Schools, colleges and libraries were added to Ticky Tacky Town this week.
Schools and Colleges
Grades 1- 8 I went to Catholic School. I actually did walk a mile to school every day rain or shine, sleet or snow. Our school didn't have school buses. Funny thing is that there were two Catholic church and schools a couple of blocks away from each other. When they were originally built one (St. Joseph's) was for the German folks and the other (St. Mary's) was for the Irish. I went to St. Mary's.
I couldn't wait to go to school. I loved learning. (Still do).
The classes were small so one teacher, usually a nun, taught two grades that occupied one classroom. My favorite subjects were Math and English, Composition, Spelling, Reading...well maybe I should just list my least favorite classes - history and geography. History seemed like it was all about studying wars and memorizing dates and I have to admit I am still geographically challenged. I really loved diagramming sentences but not many others did. I think those exercises helped me learn a few new languages later in life. I don't think they teach that anymore. I got a puzzled look when I asked my grandkids about that.
I couldn't wait to learn cursive writing. We used fountain pens with cartridges that sometimes leaked all over the place. We had to use blue ink, not black. Not sure why. I remember practicing loops and curves on lined paper. (Kind of a bit like practicing for FMQ, don't you think?) I'm not sure that they teach cursive writing anymore either. Now they learn keyboarding at an early age. I wonder if future generations will be able to decipher any cursive writing. And speaking of writing...I also loved to write stories that made the class laugh when I read them out loud. I loved writing research papers too. That was before you could quickly research any subject at a computer. Research involved libraries and card catalogs and writing things out in cursive.
They didn't have keyboarding back when I was in school...they called it typewriting and I didn't have a class in that until high school. It was recommended if we were going to go to college that we take a typing class. So I did. We learned to type on manual typewriters and for one week we all got to use the newfangled electric typewriter. When I went to college I bought a manual typewriter from the Pawn Shop and the hard case had someone else's initials painted on it. It is still up in the attic somewhere and I still wonder about the story behind that pawned typewriter. When I took my first computer science courses in college I keypunched my programs on to cards that a teacher's assistant would insert into the computer mainframe. Hardly anyone had a computer at home.
It took me forever to get through college. I couldn't decide what I wanted to be when I grew up so changed my major many times- education, Spanish, psychology, computer science. I did have a couple of scholarships and tested out of a few classes but otherwise I paid as I went because I didn't want to go into debt. Sometimes that meant I would not take classes for a couple of years, took correspondence courses (remember there were no online classes) or night classes so I could continue to work at a paying job - usually at minimum wage which was an incentive for me to carry on and some day finish college. In those days except for cars and houses we saved up for things before we bought them. We didn't have credit cards; we had bank savings passbooks and visited the bank each week to make a deposit.
Libraries
If I wanted to go to the library I took a bus downtown. If I remember right it cost a dime to ride the bus and the buses were always full of people. I was always afraid I would not pull the cord at the right time so I could get off in the right spot. Later the library bookmobile stopped on Saturdays about a block away. I read every Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew book they had and wondered when I would be lucky enough to have a mystery to solve in my neighborhood. Now I'm glad I was never that "lucky". I still love mysteries but read them on an old version Kindle now.
I'm not exactly following the free pattern instructions but the houses do finish at 3 inches.
17 comments:
I love reading all these stories! We had very similar childhoods - my college was different, in that I did get a lot of student loans and tried to get through as quickly as possible to save money.
Thanks for sharing your school recollections! Mine are quite similar, and I especially look back on grammar school with fond memories. Sigh, a long time ago!
If your story had said you went to public school, I would think maybe we had gone to school at the same time and place. Ah, what memories you brought to mind. Don't you agree those were the 'good old days'? ---"Love"
We coulda been pals! I remember all that (except the Catholic school). Even the one week on an electric typewriter. I am SO glad I learned (and loved) to diagram sentences. So much poor grammar is becoming acceptable and to me it's like fingernails on a blackboard. I scream at the TV when talking heads mix up less and fewer.
Fun history story and I love those little houses.
Thanks for sharing.
I love reading your stories. Going to the library was a favorite thing to do for me. I still love reading (on my Kindle now).
MARVELOUS post -- this quilt will hold so much meaning for you when it comes together.
Ah, you bring back more wonderful memories. There wasn't a public library close by and I guess my parents weren't really readers, so my books came from the school library. And I did finish college in four years with the help of scholarships and workstudy. Graduate library school did take a few years going part time. I'm going to have to start some of these houses, but I want to do the little lig csbins, too. Oh, so many choices.
Pat
What a fun post to read today! I too paid for college because I didn't want to have debt. The last year, my parents helped me quite a bit which I was so thankful to have! The houses are cute and I'm glad you are making them your own!
Great post. I still have my Trixie Belden books. Such wonderful memories!
I always heard that (back when people cared about things like this and maintained standards of decorum) is that black ink is ONLY for sympathy cards/notes. Red was for accountants and teachers which left blue for every day.
I loved reading your stories. My mom used to get her hair done at the hairdresser every Saturday, and I‘d go along. While she got her hair done (the appointment always took exactly one hour), I could walk the three blocks to the city library to return what I’d read and check out new books, and then walk back to meet her. I loved the Nancy Drew series and still collect the ones with the pictures from our era.
I went to public schools in SoCal and we always lived close enough to the schools to walk. When I had typewriting in high school, we had electric typewriters, and I had my own electric Smith-Corona for college papers. My major was Business Management (then Marketing, then Accounting) and my computer experience, or Data Processing as it was called then, was also punching cards. Only we had to turn them in at the Administration building where they’d run our programs on their mainframe during the night. We could pick them up the next morning to see if they’d worked (or if we’d forgotten a comma or something. Grrr!)
This is also MY story. Almost all of it. But did not go to college. I took every business course my high school offered. My OCD led me to manage an office at almost every job I ever had and that was only a few because I tended to stay about 10 years at each one. They tell me I write a great letter. My kids always come to me when they need a professional letter. I credit that to diagramming sentences which I ALSO loved.
I am enamored with your Ticky Tacky houses. I definitely see houses in MY future.
xx, Carol
it seems cursive writing has gone the way of the quill pen...think of how difficult it is for us to read writing done with a quill...might be a clue as to how those who don't write cursively will be able to read it in the future...(shudder)....
I must be just a couple years younger than you... when I had to take typing there was the option of electric or manual typewriters. I was in the finger watching group, therefore got a manual. Traditionally a typewriter was a HS graduation present in my family, and I wanted a script style of print. That is what I've got, stowed away... wonder how many/few of those were made? I love computers since they usually can fix my misspells and I can check out definitions without having to go to the library and the HUGE THICK dictionary. Computers can tell you the real spelling not what I think it may be, therefore SO much more helpful.
How fun to learn more about your early life experiences! A lot of it resonated with me. I loved school, too, except for history. I don't think I ever took geography, so I'm not very good at it now. But I never learned cursive writing. It was taught in 2nd grade in Iowa, but I lived in California where it was taught in 3rd grade. Then I moved to Iowa in 3rd grade and I missed it completely. To this day I can write exactly two words in cursive, "Louise" and "Hornor." My first husband's last name was Jongewaard, so I kept Hornor :)
I love the stories you've made for your houses, libraries, and schools. I recall those days, too, although I took typing in night school.
My first programming job used punch cards, too.
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