WRITTEN BY RICHARD SHAW
When I tell people that, as a boy, I attended a brick four-room schoolhouse with slate blackboards and portraits of Lincoln and Washington on the wall, they must think I’m ready to host Antiques Roadshow. But while I admit to being a 1950s baby boomer, I’m no antique and have managed to live comfortably with memories of the 13 years I spent in the Bangor school system.
Every classroom had its own special aroma, ranging from the linseed oil that the custodians used to restore the old wooden floors to the perfumes my teachers, most of them “older” women, sprayed onto their faces. During the holiday season, real balsam fir trees, still allowed in schools back then, made the air smell like Christmas. And those hissing radiators on a cold winter morning were perfect humidifiers.
Memories are meant to be savored, so here are some happy ones. There was the day, in 1959, that my first-grade teacher at the Longfellow School installed a crisp new flag with 50 stars after the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the union. And the morning, in 1962, at the Mary Snow School, when we fourth graders cheered astronaut John Glenn as he orbited the Earth three times.
I will admit to having trouble learning the Pledge of Allegiance since I mistook the line “for which it stands” as being “for Richard stands.” The teacher often prompted me, always known as Richard, not my later nickname of Dick, to jump to my feet and make like a patriot. I also stumbled over writing certain names with those No. 2 pencils. Eisenhower was a tough one; Nixon was a bit easier.
Sad memories are also a part of life. There was Nov. 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was felled by an assassin’s bullet. Having been home sick, I always imagined what it was like hearing the tragic news with my classmates. And in the weeks leading up to my high school graduation in 1970, the Beatles broke up and four students were shot dead by National Guardsmen at Kent State University.
In the end, it is my dedicated teachers whom I remember most. Miss Carrie Rowe made third-grade learning fun. We made puppets out of Popsicle sticks and learned every state’s flower. Imagine that, before laptops and TikTok had even been invented.