School #14 - It's A New World

The first school that I attended was Indianapolis Public School #14.  It was late summer of 1953 when my mother took me to register.  It was a big brick building.  We walked up the steps and went in.  The kindergarten room was to the left and I walked in holding my mother's hand.  The teacher told me that I could look around the room while she and my mother talked.  At the back left corner was a play kitchen with sink, play stove, dolls - there was a lot of pink. Along the back wall towards the other corner were blocks, toy cars and trucks.  There were shelves of paperback books, paints, paper, rugs and easels standing up.  Plastic aprons and musical instruments like bells, triangles - all sorts of wonderful toys.  There was a blackboard that had the alphabet with a capitol letter and a small letter from A to Z and numbers.  It was a big room with a wood floor and wooden chairs to sit on.

I went over to the building blocks and toy cars and played with those while my mother and teacher were talking - school was going to be so much fun.  I was growing up.......

It was September 1, 1953 and my first day of school had arrived.  I was so excited to go to school and play with all the wonderful toys.  I just wished my brother could go with me, but he couldn't because he was too young.  There was a lady cross guard at the corner of State St and Ohio St.  She made sure the cars stopped so we could cross the street.  I walked down Ohio and turned north on Arsenal Ave and then continued on Ohio St. again.  I walked by a catholic school with a church.  It was called Holy Cross.  It was surrounded with a wrought iron fence - seemed very mysterious.  I arrived at School 14.  I went in and turned left into the Kindergarten room.
 

The teacher was there greeting the kids.  Her name was Nancy Highland (this is a picture of her).  There were lots of kids in the room and I didn't know anyone.  All of a sudden, I felt very alone and was really afraid to talk.  When we were able to go play with the toys, I wanted to go play with the blocks and cars.  But, I was told to go play in the kitchen with the other girls.  Boys played with the blocks and cars and girls played in the kitchen.  I was not a happy camper.  I follow directions and didn't throw a fit or anything, but I didn't understand why we all couldn't play with all the toys.  That was how my brother and I played.  My mother never told us we could only play with certain toys.

I think my favorite thing was painting pictures on the easel.  We had to wear the plastic aprons to paint.  We also got in a  circle and walked around playing the different instruments.  I wanted to play the triangle, but don't think I got to play it too much.  I really was afraid to say anything.  But, there were some cute boys in my class.  I never went through that "I hate boys" stage.  We also had to take a nap.  That was what those little rugs were for.  Everyone got a rug and laid it on the wooden floor and we were suppose to nap.  The teacher turned the lights off so the only light was the light coming in through the windows.  There was no way that I could sleep - I just laid there until it was time to get up, folded my rug up and put it back on the shelf.

I did meet my best friend that I had while I went to School #14.  She was very pretty and nice.  She had a very nice smile and beautiful curly hair.  Her name was Kathryn Campbell.  We started walking back and forth to school with each other.  Katie lived on Walcott, about 2 blocks from my house.  When she reached State St., we would walk the rest of the way to school together.  Because we lived so far from each other, we couldn't play together all that much.  If I went to her house, my mother would walk me down to Walcott and then watch me until I got to her house.  Neither one of us were allowed to go to each other's house unless someone watched us.  But, even though we couldn't play together a lot, we considered ourselves best friends.

And, because of Facebook, we have been able to reconnect.  It is so cool reconnecting with childhood friends that we really cared about and considered best friends.

My brother, sister and I found all of our report cards that my mother had saved.  I'm going to say this now, but I believe we were very fortunate that our mother was a hoarder.  She saved everything and it is so cool to go through all of these fantastic mementos.  I didn't remember what my teachers had written on my report cards.  Some of the comments really surprised me.
The 1st report from Ms Highland read:  "Donna is a quiet child and has found it very difficult to adjust to the group situations of Kindergarten.  However, she is slowly taking her place as an individual and as a member of the group."   Really Ms. Highland?  Well, I would have found it much easier if I had been allowed to play with the blocks and cars.

2nd report:  "Donna is becoming more cooperative and participates in all activities.  She has overcome her fear of school."   Well, I really didn't have a choice now, did I.

3rd report:  "Donna has adjusted very well to school.  She has learned self control and group participation.  She is now ready for the first grade."  Did she just say that I didn't have self control?  What was that all about?  I would have never, ever disobeyed a teacher or anyone else.  I was scared to death of adults and people I didn't know.  I never talked back to teachers.  Oh well,  I was only going to kindergarten for the first semester and now I was going into the first grade.  First grade - I won't have to play in the pink kitchen anymore............AND I was now a midtermer. 

