This is a collection of stories related to my school attendance through the years.  This post is on my elementary school years.

Chicken Coop – Grades K-1:
I began school in a 2 room schoolhouse on Spruce Street in Port Reading that everyone called the “chicken coop”.  I’m not sure if it ever served in this capacity but it looked like one with a center hallway and a classroom to the left and right that held maybe 30 kids.

Old School #9 – Grades 2-6:
From there I went to old School #9 on West Avenue in Port Reading.  I had to walk the 1.5 miles to school each day. At the time there was no bridges across the railroad tracks so I had to cross them.  The tracks into the “coal docks” could really be a problem because the trains might block the tracks for 10-15 minutes as they uncoupled the coal cars.  All you could do was wait, so you had to leave enough time.  The school was built around 1920 and had 2 floors plus a basement.

I attended grades 2  to 6 in this school.  Being in a small town you stayed with the same classmates for the entire time. I remember the classrooms being panelled and having to go through one classroom to get to the next.  I don’t remember too many subjects or teachers except for 2.  Mrs. King (I think that was her name) was “ancient”.  My father had her when he was a kid.  I remember her being very strict.  Another was my 6th grade teacher who would hit his knuckles on the top of your head if he thought you were misbehaving.  It really hurt.  They could do those things to you back then.  And you had better not complain to your parents because you got it twice.  It was very common for them to throw erasers at people who were not paying attention.

I especially remember eating lunch in the cinder blook basement with the low ceilings.  Now that I think of it, I had a very strange lunch habit.   I would take the same lunch sandwich every day for months until I got sick of it, then change to another.  One of my favorite lunches was fried balony.  Friday’s were tough because you couldn’t eat meat.  I remember many times taking the very Italian omelettes of potato and eggs or peppers and eggs since I didn’t like fish.  After lunch we would play in the yard outside.  There were student designated locations for each activity whether it be baseball (on the dirt field), or kickball, or basketball, or girls playing jump-rope, or whatever.  It was also segregated by age so you had better not try and join a group where you didn’t belong.

This is the “Chicken Coop” that I attended for Kindergarten and 1st Grade about 3 blocks from my house. The one side was Kindergarten class and the other was 1st grade. We went here so we didn’t need to walk the 1.5 miles over the Reading Railroad tracks to get to the #9 school. Behind the school was the playground. Not sure when they stopped using this but I’m guessing sometime during high school since I remember hanging out on the front porch at night with my friends when I was at least in middle school or not later. That’s about when the #9 school was rebuilt about 0.5 miles from my home.