Wardogs--Pieces of Memories, The Test

I ran down the hallway screaming, "I passed.  I passed.  I'm a fifth grader."  Mother was sitting in Miss Hamilton's office at Roosevelt School waiting to hear her daughter's fate.  That night dad took us out to dinner to celebrate at "Billie Mendenhall's" in Commerce, and I ordered mashed potatoes with yellow gravy.  

In order to pass from fourth to fifth grade the teachers decided that I must know the following skills and take a test when school started in the fall: 1. Times tables to twelve; 2. Name and identify the seven continents; 3. Name and identify the five oceans.  Thank heavens I wasn't required to pass a spelling test, but I most certainly understood that the teachers would be watching me.

Here's what I did know:  Jump rope rhymes like--
  Cinderella dressed in yellow
Went downtown to kiss a fellow
  How many kisses did she give 1, 2, 3...
  **Night after night we'd jump rope on our driveway, and everyday at recess.

That summer between fourth and fifth grade I was  determined to pass the test, and prove that I was smart enough to stay in my class.  My parents were as determined as I was.  We bought a set of flash cards for home and one for the country club.  It was a total team effort and flash cards appeared at dinner, at parties, in the car when we traveled, on top of the TV, on the counter at the club where I would sometimes clean the members clubs, and other places where my mother could surprise me. I practiced memorizing the cards so I could see the

answers.  Dad and Mom worked as hard as I did, and we tested each other. My little sister even learned her numbers and played school with us. After a month I began to make progress in memorizing facts. Mother bought me a slider puzzle to help me enjoy math.  I mastered the 1-15 puzzle, gained skills in the 1-30 puzzle, but when the rubik's cube came out, my fingers and brain were no longer young and eager. 

  Will I marry, tell me so
  Is the answer yes or no?
  Yes, No, maybe so, Yes, No, maybe so....

World map 1958

Our red set of Encyclopedia Britannica's became my best friend.  I had already worn the edges on the D book for dogs and C book for cat.  That summer I discovered X,Y, Z because the back contained the maps.  Luckily, understanding the maps and learning continents was easy.  I think in part because dad had already taught me how to read a map when we traveled.  

Neighbor, Johnny Badger

Jacks:  Onesies, Twosies, Threesies; Pigs in the Pen; Pigs over the pen; Around the World; and we learned the rules.  *We kept Jacks in our desks at school, and I always had golf balls to share, which were much more reliable than silly rubber balls

My free time was spent playing with the neighborhood kids, playing golf, swimming, but my favorite time was going to NEO in the morning three days a week for some type of activity camp. The girl who organized it was the daughter of Red Robertson, the football coach at NEO.  I learned all kinds of crafts, games, and my neighborhood acquaintances increased with kids ages 6-12.  Suddenly, I knew kids who lived all over giving me more room to run and play.  

Card games:  Crazy 8, pairs, rummy, slap jack, old maid, war, but concentration was my favorite (and I still like that game). 

Playground and evenings in the neighborhood we played these games: Tag, Hopscotch, Marbles, Red Rover, Kick the Can, Blind Man's Bluff, Freeze tag, Hide-an-Seek, Grey Ghost.  

LuJean Howard

Even though I continued to struggle and lag behind in many areas through junior high, slowly but surely I began to catch up with my classmates.  In sixth grade, Mrs. Murphy taught us all of the states and capitols.  Our test was on a blank US map, and we had to label each state and mark where the capitol was located and it's name.  After we handed in our papers, she asked, "If any one thinks they got all of the answers correct please stand." Tommy Spaulding and I stood, then I began to shake and nearly cry.  She graded Tommy's first and he missed one, then she graded mine.  It was perfect.  I knew then that I had passed another test, and belonged in this class.  Little did I know that my life would present me with many more difficult tests. 

Board and paper games:  Monopoly, Sorry, Tiddly Winks, Pick-up-sticks, tic-tac-toe, hangman, bingo, hidden pictures in Highlights magazine.

**Please feel free to comment below with people you remember, moments you recall, or games you played.  I approve the comments before they are posted.  

Miami Memories: Sisters

I have a younger sister who is a truly deeply loving and beautiful woman, so it brings a giggle to my lips whenever someone asks her, "Are you older than Letty?" She has our father's blue eyes and curly gray hair while I have our mother's olive green eyes and blond, brown, graying "Lady Clairol" hair. We both love to learn whether in classes or just venturing out into new elements. In golf she is a natural. Her smooth rhythmical swing helped her win tournaments during her teenage years while I have grit, tension, and a swing that requires practice. Her relaxed and focused "head game" in golf and life helped her win a state tournament and become a beauty queen. My "head game" required maturity; I was fifty before I began to win golf tournaments.

Little Sister Jonya

We are both December birthdays, but school separated our lives by five years. I began school at age five in a Catholic school (Mother said I was a precocious child. I think I was a pain.) Jonya began at age six. She was just a baby when I left home early each morning giving her quiet time with mom.

