School Days--Leo

I hope that School Days will be a recurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here. 

Here is today's story.

Today's interview is with Leo who started school in 1939 at age six. He went to a neighborhood school in rural Virginia where there were 25-30 students in first grade.

"Tell me about when you first started school or an early memory of school."

“I've got a story about that. When I was a kid, I lived next door to my cousins. We were the only two houses around at that time. We had forest behind us and we used to spend all day out there playing. We'd run around, play tag, climb trees, and only come home if we were hungry or hurt.

Well, my mother told me that I was going to start school and I was very unhappy. I didn't want to sit inside all day and be fenced in. The day before school started, I climbed up the gumball tree we had beside our house. It was where I would go if I were upset or wanted to think things out. I was feeling bad about starting school and didn't want to come down. The next day I went to school and didn't like it.

When the first report card came out, they told my parents that I was smart enough but antisocial. Of course, I was antisocial. I didn't want to be there because I couldn't run around all day.”