Museum of Me: September 2022

For this month's Museum of Me installation, Kym has asked for our thoughts about school. I decided to get out a bunch of school pictures and see what thoughts I could come up with.

This photo is from first grade in 1963. It's kind of scratched up and wrinkled, but this is the picture I have in my mind when I think of school. I loved that the photographer posed us with a book (it was Dick and Jane), and I remember feeling very upset when I went home on the bus after the first day and I hadn't learned to read. It was finally explained to me that this would take more than a day, and eventually, I did learn to read, thanks to Mrs. Neusch, the most patient, wonderful first-grade teacher that ever taught. I visited her after I had graduated from college and thanked her for teaching me how to read. It was one of the best gifts I ever received. 

The excitement of second grade was that I got to join Brownies. My aunt had chopped my hair off the summer before (I don't think it was at my request!) but I did have that cute beanie even if I no longer had my long hair. The uniform was a dull, rather ugly brown but I thought I was probably the envy of all the other girls that hadn't joined Brownies.

Now we enter what I think of as the "painful years", as it pains me to look at these school photos. This is sixth grade, with braces, poison ivy, and greasy hair because I wasn't supposed to shower too often for fear I would spread the poison ivy. I begged to not get my picture taken that year, but I don't think retakes were a thing back then. My hands, arms, and legs were covered with poison ivy but at least only one eye was swollen with it. 

Seventh grade here and I'm still in the painful years. Braces, my collar buttoned up to the top button (why, I wonder?), and short hair that I did not like one bit. I had started in our combined junior/senior high school building this year and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could manage changing classes, I could do all the work and get decent grades, and I did not get stuffed in my locker by seniors.

We're finally beginning to leave the painful years behind in ninth grade. I told my mother that I was letting my hair grow and I was beginning to feel more confident. If you could see the rest of this dress, you might even applaud my growing confidence. I'm wearing a dress I sewed in home ec., and let's just say the teacher did not focus on fit, finish, and flattering details. It was made of a clingy polyester knit, the back zipper was wonky, and the hem was crooked. But I wore it because wearing it was 15% of our grade. Girls were not allowed to take wood or metal shop in my high school, which I saw as a gross injustice. I couldn't get anyone to change their minds despite my reasoned and impassioned pleas, but I tried. 

This is my high school graduation photo, and I remember feeling confident enough to argue with my mother who desperately wanted me to "do something with my hair". I don't know what that was, but before my senior year, I had pretty much been the good daughter who did what my parents said and didn't fight back. I was getting ready to leave for college four hours away so it's a good thing I was starting to think for myself. 

My college graduation photo looks like I did something with my hair. I don't remember exactly why, but it was heavily hair-sprayed after getting it arranged just so. I didn't look like this on a regular day, since I was in the middle of my medical technology internship year at Abington Hospital. I had to be up and at the hospital at 6:00 am to draw blood from patients, so most of the time it was just pulled back into a ponytail. 

And we finally reach the end of my school years with my master's graduation photo. I wasn't even going to go to the ceremony but my parents said they wanted to come. At the last minute, they didn't so I graduated all by myself in uncomfortable shoes. 

So my thoughts about school are mainly that it was important and shaped my life for almost 20 years. Most importantly, I learned how to read and that opened up the whole wide world. I enjoyed learning and even liked the structure of the school year. I got frustrated by the silly rules in high school about what girls were allowed to do and not do, and I frustrated my mother by not doing something with my hair and eventually learning how to think for myself and fight back. All in all, my school years were pretty good ones. 

We'll be back on the second Friday of October with a brand new installation. Thank you for visiting The Museum of Me!