We walked to school together only one year. I was the all wise sixth grader holding the hand of a shy first grader. One day during her recess time she ran around the corner of Roosevelt school in Miami, OK to peak at me sitting inside Mrs. Murphy's sixth grade room. Had it been Mrs. Murphy in the room there would be no story. Instead, our principal, Miss Hamilton was teaching class. Miss Hamilton walked to the window and scolded that little girl for disrupting the class, then she went out to the playground and scolded her again.

There was fear in my heart at that moment, knowing that we'd both be in trouble with dad that night. I spent the afternoon daydreaming about how and where we could run away to and avoid getting in trouble again. In the end we walked home together shedding tears in anticipation of the trouble we'd be in with dad. In the end our parents somehow agreed that what Jonya's little spying did no harm and so we were free to play outside that evening with the neighborhood gang.

I'd like to say that Jonya never spied on me again but that would be a lie. Our next ten years together were sprinkled with many memories of a nosy spying little sister and strong stubborn defiant older sister. Then time sped up. I graduated and left home. Over the next forty-five years we only lived near each other for a few of them, separated mostly by time, distance, families, and complicated lives.

Jonya and Letty ready for the game.

We've spent more years apart than we have together, so when we get to spend an evening or a day together it's a real gift for us. A few weeks ago Jonya drove to Kansas and spent seven days in our home. That's probably the most time we've been together since the summer of 1968. It was a special week for us as we rested, chatted, laughed with friends, toasted a few glasses of wine, played golf together, took casual walks, and relished in the minutes our lives as sisters. Now we seem to think more alike, laugh out loud alike, hurt in the knees, shoulders, and hips alike, but our hair is still vastly different!

Miami Memories: Tornado alley

In my wanderings this morning I was playing with words and rhymes. The sun barely breached the horizon and cast a golden red glow in my room causing an old rhyme to echo, "Red sky in the morning sailors take warning." "This is the green day," I mumble to the world, "Top of the Morning to all of you and Happy St. Patrick's Day." My mind casually ambled playing with green rhymes (while the chicken boiled over!):

Green clouds brewing

Tornadoes building

Sirens blowing

Dead man walking

Run for shelter.

With that last line I was taken back to Roosevelt School on Gst. Northeast, Miami, Oklahoma, and my fifth grade classroom with Miss Garman. We had tornado sirens starting that year I entered fifth grade; we had KGLC broadcasting music, sports, and weather; and we had one basement in the block, next door to us, at the Broderick's. It's purpose mainly was to store canned goods. The wet cement walls were lined with shelves and one window well gave light from the West. (I would have preferred the Searle's basement which was a cleanly lite apartment, but it was a block away. Fear and torrents of rain usually kept us near home.) I don't know which scared me the worst, the cold damp dark basement, the threat of tornadoes, or my imagination that snakes would slither out of the walls.

Several times that spring we all found ourselves running for cover and standing face to face dripping wet and shaking in that basement. As much as tornadoes frightened me, clouds and weather patterns fascinated me. Because we were often outside playing golf and just playing my dad taught me what to watch for when the weather began to change. On the playground that spring day I felt static in the air, as I swung back and forth watching the green clouds boil and build in the Southwest sky. I noticed the teachers eyes were watching the skies, I thought with the same fascination. Inside our flat blond brick building the radio blared from the office and Miss Garman, our teacher, had placed her radio by the window to listen for any warnings.

Our fifth grade windows faced the East and tornadoes generally battered us from the Southwest, so I would not be able to watch and warn people. I walked up to Miss Garman's desk and spoke quietly in her ear, "If you will let me go out to the playground I can watch for the storm and warn everyone." She smiled and said, "No, don't worry. We'll send you kids home who live nearby if it gets bad." I thought that was a great idea since the school had windows on all sides and no real shelter.

Within minutes the winds began to whip up the dust and tangle the trees. KGLC announced that a tornado was on the ground in Welch, Ok., and for residents to be prepared to take cover. Nervous excitement built in the classroom. At some point Miss Hamilton, our principal, walked room to room with her high heels clicking telling us if sirens blew that those of us who lived nearby and had basements close would be sent home. Then with her beady eyes and shaking finger she pointed at us (we knew who we were) saying, "You are to go directly home to your parents first, then go take shelter. The rest of us will take shelter in the kitchen."

In an instant, sirens rang. Ivan Lee, the neighborhood bully, fled from his 6th grade room screaming while the rest of us, David, Diane, the two Jeanne's and myself ran in giggly delight. The blowing torrents of rain had hit just as we left the building. The two Jeanne's were the first ones home, we turned to run up the alley with Ivan Lee already out of sight. I was running so hard one of my moccasins flew off. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, I was so scared. My mother, holding my little sister's hand, met me in the backyard near the alley. We immediately dashed over to the Broderick's basement. Off and on siren warnings blared that afternoon and evening. Each time frightened eyes stood and faced each other while mother's tried to calm us. We learned that tornadoes had touched down out by the fairgrounds and then East of town, but not near us.

I knew we were all scared that day, even the bully, Ivan Lee had shown fear in his banshee scream and tears. What I didn't know was that there would be another spring day, soon, when the skies turned green, and Ivan Lee and I would come face to face with our fears.

Letty Stapp Watt
storyteller and historian