Second Grade 1962

 

We sat in small groups and drew pictures of turkeys or Pilgrims or Thanksgiving scenes. One of the girls in my group took a small piece of broken crayon and stuck it up her nose. Everyone at the table began to laugh. The teacher came over to see what was going on. The crayon was lodged way up and out of sight and the girl had to go to the school nurse’s office to have it removed.

 Several months later we were working on a science project, sprouting various types of seeds in damp paper towels. The same girl pushed a bean seed up her nose. This time the school nurse couldn’t get it dislodged and she had to the emergency room to have it removed.

While she was gone the teacher talked to the class about the incident. She told us that we shouldn’t talk about it when the girl returned to the classroom.

 “She is only doing these things to get attention.” She stated.

 Well if that was true it worked. Melody Banks was the girl’s name and in the many decades since then she is the only classmate I can remember from second grade. I don’t even remember the teacher’s name.