New School Year

A new school year begins and when I see all the kids standing on the street corner waiting for the bus I recall those Chili days.

For our family, each school year began with a late summer visit to the National department store at Southtown plaza. Each of us got a new pair of shoes (how did Catholic parents possibly afford new shoes for all their children?) and that leather was one of the two key smells of the new school year. The second, of course, was the smell of the classroom on those early September days. Maybe it was the cleanliness after summer cleanings (or lack of sweaty kids for a few months) but those classrooms had a smell that I'll never forget. Our shoes and socks were are only personality items in elementary school wardrobe, the rest of our clothes were dictated by uniform....the boys wearing off-white dress shirts with green ties with the yellow letters SPX woven on them and the girls wore a green jumper (also with SPX I think) and a white blouse. I don't remember any changes to that uniform through the eight years of elementary school.

We in Chestnut Heights all took the bus to school. Others (like the Ranchmar kids) were able to walk. We had no parents at the bus stop. Today the bus stop area is crowded with cars and parents gabbing with each others besides the usual chaos of the kids....in our day it was just the kids.

It was always so interesting to find out who the teacher would be...... it was so important really because you would be with that person for several hours a day for the next 9 months. For the most part, all the teachers were very nice, but they did have reputations. I had two favorites as I mentioned before. I think it is just a matter of personality...different kids get along with the temperaments of different teachers and vice versa....as it would be with all people throughout life. But interestingly, my favorites were the oldest (Sr Britta 4th) and the youngest (Sr Felicia 5th & 7th). Both were very kind to me....they made my days.