Our State Street Home in Indianapolis

My mother purchased our State Street home that was located at the corner of State Street and Ohio, 1 block north of Washington Street, the main east-west street of Indianapolis, IN.  We moved to this house after living with my grandmother on N. College.  It was a 2 story, white frame house with 3 bedrooms and bath upstairs.  I had an imaginary friend named Jean who lived in the mirror above the sink in the bathroom.  She had dark hair and was a good listener.  Mother rented the bedrooms out and we lived in the downstairs part.  I know we had 'roomers', but I really don't remember anyone ever being there except for my mother's best friend, Joyce.  She lived in the pink bedroom.  There was one roomer that lived upstairs that let us use his TV in the living room, but I don't remember what he even looked like.  Come to think of it, it may have been Joyce's TV.  Renting rooms to single people was pretty common back then.  So, the dining room was converted to the bedroom for my mother, brother, sister and I.  We had a front porch with a brick half wall around it.  There was a small backyard.  On Sunday, my mother would do the laundry down in the basement with a wringer washer and tubs for rinsing.  I was always afraid that I would get my arm stuck in between the rollers of the washer.   She would hang the washing outside in good weather.  She also had lines strung up in the basement in case of bad weather.  The back yard was also our burial ground for our only 2 pets, a parakeet named Mickey and a gold fish.

There was a small house behind us that a little girl and her parents lived in.  Her name was Marcia.  Even though she lived right behind us, I don't remember playing with her that much.  While most of the houses on our side of State Street were single family dwellings, the houses across the street were mostly doubles of frame construction.  Those houses sat really close together and always looked dingy to me.  I don't think I ever went across the street.  Most of the yards in our neighborhood were just dirt.  I remember Mother trying to get grass to grow, but it never would. We had friends that we played with on our side of the street - Butchie who lived with his grandparents (his grandmother was the lady who had the big iron press),  It always seemed dark inside and had that 'old people' house smell.  Do you know what I am talking about?    
There were 4 young girls living in a double down the street with their parents.  The oldest girl was my age and her name was Donna, too - Donna Sue.  One winter after a big snow, her dad made a Daniel Boone snowman with rifle and coon skin hat.  It was really cool!  It seemed like her parents fought a lot - I think he drank too much.  When he built the Daniel Boone snowman, I thought to myself - why couldn't he be that nice all the time.  The Daniel Boone snowman was really cool and everyone was really happy.  Just across the alley from them, there was a boy a few years older that lived there.  They had a big maple tree in the front yard and in order to climb it, you had to throw a rope around the lower big limb and hoist yourself up the trunk.  Once, I got halfway up, the rope broke and I fell on my back.  It hurt and I crawled home.  Actually, I didn't hurt all that bad, I just liked the drama..............After the houses, there were a few businesses on State Street towards Washington Street.  A cleaners that had a sloped parking area in front that was great for roller skating, Next to it was an auto garage that smelled of oil and grease.  The old men would sit outside the overhead garage door.  They were always nice and would say 'hi' when we walked by, but I was a scared of them.  Then at the corner there was the drugstore.   After my grandmother would go downtown on Saturday for her dressmaking shopping, she would take the bus to our house to visit.  The bus stop was at the corner of State and Washington and my brother and I would walk her to the bus stop when she left.  She would give us each a dime to buy something at the drugstore.  You could buy a lot for a dime.  Sometimes we would buy bubble gum or small tablets to draw in and then there were always the wood paddles with the rubber balls.  My brother and I were big suckers for those wooden paddles and balls.  They usually broke within 10 minutes and then Mother would have herself a new paddle.  We had a big heavy white upright piano in our bedroom and when Grandma would call to talk to Mother, Eddie and I would get the paddle and push it under the piano.  There was quite a stash when we moved out of that house.    
Here is a newer picture of our block (1) our house (2) the cleaners (3) auto garage (no longer there) (4) drugstore (no longer there) (5) Marcia's house and (6) was the alley.  Back then, the garbage cans were left at the alley where the garbage trucks would drive through to pick up the garbage.  Garbage was just thrown in the garbage cans - we didn't have plastic bags.  It always smelled bad.  I'm not sure when this aerial was taken or if that house is the same one that we lived in.  It seemed that there were more houses when we lived there in the 1950s.

My brother and I also liked playing on our front porch - it was big.  There was a big glider to swing on and a milk box by the front door for the milkman to leave milk in.  We could even ride our tricycles on the front porch.

We had the freedom to play and our imaginations knew no boundaries.  The house was our toy box.  Here is another aerial picture of our house.   The apartments across Ohio St were the apartments that we stood next to for our pictures with our sister.

This is one of the pictures with Joyce, my mother's best friend, taken with my brother, sister and I.  Joyce was very pretty.  She was a sweet and fun lady and had a bubbly personality.  

The State Street house holds lots of memories.  This is where we lived when Eddie and I had our picture taken on the pony.  My sister was born here and this is where we lived when Eddie and I started school.  That first year of school for me was rough.  Eddie was still at home and was able to play with all the toys by himself.  It was really bad if we got a new 'toy' and I had to go to school.  I remember one time, someone gave us these big photograph books.  There weren't any photographs in them;  just blank thick paper.  We were going to draw in them.  I just knew Eddie was going to draw on all the paper while I was at school.  There were many mornings that I had to be physically pushed out the door.  Quickly the door would shut and I had no where to go but to school.  It just wasn't fair!