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School is in--recess is out
In the Garfield school I remember Myrene Johnson ringing the hand held brass bell to announce the recess period. She would open the little store which sold drinks and candy. Coming from a candy manufacturing family, I wanted one of those "commercial" candy bars. My favorite was a Snicker. This was the time for a bathroom break. We had the choice of indoor or outdoor facilities. We could organize games such as dodge ball or softball and make some progress before time was called. My earliest memory was playing marbles and jacks. It was always a time to get with friends. In these early years no one was keeping up with the time. There were no standard tests for students to pass, no pressure on teachers to overachieve. If Myrene, Opal, Jewell and Bossie wanted to talk and hold informal teacher's meetings they could. You could already smell Mrs. Thorn's rolls or bisques cooking for lunch. But at some point, recess always ended with the ringing of the bell to reconvene class. By 1959 I was in the 7th grade and at E.C.I. Bernice Durden was my teacher and she did not like my attitude. I missed many recesses because of my behavior. She would try to talk to me and when I refused to listen she used her ruler on my knuckles. It did not hurt, but I was defiant. Recess had changed. There was no more jumping rope and juvenile activities. Now it was talking with friends and gossiping about who was whose girlfriend or boyfriend. There was the smoking area. Parents supposedly gave permission and under the three dogwood trees across from the Ag building was the infamous smoking area. It survived until the late 1980's.--Jack Atkinson is a guest columnist and a resident of Garfield.
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