Opinions

I think second grade was the best year of my elementary school career. To my mind, Miss McDowel was the best teacher in the school. Every year, my uncles asked me the same two questions about school: Did I have a boyfriend? And, was my teacher pretty?

Eleanor didn’t come to my attention until first grade. There were two half-day kindergarten classes each day, and attending kindergarten was not required at the time. As she would have been recovering from a bout with polio, she could have been in the morning class while I was in the afternoon one, or not enrolled in kindergarten at all.

It seems with my own children, as well as for those of my generation, the first five or six years of school involve the discovery and cultivation of a new best friend nearly every school year. By junior high and high school, friendships tend to be deeper and longer lasting, but it is a rare thing when those first early relationships survive for another year. The reasons for this may be as simple as the seating arrangement in the new classroom when school starts each fall, or as subtle as a crooked smile, a purple backpack, or a bandaged knee.

As I look at all the things advertised as necessary for the coming school year, I remember the simple list of supplies needed for school during the 1940s when I was in elementary school. Up until third grade, about all that was required could be bought for under a dollar. A box of at least 16 crayons, two No. 2 pencils with erasers, and a tablet of lined paper.

Before telling you about my $7 million weapon-buying spree, I’d like to tell you about my relationship with guns.
As kids, my brothers and I got BB guns about the time we turned 12. Dad set up a shooting range in the garage using a thick moving pad as a backstop, and a two inch piece of pipe hanging from a string as the target. After a little practice, hitting the pipe on the first shot was simple; the challenge was hitting it again while it was swinging. Thanks to this head start, I fared well on the rifle range in the Army.