The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: SCHOOL

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are pipe, playground, prayers, recipes, ribbon, rice, road, saltwater, sandwich, school, sewing.

SCHOOL

Of course I have a ton of school memories from the multitude of schools I attended (by the time I was 14 we had moved 9 times and I attended 11 schools). Here's a list:

Pre School -    Home schooled by Mama - We called it Cinderella’s School. Students were Irene & Lynn - mostly during our time in Saudi Arabia.

Kindergarten -   1^st half of year @ International School in Riyadh, SA and 2^nd half @ a church in Hendersonville, TN

First Grade -  Padgett Elementary in Lakeland, FL

Second Grade -   3 weeks @ Lewis Elementary in Ft. Meade, FL - promoted to Third Grade …..

Third Grade -  Lewis Elementary in Ft. Meade, FL

Fourth Grade - 1^st half of year @ A.H. Roberts Elementary in Livingston, TN, 2^nd half of year @ Folsom Elementary in Folsom, LA

Fifth Grade -  Folsom Elementary in Folsom, LA

Sixth Grade - Covington Middle School - Covington, LA

Seventh Grade - William Pitcher Jr. High School in Covington, LA

Eighth Grade - Hewitt Trussville Jr. Middle School in Trussville, AL

Ninth - Twelfth - Hewitt Trussville High School - Trussville, AL

College  - Samford (1 semester only) and UAB in Birmingham, AL, then University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) for MSW

But perhaps my best school memories are of playing school with my sister. At our home on Willie Rd. in Folsom, LA, there was a small (yellow?) outbuilding in the backyard that our parents allowed us to use one room of for a playhouse. Whenever we played school, I was almost always the teacher. (I am the oldest, and Lynn has always been a very agreeable playmate.) Our style of “school” was much more like Little House on the Prairie (the TV show) than what we experienced in real life. Which means it was FUN!

My favorite teacher was my 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Fattig, who had in her classroom a bathtub filled with pillows where we could read. Heaven! 

Aside: My forthcoming book NINE: A Book of Nonet Poems includes a poem that features Mrs. Fattig. I hope to locate her between now and then so I can tell her what an impact she made on my life.