My mother was the only single, working mother in the neighborhood, but I remember that she took off from work to take me with her to register me for kindergarten and introduce me to my teacher and classroom. The kindergarten classrooms were at one end of this ancient school building off of the "playground" which was nothing more than a large open area with trodden mostly dead grass. Each school entrance was labeled. There was "Kindergarten" carved in the stone above that door and it was off limits to other students. At the front of the building there was the "Girls" door and in the back, the "Boys"' door. Teachers entered at the opposite end of the building.

When we visited the classrooms, one contained a slide and the other, across the hall, had a jungle gym in it. I was assigned the one with the slide and carefully memorized that so I would go to the correct room.

When the start day arrived, there was undoubtedly snow on the ground because we are talking January in central NY. Mother arranged for me be walked to school by Mrs. Clark and her son Allen, who was in the middle of first grade. We lived at the edge of the area served by Sumner Grade School, so it was a good walk to school. The Clark's lived on Westmorland Ave. in one of only two houses, half way up the very steep hill. This was across the "back lot" behind our house. I suppose Mrs. Clark walked around to my street rather that cutting across the empty, snowy lot. When we got to the school, the staff had done some rearranging and switched the slide and jungle gym between rooms. But I was on to them. I went to the correct room!

I made friends with a girl named Margo Sacks. We played together throughout that semester, but she moved away that summer. This friendship proved to be a significant one though because in second grade a new student joined our class named Susan Block. With her kinky black hair and pale skin she reminded me immediately of Margo so I befriended her. We became lifelong best friends until her death a few years ago. Now back to kindergarten. First, it was only half day. We had milk half way through the morning, bringing our "milk money" to pay for it. There was a nap in there somewhere. I hated naps. We brought a towel from home to rest on.

We must have learned something during kindergarten but I have no idea what. Whatever it was, we all must have passed because we moved on to 1sr grade together. We remained together as a class through grade school, and did 7th and 8th grade in a year and a half, the oldest group to do that. That was how the school district changed the system so all students would start in September and graduate in June, so we left school at the "normal" time, leaving us to start college with other students throughout the country. Did we miss something in that condensed program - probably. But we all recovered and were destined for successful futures, so, whatever we missed, we managed to get along without it.