Having a slow Saturday. I was feeling all kinds of queasy yesterday and so I'm taking it easy today. Doing a little cleaning and culling of the junk I've accumulated (not fun) and every once in a while playing on the computer for a few minutes or knitting another row on the sock.
The other day I saw a car and the license place was YRO TRSH. Reminded me of this website:
Then in my cleaning I came across this beauty:
I think it's 5th grade. 1974 - can you believe it? Can't find me? I'm dead center middle row. My mother loved to dress me in jumpers and dresses with peter pan collars and everything had matching ribbons or barrettes. At least in this photo I'm spared the oh-so-familiar- ghetto bangs - that roll that sat on your forehead and went limp just before recess.
I actually remember this dress. It was polyester and kind of itchy. I'm noticing now it has that little Izod alligator on it. So I guess I was a prep. I think this was also the year we did a whole school production of Fiddler on the Roof. I played Shprintze - one of the youngest girls. The girl in front of me in the blue turtleneck, Robin Joseph, played Tzeitel and got her picture in the local paper. I was jealous, but I have to say she was really good. I forget which boy it was, but he was about 4 feet tall and he was Lazar Wolfe. It was funny. Had a big grey beard and I believe a fake belly?
After the play my mom took me to see the movie and I was a bit upset to find that Sphrintze had even less of a part in the movie than the play. Not that I thought my part was small. I was on stage a lot and I was in the main family. Better than one of the people who just got to hide behind a petition and stomp their feet to make more noise for the dancing in the L'Chaim scene.
To the left of Robin are my two best friends from 1st - 6th grade. Domenica Gondell and Christa Riesch. We had a lot of fun together. Christa and I were tomboys and always running and hanging off the monkey bars (always wear shorts under your dresses ya'll). Christa could also draw and played about 6 different musical instruments. Domenica (Doe) was always 6 months ahead of me in reading level. Each time I moved up, she moved up. It was maddening! I found my fifth grade report card and my reading level was something like first semester high school junior which is nothing to spit at for a fifth grader. But I know like I know my own hand that Doe was second semester high school junior. At the very end of the front row in the read dress is Amy Kuferburg whom I don't remember in the slightest but apparently she was a brat cuz that's what I wrote next to her name.
The fun thing about my class was it was sort of an experiment. Y''know it was the 70s and we all needed a little extra helping of peace, love and understanding. So my class was one of about five "open" classrooms. We didn't have prescribed times to do assignments, we got to work on what we wanted. There was a definite structure, but as for our work we could do science in the AM and math in the PM or whatever. We just had to have our assignments in by the due date.
Our teacher, Mr Adams, would read to us almost every day. Julie of the Wolves. A Stitch in Time. Summer of the Swans. The Slave Dancer. Aah. Good times.
Well, that's a long enough trip down memory lane. Hopefully I'll find some more pictures to share as I'm cleaning!
Well, I was a few years behind you but man o man, do I remember photos like that. Only I was always in the back row 'cause I was one of the tallest kids even then. And my mom would dress me in things that made me cry in the morning, like knit sailor suits and pom poms in my ponytails.
Posted by: Heidi | 11 June 2006 at 01:40 PM
BTW, loved EuroBad. Check this out.
http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/index.htm
Posted by: Vera | 11 June 2006 at 05:25 AM
Fabulous picture! I was in the 6th grade in '74, and in my class photo, I did have that bang.
I also remember my dress, dark blue with a wide white cuffs and collar. The collar had embroidered roses, and the dress had white plastic flower buttons down the front.
I so loved that dress. It was my Easter dress from a few months earlier.
Posted by: Vera | 11 June 2006 at 05:04 AM