute for basically the rest of the year. He came back the last month or so and was in a wheelchair. I think he broke his back and both of his legs...anyway... he didn't have the nicest disposition to begin with and it wasn't improved upon after his accident. Let's just say we really missed our substitute. My friends and I used to skip school during lunch and run to Stratton's Fruit Stand and buy candy. That was the joy of my life until I was spotted and ratted on by one of my neighbors!! We also learned to play the ukulele that year.

My best friends in 6th grade were Jenny, Holly, and Kimby. They were a lot of fun and the girl drama seemed a bit less this year. The boy I liked at school's name was Cory. Holly liked his best friend Garrit. We would meet them at the mall and go to the record store and hang out. They loved Motley Crue and ZZ Top. Holly and I weren't into that kind of music...we liked Michael Jackson... but we were into them!! My first tape was ZZ Top Eliminator given to me by Cory. He was super cute with dark hair and wore graphic t-shirts, skinny jeans, and checker board Vans! It's so funny how fashion cycles around. I just described Kameron's current every day outfit!! In the dell I had another boy that I liked... Mike. He went to my elementary school too but wasn't in my class and understood that he was strictly an *at home* boyfriend. Ha Ha!  I graduated from elementary school very excited to head to Jr.High. My friends in the dell were all older than me and I was super excited to leave childhood behind and get to explore the mysterious world of being a teenager. :)