Lorlee and I colored our first Thanksgiving turkeys together, on thick buff paper with our first names printed in the lower corner, back at District 460. (It was called Oak Grove School, District 24, when we started.)
Our first grade teacher, Mrs. Lackelt,
encouraged independent creativity. What else could she do? She had five other grades to teach as well.So Lorlee and I had plenty of time to draw stuff on our own, and turkeys and farms and a friendly dog named "Hodie," drawn with a big, yellow, beaming sun in the corner, were among our early creations. We'd occasionally look up to compare progress with Darrell and Carol and Alan. Our best work was hung on the greenish wainscoating, thumb-tacked into the fat chair rail, at just the right height to encourage a first grader.
We had crayolas then, Burnt Sienna, Cornflower, Flesh and all the rest, and chewy pencils and some of the older kids even had ball-point pens that screwed apart and had a tiny spring inside that could be made to fly across the room. We never really knew what those round holes were for in our scratched wooden desktops. The big kids just shrugged and said they were inkwells, whatever that was.
Lorlee could read better than me and kept a neater desk, but I beat her at basketball.
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On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 11:37 AM, Bartos, Lorlee
Happy Thanksgiving
Hope you have a safe, blessed and peaceful one.
I just wanted to say that one of the things I am thankful for is the work you put in on the blogs.
There is a line in a song [which I couldn't recall for the life of me] -- "If I look like home to you" and that's how the blogs feel.
And I love keeping up with Emily, Anja, Becky and all the rest.
Thanks again.
Lorlee
