1956 - 1958 in Biography

From 1955 to, say, 1958, time is kinda lost.

Somewhere in that time span:

We moved from Bucks County, PA to Connecticut (‘Norton Village’?), but I think we only lived there for a few six months.

The only thing I remember about living in Connecticut was finding a box of doughnuts. Being about four years old, of course I took one, but biting into it, I was appalled to find out it was LEMON! YUCK!!!

I opened the front door and THREW that doggone doughnut as far as I could! Years later my dad said he never saw the doughnut on the front lawn, but at the time, I KNEW I wasn’t gonna eat that darn thing!

We moved to Canonchet Road in Rhode Island in…‘56 or ‘57. I had to wait until I was almost six to start kindergarten. You had to be five years old by November 1st, and since I didn’t turn five until November 8th, I got an extra year of freedom! (Let’s see - I would’ve turned five in 1957, so I guess I didn’t start kiddy-garter until ‘58.)

Kindergarten at Hope Valley Elementary was an all-day affair. They didn’t go to half-days until the NEXT year, so I felt cheated for about 5-10 minutes.

Mrs. (Annie) Greene was our kindergarten teacher and became “Dr. Greene” when (I believe) she received her doctorate during that year.

The doctorate didn’t change her style. She taught in the same manner she always did - whatever that was - and I think we were all better kids because of her.
One project was putting our hand into plaster, then we were supposed to paint the outside of the plaster leaving our handprint white.

Well, some of the kids painted the handprint, and I guess enough of us did it wrong that Dr. Greene took one mis-paint and HURLED it into the trashcan.

We also took daily naps (blanket required - unless you were Teresa Ann Smith and were allowed to rest your head on the desk)(I had a crush on Teresa Ann); had recess twice a day plus a recess after lunch; and I got in trouble when I “harumph’d” the helicopter that Linda B. was trying to draw.

Dr. Greene grabbed me (by the arm? by the hair? - prolly not, ‘cuz my dad had us boys wear crewcuts) and told me to draw a helicopter…on the chalkboard AND in front of everybody!

I must have blushed furiously as I drew a much better (I thought) helicopter than Linda. After all, I watched ‘Whirlybirds’ with Chuck Martin and P.T. Moore on TV so I knew what a chopper was supposed to look like.

For one of our last days in kindergarten we got frozen chocolate popsicles. I remember the pop being so cold that my tongue stuck to it! Somehow I knew to let my tongue warm up the chocolate, but my tongue was sore for the next day or two.

Sadly, for our very last day of school we had to go to Mrs. Burdick’s first grade class because - as we found out later - Dr. Greene had been murdered by a hammer-wielding criminal the night before/early that morning.

Her death didn’t register with me at the time, but I did find out that Dr. Greene was Mrs. Burdick’s mom. That Mrs. Burdick came to school that day after such an incredible loss is still amazing to me.

I think that’s it for now. I’ll talk about pushing my brother into the pond later.

Last updated August 23, 2015