As I take pen in hand, I can hardly believe that summer is coming to an end. School has started for some students. There have been many changes since I was a young boy and attending school. For one thing, there was no kindergarten or preschool. Most mothers stayed home and took care of children until they entered first grade.

When I started the first grade at Ingomar Elementary in 1937, we had 16 students in our class. Today, elementary schools often have three classrooms of each grade with 22 to 27 kids in each class. We had about 130 kinds in the entire school—first through 8th grade. We knew each kid by their first name.

We also carried lunch boxes with a Thermos bottle. Many kids went home for lunch. We had an hour, and those who stayed at school ate in the classroom. There was a store in Ingomar, and we were allowed to walk to it during lunch to buy penny candy and pop. Can you see allowing kids to do that today?

During recess, we played baseball, football and king of the mountain. In the winter, we built snowmen and had snowball battles. We also brought our sleds to school and rode them at recess. If it was too cold to go outside, we played indoors.

The principal was the boss. She usually taught the eighth graders. You tried not to misbehave because she was a tough cookie. I think the worst thing a student could do at school then was to smoke in the bathroom, flunk a test or chew gum. We always had a lot of gum stuck under our desk.

We wrote with an ink pen. We had ink wells on our desks, and writing was very important. In those days without cell phones or e-mails, writing was a prime way of communicating. I still enjoy writing to my pen pals.

High school began with 9th grade. Football, baseball and basketball were the king sports. Schools today often offer 22 sports, including ones for girls. When I was a boy, there were only two types of sneakers—Keds and PF Flyers. The only time you wore them was for gym. Girls had to wear ugly uniforms to gym. Male teachers always wore ties and the female teachers dressed sharply.

Times certainly have changed. North Allegheny School District alone has an enrollment of more than 8,000 students and a little over 1,000 people employed by the district as administrators, professionals and teachers.

I have to believe that educating our young people today is a big business.I wish we could go back to the time when we never had to lock our houses and the keys to the car were always left in the ignition. I wish I could lie back on the grass with my friends and watch the clouds roll by with not a worry in the world as I did as a boy.

So as school begins, let’s offer our support to the students of today. Good luck and have a great school year.

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Joe welcomes any ideas, suggestions or interesting stories.
Email him at northcon@nauticom.net. Please put "Town Crier" in the subject line of your email.

To contact Joe to schedule an appointment to tour his museum at McKnight Elementary School, call the Northern Connection office at (724) 940-2444 or email northcon@nauticom.net. Please put "Museum Tour" in the subject line.

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