Here is the Presbyterian Church where I went to kindergarten. I remember playing on that lawn in kindergarten. Kindergarten for me was held in the Presbyterian Church, a very attractive old building.  The building was located across the street from where my Aunt Alvilda and Uncle Oscar lived.  I don’t have many memories of that time except of being outside, on the lawn, playing games, such as Ring around the Rosies, London Bridge is Falling Down and others.  I also remember we were taught how to brush our teeth.  I think that was memorable because we were each given a new toothbrush and toothpaste.  In those days any gift was memorable.   Here is the elementary school where both Jean and I went to school.  My dad also went to school there. Uncle Oscar and Aunt Alvilda’s home across from the Presbyterian Church The elementary school was located about five blocks from our home. My dad went to that same elementary school.  It was old!  We never had play equipment.  Our playground was the packed, hard dirt in back of the schoolhouse.  There was a big, empty water tank at the back of the school.  If a boy liked you, he would chase you and put you in the tank.  No boy ever put me in the tank.  Perhaps I got a clue as to why at our tenth high school reunion.  One of the boys/men said, “Alma Dawn was always too fast to catch.”  If I had only known! On the back of the schoolhouse was a circular fire escape leading to the top floor of the building.  We would play there after school, climbing up the fire escape then sliding back down.  It wasn’t really slick, so both ways took a bit of work to do.  Sometimes we would get wax paper and make it a little faster.  One day, I climbed up to the top and ran into a hive of bees!!  Screaming and batting my arms around, I flew down that slide and never, ever played on that slide again! Just the other day, Susan (my daughter) was telling me how Zeke, my great grandson, who is in first grade, was saying he heard third grade is really hard!  This is my memory: As a little child, I remember looking from the elementary school to the junior high school and being scared to death.  I just knew I couldn’t know everything I needed to know to go to that big school.  (I actually never did go to the junior high school in Salina.  We moved to Provo during the war.  I began the fifth grade in Salina but attended half of fifth and all of sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grades in Provo).  I didn’t have much confidence in myself because of my nature and the scary teacher I had in first grade.  Miss Herbert was known to students and parents alike as being “insensitive.”  I don’t even have to close my eyes to fly back to that first grade room:  Miss Herbert stands in front of us, never smiling.  A young boy raises his hand to go to the bathroom.  She says, “No, you have to wait.”  The poor little boy wets his pants right there.  He is mortified, as are we all!  Next, the children and myself sit in a big circle near the door, with Miss Herbert sitting on a chair in the circle with us.  She says, “You will stay here until you can each count to one hundred.”  I want to cry and run out that door. I just know I am going to be there all night…with Miss Herbert! My promotion from first grade to second grade The second grade was like paradise!  I had the most wonderful teacher, Miss Domgaard.  She was happy and made school a joy.  I remember her hanging a rope across the room, somehow, with clothespins hanging on it.  That was her way of teaching us how to add, subtract and multiply.  It was fun!  One afternoon, she asked us all to pick up a leaf on our way to school the next day.  A leaf!  I loved finding the perfect, big leaf.  I can see me now, walking along the sidewalk, parallel to the highway, big trees hanging overhead and searching for my perfect leaf.  What joy this image brings to me!  Miss Domgaard finally says, “Place your leaf  (my perfect leaf) on this big, white paper and spray it with paint.”  Afterwards, I take the leaf off the paper and see the results of the colorful outline.  Oh my, but it was beauty!! One of my best friends was in that class.  Her name was Betty Lee Christensen.  She was lovely.  She had dark ringlets falling from her beautiful head.  I hated my short, graceless hair. At the end of the school year, Miss Domgaard gave me a book of children’s poems.  I believe I still have that book.  I loved reading it.  I loved her! Miss Domgaard had welcomed in the wounded from Miss Herbert’s class and helped us heal, but the unthinkable happened, and I had Miss Herbert again for third grade.  I never got over my fear of teachers after that year until high school.  Even then, I was still intimidated.  I do remember some music teacher in fourth grade teaching us to lead music.  I can do it, but of course, I have no confidence, so I don’t. A report from my favorite teacher, Millie Domgaard Promotion from 2nd grade to 3rd grade—back in the scary arms of Miss Herbert The highlight of my fourth grade school year was a dance we performed.  If you have ever been to Peteetneet School in Payson, our school was laid out like that. Climbing the stairs to the second floor you came into a wide, open area.  Classrooms were off to the side.  In fourth grade, we must have learned about the days when women wore beautiful, wide skirts with wires holding them out.  We even had white wigs.  Mother, not knowing how to sew, hired a woman in town to make my beautiful dress for that dance.  Our dance was done in that open area.  I felt so beautiful!!  I could swirl and swirl (like Lynne did at my 80th birthday party). Mother didn’t take pictures.  Why?   The first part of fifth grade we lived in Provo, then we moved back to Salina.  My teacher was Mr. Anderson.  When we returned to Salina from Provo, I was totally lost in my class.  I didn’t understand what was being taught.  I cried every night for two whole weeks.  I never told my mother.  I don’t know why.  Finally, Mr. Anderson recognized my floundering.  He came to my desk and asked what we had been studying in Provo?  I told him it wasn’t what we were learning here (totally backwards in the curriculum).  Mr. Anderson was so kind.  He began helping me, and of course under his kind hand, I was able to get back on track.  Another wonderful teacher. Alma Dawn and Edla Jean—our names fit us.