5th Grade

My Dad was my 5th grade teacher. I don’t know if he had to pull any strings so that I could be in his class. I enjoyed that year. I remember something my Dad said on the first day of school. He didn’t care if he would get in trouble, but that we (the class) would have prayer every morning to start the school day. So every morning, one of the students would pray, and then we would stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Each student took their turn saying the prayer and another student would lead the class in the Pledge. If someone did not want to offer a prayer, they didn’t have to. I remember some of the Catholic students would recite the Lord’s Prayer. I don’t remember having heard it before. I thought it strange that it was the only Prayer they knew. Another thing I remember was that every Friday was “film day”. We would watch a few educational films. Dad would let us bring popcorn to class that day. My Mom would pop a batch of popcorn that morning and I would take it to school in a large grocery sack. Some of the other kids in the class would bring candy or soda. I loved “film day”.I made some great friends that year. Karen would sometimes call my Dad “Mom”. Tracie would often trip over electrical cords. My Dad from then on called her “Big Foot”.

I started playing in the orchestra in 5th grade. Mr. DeWitt was the orchestra teacher. He as a wonderful teacher. It was amazed at how he could play all the instruments. He could tune any of the instruments so quickly. I played the violin. I really enjoyed it. To this day I wish I had practiced more. I love violin and fiddle music.