Seventh Grade

Each class through sixth grade had its own separate classroom but in junior high (seventh and eighth grades) the two grades were together in a large assembly hall. There was an adjacent classroom which was used when the grades were separated during the specific classes. The assembly hall was the first place that attached desks were used, instead of the movable ones.



My teachers in seventh grade were Miss Hayes and Miss Wood. Miss Hayes was the principal and had been in the position only a couple of years at most — previously she had been the sixth-grade teacher and I believe Clarice had her there. To me she was notable for being able to snap her fingers louder than any other person I have known. This was of course an attention-getting and disciplinary tool and in her case quite effective; I suppose her no-nonsense approach and her strong character helped.

My impression of her is that she had been teaching for some years, at any rate; she seemed to be older than Miss Loe, Miss Arndt of Miss Wood. I didn’t have her in eighth grade — she left teaching and married one Clarence Norberg, a farmer who farmed north of the Peterson farm somewhere.

About a year ago (1990) Vivian sent me a clipping of her obituary — she was a I recall well up in her 80s. If she was 85 when she died in 1990 that would make her 27 years old when I had her in 1932 — which I suppose would qualify in making her an “older” teacher in my eyes at the time. Miss Wood was around for only a year or so.

Of my seventh grade I cannot specifically and definitely recall any incident. I also don’t recall where my seat was. There was one incident that may have been in seventh grade, but more likely in the eighth grade. It involved a class question period in the room next to the junior high assembly hall. Oddly the question related to geography and I wonder now if my recollection that we took the county test in geography in sixth grade was correct — on reconsideration maybe it was the test in hygiene that was taken then. The answer to the question was “yarn” and I seem to tie it to some South American country and its agriculture. Only one boy and student in the class got the answer correctly — he was the son of the local florist and horticulturalist so maybe he tended to pick up this kind of reference more readily.