School bells are ringing around the country and students are moving up a step. For some, it’s a scary, new level–kindergarteners begin first grade; elementary pupils enter junior high and teen-agers become freshmen.
It was a big change when I was bused from our farm to the newly, created Durand Junior High School to join more than thirty others in the seventh grade. For the preceding six years, I’d been the only one in my class at a one-room, country school.
Two years later, we climbed the stairs to the high school study hall situated in the top story of the main building. My class was the last group to suffer the indignities of freshman initiation. For one day, we were peons who literally bowed to the seniors as if they were kings and queens.
Our demeaning attire was dictated by them. The girls wore men’s work shirts and bib overalls on backwards, a pair of men’s work shoes and carried a suitcase filled with our books. Most of our fathers were farmers so we could raid their closets for our outfits.
The boys donned gym trunks with bathrobes over them, baby bonnets, shoes with the fronts cut out and a ribbon on each toe. They carried their books in a bucket.
After the day of silliness was over, we changed into our best school clothes to attend an evening, welcoming party hosted by the upper classmen. We felt like we belonged.
The following year, after the new term started, our superintendent, ‘P.G.’, announced the trustees voted to end initiation. Fred, the president of Ken’s class of seniors, went on a rant against the school board, but all he could do was gripe. We weren’t given a reason for the change, but rumors were that some schools had gotten out of hand leading to parental complaints.
The Class of 1955 matured from the time we wore those outlandish garbs to the formal caps and gowns of graduation.
The twenty-four of us remained friends. Every five years, we held an evening reunion in an area restaurant to brag a little and catch-up with everyone. As we aged, we began meeting annually in a Durand eatery for lunch. Those get-togethers have fallen victim to the passing of time and people.
What memories do you have of your school days?