I decided this month to return back to school. That’s back to school in memories. Like everything else so many things have changed since I was in school.
My first day of school was at Donaldsonville Elementary School on Railroad Avenue which is now Louisiana Square.
My first grade teacher was Miss Levi Medus. Miss Medus, like my fourth grade teacher, Miss Giambrone, was never married, nor did they have children of their own. (Another thing that has changed over the years.) Miss Medus was a wonderful teacher even though I hated school. I knew Pam was home with Nez and I wanted to be there too. One day a boy in my class had an asthma attack. Miss Medus had to go to the office to call his mother to come get him.
I began to suffer from coughing attacks. Miss Medus would call Nez. On the way home we would stop at Fontana’s and I would get the cherry Lunden’s cough drops. They worked so fast I was ready to play with Pam the rest of the afternoon.
Stomach ache would hit me when Nez would drive up to the curb at school. That worked a few times. I goofed when I asked if I could invite at friend over to play when I was home “sick”. Nez reminded me that my friend was at school where I should have been. The next morning before I could decide if I should go for the coughing or the belly ache, Nez surprised me with “the black strap.” This was the name we had given to an old belt of Daddy’s. Usually hearing the words, “the black strap” was enough to change your behavior. This time Nez blind-sided me. She whipped me and told me I better march to the bus stop. I cried as I waited for Mr. Musco to rescue me. To this day, I question myself if I am really sick or can I make it to work.
Mrs. Mabile taught me second grade. I was starting to enjoy learning and my health was good. (Not because of vitamins; because of “the black strap.) Mrs. Moreau taught me third grade, with Miss Giambrone teaching me fourth. This is the class I was in the day President Kennedy was shot in Dallas. Cynthia Capone started crying. I figured that was because her mother was from Texas. We had no clue to what had really happened.
In third grade I lived through a lunchroom trauma that is still vivid today. Terry Bouchereau ate everyone’s black olives off of their lunch plate. He washed them down with lots of milk. I can remember projectile vomiting of black olives and milk. I was an adult before I began eating black olives. As third graders Terry was the only one brave enough to eat them and everyone in the lunchroom witnessed the explosion of black olives and milk.
I remember all of these teachers being old at the time. They all wore sensible shoes and matronly dresses. Miss Medus lived to be almost 100 years old. Now I realize they really weren’t that old. I was just that young.
The highlight of my elementary education was fifth grade with Mrs. Kahn. She and her husband didn’t have any children. They always had a Cocker Spaniel. Her dog died of old age and I can remember hearing of the arrival of her new puppy. This puppy arrived by train at the Depot. The puppy was copper colored so they named her Penny. I have always been a dog lover. At Christmas time I would have a gift for Mrs. Kahn and a Hershey bar for Penny. We didn’t know chocolate was bad for dogs. Anyway Penny lived a very long time.
Mrs. Kahn had an attractive short hair cut and beautiful manicured red fingernails that matched her lipstick. I was hypmotized by her fashion style. She also enjoyed doing crafts. We hand- crafted gifts for our mothers for all occasions.
Everyone had Mr. Poirrier for Algebra in high school at DHS. He was soft spoken with a dry wit, just like he is today. Capt. Savoia taught us Civics. He told us all about World War II and how Donaldsonville was way back when. I guess that was Civics.
Mr. Falcon would greet us every morning on the P A with some reason why the kids from the Brusly were late for school. The reasons varied from “they couldn’t get the sunshine piped in so they thought it was still night time” or “a tractor had broken down on the gravel road and the school bus couldn’t get through.” Brusly McCall seemed so far away at that time.
I was in the DHS band. We started music lessons in fifth grade at Donaldsonville Elementary. In seventh grade we were able to be in the high school band. Martin Sotile was the band director. He was a very patient man and very talented. He met a woman from Plaquemine, married her and moved there. That’s when we got Mr. Robichaux.
Mr. Robichaux was from New Iberia. He too was a talented man. He could play just about every instrument. He was quick to grab my clarinet and demonstrate how it should sound. He wanted us to hear the music before we played it. He also introduced us to precision marching.
He had us marching all in uniform with hand gestures. He was very strict and demanded perfection, plus he wasn’t from here. I remember when the gradating class of 1969 (the seniors) held a sit-in. This radical behavior was taking place all over the country. High school and college kids were having sit-ins protesting the war in Vietnam. We were protesting precision marching and band practice after school.
Genie Folse was right out of college when she began her teaching career at Bayou Lafourche Academy. She was from the flower- child generation. She was cool, new to the profession, and almost our age. She had long hair that she wore plaited and pinned up.
Edna Cataldo prepared me for college English and Speech classes. She conducted class at the college level. She lectured and we took notes. We also had to do a lot of essays. I attribute the foundation she laid out to my literary career. Some might blame her for my writing skills.
There were many more teachers during my school years. Gerald Alexander taught me typing. This was on manual typewriters, with a blacked-out key board. We had a display of the keyboard on the blackboard in front of the class. If you didn’t have your feet in the correct position he tied you ankles to a ruler. This was to train us for the correct posture. And if you back-spaced for a “strike-over” you received an immediate F.
Now three-year olds are typing on computers and everyone is text-messaging using symbols and slang. No one knows how to add, multiply, or divide without using a calculator or their cell phone. Correct spelling is a thing of the past with spell check on computers. This makes me wonder about the foundation today’s students are receiving. Can we survive without computers, cell phones, ipods, or a GPS?
A publication in conjunction with Donaldsonville Chamber of Commerce www.donaldsonvillecoc.org
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