Some days yes, some days no.
Academically, I was fine. I was always second-to-the-top of my class, because I figured out pretty quickly that top-of-the-class warranted too much attention, from teachers and classmates.
The worst part of school for me was physical education, because I’m not competitive at all, don’t like sports, don’t like doing physical things, don’t like being outside, and don’t like teamwork.
Was the steak and kidney pudding the thing that made it worthwhile?
There were horrible school lunch items (creamed chicken) and ones you’d stab your best friend in the eye for (school pizza).
The hardest part, year-to-year, was knowing what was “cool” that year, bringing your lunch from home, or buying a school lunch. It changed every so often.
If that year was a “bring your own” year, then you had to know if brown bags were cool, or if it was still ok to bring a lunch box, and if a lunch box were deemed appropriate, you then had to know if novelty ones were the in item, or plain ones, or cute plaid ones.
Did you have a crush on Mr Smith?
No, but I did on Miss Trayer…and Mrs. Vanderbilt…and Mrs. Westheimer…and Mrs. Hill…and Ms. Hedger (you never forget your first Ms.) and Mrs. Jesperson (who used to be a student just a few years before!)…and Ms. Kramer (OMG, she was like one of Wonder Woman’s co-Amazons…
)…and Ms. Swelk (who was a teacher’s assistant, so maybe 21yo, said the f-word under breath, and told the class her three favorite things were fast cars, fast food, and fast boys)…and Mrs…
Did they thrash you if you set a foot wrong or was it progressive?
Yes, ‘70’s ultra-conservative SW Ohio was big on school beatings, but administered usually by the principal or their assistant, though a teacher was certainly allowed to.
I got a paddling just the once, unjustly, because my only guilt was sitting between two other kids who started fighting, and we all got hauled in and smacked.
Teachers were not above dishing out a little bodily encouragement, though. We had one shop teacher who would ask questions while marching up and down the rows, and if you answered incorrectly, he’d elbow or smack the back of your head rather hard and bellow, “Wrong!” or “Incorrect!”
If a kid acted up, then was kind of open season. We’d have smart-aleck kids dragged out in headlocks, and Mr. Klay (the man who swatted me) flat out cold-cocked a 13yo classmate who was fighting. I guess he won the fight!
Got a kooky or cute school pic or you at your goofiest?
I posted a few in the Way We Were topic, but my all-time favorite school pic is lost to the ages - I was in 2nd grade (6-7yo), and I was dressed exactly like a porch-rocking old man: yellow and brown plaid shirt, light olive green cardigan, and the look on my face was of complete and total disinterest, thousand-yard dead-eye stare. I love that pic.