Osborn Nostalgia

First stop on my nostalgia tour was the first classroom on the right as you come up the stairs from the front entrance, then as now Room 211. This was my 1st grade classroom for the 1956-57 school year. Our teacher was Mrs. Waller, and it is the only class photo I have from that era. I think they had stopped taking them except for 1st grade. Mrs. Hartman who lived a few houses up from us on Edgehill was the other 1st grade teacher, she was my brother's teacher four years later.

It is now the music room, and 90% as it was when I left it for summer vacation 58 years ago. I don't think the trim was bright blue back then and the area over the blackboard had examples of printed numbers and letters running along it. Even the little speaker box (top center) is still in place and according to the teachers still operational.

Not 1950's Osborn but it could be, with the pledge of allegiance flag in the same type of wall mounted holder.

This is in the original 1920's portion of the school and it seemed ancient to me even back then. Because it is so unchanged, going into this room was the most intense moment of my tour.

According to the caption there were 33 pupils, which was probably too large a class size for one teacher but we did not know any better. Fortunately Mrs. Waller was one of those teachers who brought out the best cooperative behavior in her students without a lot of heavy handed structure, so I don't recall the class size that year as a huge negative. Connie Kauffman and I were the only ones from the new Luray subdivision, I believe that Sara Souder was in the other 1st grade class. Steve Overly would move up there the next year; and Barb Baird, Mike Brucato, Steve Denbow, and Harry Richmond would move into the area and become Osborn classmates soon after.

Many days I would go back to the Edgehill area after school and my mother would pick me up at someone's house, usually Peter Hamilton's on Diamond Street. Helen, Becky, Marti, Steve, Carla, Sue, and Ray would join those in our old kindergarten group who were in Mrs. Hartman's class for the walk home up Liberty and Edgehill (and finally over to Charlotte and Hale for some of the group). There was safety in numbers although Becky and Marti would have to walk the last block on their own.

If our teacher could not handle someone Mr. Carlson provided the intimidation factor, but in a wise manner much like those pictured on "Leave It To Beaver" - I still think of him when someone mentions that old spelling trick about his type of principal being a "Pal". He must have been a good role model because Carla Wright went on to become a School Principal in Georgia.

Cheryl supplied many photos including this one of Osborn's 2nd grade Brownie group along with her best guesses as to everyone's identity. A year later Shirley Laughlin (distinctive for her dark curly hair in the first grade) moved to the west side of town and I ran into her at one of our baseball games at Heffner Field - the one that used to be between the town creek and Evergreen Street. The field behind Johnny's Food Basket was Brindle Field - I could have the names reversed and/or misspelled. I think Shirley completed elementary school at Edison, she is pictured in the 1968 guide.

I did not enter 1st grade totally uninitiated in the ways of public school classrooms, I had attended kindergarten at Osborn the year before. Kindergarten was in Room 106 and involved a lot of naps (or pretend naps as I don't believe I ever fell asleep) and playground time. I remember a large collection of bendable plastic jet fighter planes which I would gather up and take outside with me for recess. They had a sandbox or sand pile and I would arrange the planes each day in the sand, then gather them up when it was time to come inside. I had attended kindergarten with about half of those with me in Mrs. Waller's class. Hazel Lynn was both my Kindergarten and 2nd grade teacher, she was younger and took herself more seriously than Mrs. Waller, but I don't recall any serious problems.

Kindergarten was on the bottom floor, Room 106, on the other side of the hall from the cafeteria. Most likely the idea was to minimize stair climbing accidents.

I had Miss Lynn (I think her first name was Hazel) for both Kindergarten and second grade. Strangely I don't recall when she left Osborn or if she was still there in the early 1960's. Some of the older teachers were institutions at the school but the younger ones were more transitory.

Although that carpet looks dirty enough to date back to the 1955-56 school year, the floor back then was linoleum - and the old asbestos-backed tiles are still there under the carpet. We brought small rugs to school and would take naps on that floor although most likely there was very little danger because the tiles were relatively new and undamaged.

I suspect that the speaker and the clock are original. During its last years the room served as a computer room and then as the school library.

The NE corner of my third grade (Mrs. Sackett's) classroom then and now, this photo comparison confirmed that we were on the 3rd floor and not the 2nd floor (there had been some doubt in my mind) which does not have this same corner blackboard configuration. That's Toby Strickling on the left and ???? on the right - I can't come up with the name of the partially hidden girl. The blackboards have been replaced with whiteboards but the framing is still there as are the floors. My awareness of the horizon line has improved over the past 56 years.