Thursday, March 13, 2008

First Grade - Indian Village Elementary School


Say hello to my first grade class from Indian Village Elementary School. The year (according to the picture) is 1973 and Mrs. Marci Lawson is the inspirational teacher - keeping us all in check.

We were located in Room 19 (yes I know - scary that I remember this).

Our desks were simple, in a complicated way. They weren't the fancy ones that opened up on top. Oh no! They were the kind that opened up to your waist area.

Many things could get lost (and subsequently - GROW) in this area. Emptying these types of desks out at the end of the year was always an anxiety-filled moment because one never knew what people like Brian Blazer and Ralph Barva would pull out of the nooks and cranies of these wooden hothouses.

ANYWAY

If you attended Fort Wayne Community Schools (the elementary ones) in the early to mid 70's, I bet your class pictures looked just like this.

Every year, the photographer would come into our classroom and he would bellow out instructions to our teacher that went something like this.

Okay. Move dem desks to the middle. We gotta make this look like a real classroom

What he meant was that the lens was only so wide and therefore - if the desks were required to be in the picture (by the way - I'm still trying to figure out who made this rule) - then - in order to get everyone in, we had to move all of the people and desks into a small area, sit behind them, and smile for maybe 3-4 shots.

In other words, it took much more time to move the desks around then to actually take the frickin' picture.

The boys really liked to scrape the desk chairs as hard as they could across the concrete (but hey - it looks "tiled" - floor).

I have a ton of great memories from first grade. My first grade experience was extremely profound and I can't even begin to tell you how lucky I was. I think I was just in the right place, at the right time.

Anyway - there will be a lot more to write on this subject of first grade. But for now, let's get scary for a moment. I remember just about everybody's name.

So here it goes. And if I'm missing someone, or if I have spelled their name wrong - please let me know. By all means, if you know where any of these folks are today - let us know!

(Left to Right)

Row 1: Rusty Cramer, David Nelson, Melanie Davis, Kristina Frazier-Henry

Row 2: Skip Shock, Rita ?, Jody Ellis, Bruce ?, Chrissy Boner, Brian Rice, Kathleen Caldwell

Row 3: Ralph Barva, Wendy Shipley, Tracy Nimbles, Betsy Barrett, Kelly Miller, Billy ?, ?

Row 4: Eric Busenbaric, Brian Blazer, Kelly Biddle, Lisa Smith, Tom Stinson, ?

Row 5: Beth Fruechtenicht, Karen Brunette, Stuart Williams, Marla Magditch, Chris Starn, Mike Sharp

Row 6: Tom Malott, Brian Butcher, Janice Smith, Kim Spore

4 comments:

Colleen said...

Ha...I think Kelly Biddle transferred to SWAC and I graduated with her! JOdy Ellis too, I think.

Association President said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

In 1973 I was in Mrs Irelands 2nd grade class!

Most of the boys in your picture I knew reasonably well, as well as a few of the girls!

What a hoot!

I was a bit of a trouble maker and visited Dr. Schroeder too many times to count during my tenure there.

After I got home from the Army, my job took me back to Indian Village where I had an awesome reunion with him and Mr. Gillian - the janitor. My punishment usually included helping him clean up things.

We moved back into Indian Village district and my youngest daughter had the SAME 3rd teacher I had!!! Miss McDougall, she retired around 2000 or 2001.

Dave Nelsons' mom is on our neighborhoods board, and she says that Dave is now a post commander for the Indiana State Police somewhere south of here.

Unknown said...

I went there years ago I had Mrs. Burrell in Room no.3

Unknown said...

I went there in 1986. I had Mrs. Burrell and Mrs. Baker in room no. 3