Now I arrive at fifth grade. This is the year where I seem to have the most specific memories so far.
As a fourth grader and third grader I heard stories about Mrs. Harriman, the fifth grade teacher. She was tough. She was mean. It was rough being in fifth grade.
To my mind they were the usual kids scaring each other tactics. Fifth Grade was one of my favorite years. Mrs. Harriman taught me how to study. Structure and discipline and focus emerged.
But I also had a lot of fun. How many of you remember Mrs. Harriman reading us books over lunch time. There is one book in particular I have memories of — just not enough to figure out what book it was. The book was set in the Tudor or Elizabethan period of England, and featured a young boy and his mentor. It was sort of Prince and the Pauperish — but was NOT Prince and the Pauper.
The scene I remember was the main character talking about the correct words to use for groups of various animals and people. Within the list was the point that it was a “gaggle of geese” and a “gaggle of girls.” They may have mentioned what you call a group of boys, but I do not remember. Does anyone happen to know which book this might be? I’ve already had this hankering to read it again, to really remember it.
I also remember a field trip to the Newtown Battlefield. My mother was either the home room mother, or one of the ones assisting. They drove us out in cars, and afterwards we were doing cleanup and packing up. I took the front passenger seat of our Mercedes 240D, and the other kids sat in back. Mrs, Harriman was going to sit in front, and I ended up sharing the seat with her, at first, because I wouldn’t move to the back. Then suddenly I kicked my legs over and backwards and flipped myself into the back seat to sit with the two or three other boys from the class that was there.
Does anyone remember that visit to the battlefield, or riding back from it, and that stunt of mine? I am sure it is true, but cannot remember who else was in the car.
The other scene from fifth grade I remember is actually from the yearbook. This was the year that the fifth grade was listed in the yearbook by book titles. Each of us, all 18, was given a book title. I have looked at those over the years and wondered how accurate each was. Were they at all predictive?
Mine was “Points to Ponder.” Seems quite indicative of where I went and continue to go.
I was always fascinated by the Margesons’: “A Tale of Two Sisters: Miss Ladylike and Miss Action.” It seemed an image that followed them through high school, at least from my perspective. And I think it has colored my perceptions since, such as meeting them on Facebook. But how much of that is my perception, and how much of it is current reality?
Which raises a question. Those of the rest of you from fifth grade, what did you think of your “book title” in the yearbook when you first saw it, and what do you think of it today?
(Let me give credit and thank you to Kelly Margeson Sill for the photos with this blog. I misplaced my fifth grade yearbook and she kindly scanned pages from hers that I could use to illustrate this blog.)
At The Rainbow 