Gandle, please keep talking! I think we all enjoy it very much.
I read somewhere that women teachers were dismissed if they married. I always thought that was ridiculous and that it applied only to the US. But just right now thinking back, I think in Germany it was the same way. I went to quit a few schools in different locations and all but one of my female teachers were single, she was married and her husband was missing in action in Russia (WWII). But all that goes back to a time when most women stayed home once they married.
On the other hand, all the male teachers were married.

Gandle, I love your memories. Old maid school teachers bring back memories of my grade school years too. All the teachers seemed to be Miss somebody or other & the married ones didn't enter into the picture until I got into the upper grades. I somehow remember being told that teachers had to quit if they got married, but could work if they were widows - LOL! I guess that was big of the powers that be on the school board.

In the lower grades at my school we'd line up by class by the front door when school was about to begin & then one of the teachers would bang out a rousing march on the piano & we'd all march into our assigned classrooms.

The day started with the Pledge of Allegiance to a flag that had 48 stars until 1959.

I have always enjoyed your stories and hope that they are preserved for your family. Just as family genealogy and history through pictures will be treasured by those that follow the stories will be a wonderful anchor to the feeling of family.

gandle,
Thanks so much for your stories.
Please, please write them down for your family for generations to come.
So much is lost that our future generations would love to hear.

I am a 'lifebook' addict.
My mother and brother passed way before my children knew them.
When I think of an incident my children/grands would enjoy, I write it down and tuck it in with a pic of my Mom or Brother.
My daughter and 13-year-old granddaughter are now at the ages they feel they 'know' these loved ones without ever being with them.

I remember a 7th grade teacher being pregnant.
She had to quit teaching as soon as she started showing.
Geez...how ridiculous!!
This year my 5-year-old grandson's kindergarten teacher worked until the day she went into labor.
My GS went to the hospital the next day to see his teacher and her new baby.

Boy, how times have changed in such a short period of time.

When spring finally arrives and you get busy outside, please take a break now and then and share more of your memories with us. They are wonderful.

My mom had to quit her teaching job in the Aurora, Ill., public schools during WWII when she got married, so she went back to college. I believe, at the time, you could get a teaching certificate with 2 years of school, and she decided to go for an actual bachelor's degree.

As a married woman, she was not allowed to live in a dormitory -- because, she thinks, it was feared she might be an unsettling influence.

gandle, please keep on keeping on;
sometimes a ride in a time machine is quite refreshing, & you're a great captain.
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I started school in 1958;
my first teacher was "Miss" Something when I attended the "pre-school" (a one-time event where your mother went with you) the summer before I started school,
she was "Mrs" Marks by the time first grade started,
& by the time school was out the next spring, she was waay pregnant.

She almost always wore a plain black straight skirt with a smock-type top, usually a plaid with a white Peter Pan collar & a black grosgrain ribbon bow, & her shoes were always plain black flats.

She was a pioneer:

She was the youngest teacher in that school,
she was the only married teacher young enough to have babies (there were several gray-haired "Mrs" Somebodies),
& she was the first one to continue teaching after she got pregnant.

All the other teachers adored her & were excited for her.

Looking back, I think maybe they were happy to have made it long enough to witness a younger generation having the freedom to be pregnant in public (although they probably said "expecting") & to keep working once the baby came.

I sent Mrs Marks a card about a year ago, thanking her for teaching me to read, told her it had served me well.

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When my mother & I went to visit her sister, my aunt, in Houston one summer or autumn, we drove around the city & looked at all the sights:

tropical plants, beautiful spanking-white buildings, bluest sky on the planet.

One day my aunt was driving through a park (my aunt & my mother both drove cars, so they too were pioneers in those days), & my aunt stopped the car & pointed up & said, "look, they're putting the new flag up, it has 50 stars".

I still remember how dazzling that sharp red, white, & dark blue flag looked snapping in the breeze against the cottony clouds in that brilliant, hot blue sky.

It's good to ride in the time machine.