Second Grade

Second grade was at the opposite end of the hall from first grade but on the same side of the central hall running through the building. The teacher was Mrs. Wood, but beyond having a vague recollection of sort of a matronly woman I retain no picture of her.

The classroom was arranged so that the teacher had her desk at the far side of the room from the entrance from the hall. Thus it was just opposite from orientation in first grade. The desk I used, at least as I remember was one or two rows from the windows (on the north side of the room) and about midway from front to back. Behind me sat “Bud” Patton, oldest son of the publisher of the local newspaper (I guess he was publisher, his father, Bud’s grandfather, was the owner but whether he was still active in the operation of the paper I don’t know).

Somewhere along the line through the elementary grades Bud was kept back a year, so he thereafter was a year behind me. Retention of a pupil in a grade for a second year was not uncommon in the Gowrie school, a reflection I suppose of My. Leistra’s emphasis on scholastic performance.

In my classes through high school were the oldest three of the Victor Telleen children — Vernon the oldest, June next younger and Ruth, my age. Vernon had been kept back twice and June once. As I recall Vernon’s problem may have been that his eyesight was deficient and the condition was not realized. But this holding back of children was seemingly not objected to, at least publicly and no one felt that any particular stigma was attached to being retained.

Bud was a likable, tomboy type of individual, who in his high school days was one of the mainstays of the school basketball team. He did not go to college, married a girl from my confirmation class (the Pattons were Methodist and the union was a bit unusual since marriages outside the particular church membership were the exception at the time I was growing up in Gowrie), was drafted and was killed in Europe in WWII.

Lorraine Carlson, his wife was pregnant at the time of his death [so] Bud never saw his one offspring. Sort of sad.

One incident stands out in my memory of second grade. Each year the school building hosted what was generally called the “Corn Show.” The downstairs of the building, such as in the shop and home economics rooms, and some other rooms were used for display of farm produce items, such as ears of corn, sheafs of oats or hay, actual chickens, various homemaker items such as baked and canned goods, sewn items and the like. Prizes were awarded to the farmer individual who, for example, had the best ears of corn (in those days, one of the open-pollinated varieties such as Reid’s Yellow-Dent — it was well before the time of hybrid corn).

My mother at one time won a prize for a winter coat she had made for me from a discarded coat belonging to one of ny aunts (I suppose Aunt Ruth or Aunt Esther). Somewhere in the old photographs I seem to have acquired over the years there is a picture of me wearing this coat.

Sometimes there were other exhibits such as a rather large Erector set construction. This latter happened to be included in the corn show when I was in second grade.

Elementary pupils were conducted on tours through the corn show displays, but they were instructed not to visit the displays independently, such as during the noon hour. When the second grade was conducted past the Erector set construction I was fascinated. One of the desired I had as a child was one of the larger Erector sets (which would permit devising something of the order of the corn show display) but all my parents felt they could give me was one of the smaller sets.

Anyway one of my second grade classmates, Dale Hauser, dared me into going with him to view the Erector set display during the noon hour and our presence was noted by one of the teachers monitoring the event. So Mrs. Wood told Dale and me to remain after the class was dismissed for the day and reprimanded us. It was the only time during my school days when I received this treatment, which is perhaps why I recall it. I daresay Dale was not similarly impressed by Mrs. Wood’s rebuke. I don’t think there was any further punishment beyond the chastising in words.

I don’t know how long the corn show continued, but eventually it stopped. It and the Webster County fair were victims of the increased mobility people had with increased use of automobiles. The state fair replaced them but I have the impression that even these are of declining interest nowadays, certainly so in Oregon but perhaps not in Iowa.