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Friday, February 27, 2015

A Precocious Five-Year-Old?

Yesterday I posted about some of those receipts I found in an old 1948 calendar of my parents. That year I turned five. This is what the November page looked like:


Someone had circled my birthday in RED! I assumed my Mom had marked every family member's birthday. I looked at September to see if Betty's was circled. Nope. May for Ron? Nope. My birthday was the only conspicuous date in the entire calendar. Was I really that egotistical at age five? How would my older (by 3-1/2 years) brother answer that question?

The other thing to note on this calendar - and all of the Red Star Mills' calendars - is the information on the back sides of the pocketed months. This one is about the care of your farm machinery. The next month (back of current month) was 'cost and measuring tables'. We learned a lot of measures in grade school, like two pints equals one quart, twelve inches equals one foot, etc. But how many gills in a pint? Or links in a rod? Or rods in a chain? There were charts for eggs, milk and cream production. But the only chart Mom had used was the breeding record where she had kept track of when to expect Brindle, Blossom, Brownie and Tootsie's calves.


My fourth grade report card was also in the box of pictures and papers. What is that Lake Wobegon quote about the children being above average?


All A's and B's in my subjects except a couple of C's in the first reporting period which were B's by the following period. Note the C in Arithmetic 'speed' and the C in Music 'singing'. Mom always did say I "couldn't carry a tune in a bushel basket".  Note the only A in the first period was for Spelling. I was always a good speller.


Citizenship, Work Habits and Physical Education were all B's except for that one C, "Works to capacity". Does that mean I'm an under-achiever? Or just lazy? I remember the most important line on those grade school report cards as being in that last box: Advance to whatever the next grade was.

Here is my 'above average' fourth grade school picture.


And one of me on my fifth birthday:


Well, maybe I did draw those red circles around November 18. I do look a bit precocious, don't I?

4 comments:

  1. Do I see a resemblance to Rhonda, your cousin? Probably not, just wishful thinking.

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  2. You look like a little darling. Interesting that your grade scale was much stricter than when we were in school--your Cs would have been Bs for us, and the Bs, As.

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  3. Kari - I hadn't registered the stricter grade scale. You are right. So I am above, above average? Ha! I remember in h.s. when I first learned of 'grading on the curve' which helped me get a lot of A's.
    Donna - I never thought I resembled any of my cousins, but I do have a granddaughter who reminds me a lot of pictures of Aunt Lois when she was young. (Ronda's mom)

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  4. I would love to see some of my old report cards. Ahhh...maybe not!! LOL

    Preston

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