Christmas Memories

December 1958
Second-grade Christmas party
Mrs. Blair's classroom

My mother took this photo of my second-grade Christmas party. I'm the one wearing the white top directly in front of the teacher. I think the four students around the teacher are helping to distribute gifts.

I remember playing Heads Up, Seven Up during elementary classroom parties. (Do you remember playing that game?) At Christmas, we also sang carols, had special treats, and exchanged an inexpensive gift with the person whose name we had drawn earlier.

From first to sixth grades, we made special Christmas gifts for our parents. Some gifts I remember making and giving - a bread board in the shape of a pig, and a wooden serving tray with rope handles (the varnish was still tacky when I took it home), a plate with a specially painted edge, and a plaster plate with my hand-print.

Mrs. Blair's classroom was in the two-story, brick building built in 1940 or 1941 and directly to south of the high school building. Mrs. Blair's room was located on the south side of the ground floor. Next door was Miss Schaper's first-grade classroom. Mrs. Dewey's third-grade classroom was across the hallway and next to the girls' bathroom (the boy's bathroom was around the corner next to the stairs. Mrs. Mitchell (fourth-grade), Mrs. Gordon (fifth-grade), Mrs. Bond (sixth-grade), a teacher's work room and a paper closet were located on the second story. The playground, which was outside the first and second-grade classrooms, was between the school and the road that led to Mrs. Maxey's house.

Back: J. Hippe, R. Six, M. Hornecker, C. Ray, C. Rohn, T. Goodwin.
Middle: S. Jarnagin, R. White, N. Stearns, B. Gies, B. Fabrizius,
P. Hansen, Mrs. Blair. Front: J. Willman, J. Adams, C. Wempen,
M. Williams, R. Burnett, G. Taylor, S. Jensen.

Ten years later, I received my high school diploma with four of
these classmates : C. Rohn, R. White, M. Williams, and G. Taylor

Additional information:

In the mid to late 50s, Mrs. Blair lived on the farm north of Pavillion that my brother leased in the 60s and purchased in 1971. I wrote about that farm here.

Note that the photo at the beginning of this post was printed in August 1959. It was common for film to be in the camera a long time or for the exposed film to be tossed in a drawer until it was discovered and sent for processing. Nearly all the film was mailed to a processor in Nebraska. I don't remember getting film developed locally until the late 60s or early 70s.