“Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.”
Today is breezy and cloudy but still hot at 82°. I haven’t yet started the AC because the house feels cool enough. My dance card is empty for the weekend. I’m thinking to haul out my fall decorations. We’re coming into pumpkin time.
I remember my first grade classroom. It was up a flight of stairs on the right. Just outside the classroom doors was the cloak room with a double row of hooks on two walls. There were so many coats in the winter that you didn’t need a hook. All you needed to do was put your coat between some coats, and it would stay there. I don’t remember my second grade classroom. I just know it was across the hall from my first grade room. Mrs. Kerrigan was my teacher. She was the iconic teacher. I remember she had gray hair always in a bun, wore flowered dresses and clunky heeled shoes. She had an apartment across the street from the church. My third grade was in the cellar of the rectory. It had tables and chairs and a large clock on one wall. The walls had been white-washed. I sat at the table on the left wall. I also remember all the rest of my classrooms, but the only memorable one was my fourth grade room on the second floor in the old school. From fifth to eight grade, I was in the new school, and the classrooms all looked alike.
When I travel, my favorite time of the day is the morning. I love getting up early and wandering the streets. The morning has its own smells and sounds. Trucks stop to unload, people walk to work and buses are filled. I usually find a hole in the wall where I get coffee, sometimes even a pastry and can sit outside to watch the world unfold. I always feel part of it yet removed.
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September 9, 2023 at 2:14 pm
And Happy Birthday to Hedley!
(also, why do I now suddenly have to log in to leave a reply?)
September 9, 2023 at 2:44 pm
Thanks for reminding me!!
I am trying to find out why that you need to log in to comment. It is doing it to me as well. I must have done something of which I am completely unaware!
September 9, 2023 at 2:57 pm
Hi Kat,
Well, we finally got some rain at the house last night. A thunderstorm happened to wonder through the neighborhood bringing us a brilliant lighting show, thunder, and a good soaking rain. Today, the sun is shining with a predicted high of a cool 96°. 🙂
I don’t remember my first grade teacher’s name but I remember my second grade teacher, Mrs. Ruth. I attended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Elementary school which is still there. Occasionally, I drive past the school. We moved for the rest of my elementary education where I attended Walnut Hill Elementary School. Unfortunately a tornado in October 2019 destroyed both that building and the Junior High School where I attended. The elementary school has been rebuilt as some kind of a learning center and the Junior High school was replaced by a brand new elementary school. That same tornado destroyed several condominium buildings only about 1,000 ft. from my former apartment’s front door. We fortunately suffered only one broken window. I never want to experience a tornado up close again.
September 9, 2023 at 6:48 pm
Hi Bob,
I’m glad you got some rain. Nothing is better than a summer thunderstorm with bolts of lightning. The air right after always feels nice and cool. Better and cooler weather will come!!
My grammar school, the old school, is over 100 years old. The new school was built and opened in 1957 when I was in the fifth grade. They are still open. It was first to eight grades. They have just added the 9th and 10th. I had to go to high school a couple of towns over to continue in a Catholic school. A lot f us went out of town for high school.
We have infrequent tornados in this state, usually in the western part of the state, but one hit Yarmouth a year ago and did some damage to a hotel along the water. We were a bit shocked by it.
September 9, 2023 at 7:53 pm
Unfortunately, tornadoes can happen anywhere in the U.S. They are rare in the Northeastern part of the country. We are located at the southern end of tornado alley. In the Spring and Fall cold air moving down from Canada collides with warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, which creates huge lines of severe thunderstorms which can span tornados. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas receive the most tornadoes annually.
September 9, 2023 at 10:15 pm
I am awed by the strength of tornadoes and amount of damage they leave in their wakes. We don’t have them but we do have hurricanes. They topple electric poles, destroy houses and flood roads and change the shape of beaches. I remember going to Chatham after a hurricane to see the damage. The ends of streets had disappeared, roads and houses were gone. Tragic!