Apparently I don’t remember all that much.  I do remember that I went to Grafton Village Elementary School. 

For 1st grade I had Ms. Potter.  I remember she used to wear her sweater over her shoulders and had black hair.  I used to wear my sweater like that too.  She was very nice and I remember her being patient.  One thing that stands out about 1st grade is that we used to have these workbooks that had this piece of plastic that you would put over the page and you would use a to mark your answers.  My rag that I used to erase the marks was actually one of my sisters’ old cloth diapers.  She, my sister, was allergic to pampers so she had to use cloth diapers.  That’s a story for another day.  The workbook had “characters” in it and one was a yellow poodle looking dog named Nip, and an ant named Ant.  If anyone has a copy of that workbook or a pic of Nip and/or Ant I would LOVE to see it.  Interesting that that is one of the standout memories for me from 1st grade.

In 2nd grade I had Ms. Kerwin.  I always kind of wondered whatever happened to her.  One thing I remember about her is she had really pretty hair.  Sometime during that year I had my ears pierced.  It was at a store called Leggett’s (now called Belk’s).  Back then they put a piece of ice on my earlobe to numb it and then used the earring to pierce my ear.  I actually still have one of the studs.  I don’t want to brag or anything, but it still fits. 

Sadly I don’t remember all of my teachers.  I do remember Ms. Suddeth.  She was either my 3rd or 4th grade teacher and I remember her wearing these awesome navy blue bell bottom pants.  She also had naturally wavy hair.  When I was at Grafton some of the grades were in these “open” wings and there weren’t any walls separating the rooms.  They instead had these really large dividers separating the “rooms” from each other. 

Of course I remember some of the kids as well.  In one class there was another girl named Lisa and her last name was Brown.  Tommy Sullivan was in one of my classes and I remember he liked to draw sharks.  He was good at it too, as best as I can remember.  There was also a girl named Joy in the class.  She had a leg brace on one of her legs, she had short red hair and smiled a lot.  Kind of weird the things you remember. 

I went to Edward E. Drew, Jr. Middle School and the teacher I remember there was Ms. Collie.  She wore heels a lot.  I was the class representative or something and had to sign all of our ID cards for some reason.  I was in the track club there too.  I actually don’t remember much besides that. 

I guess one of my strongest memories that I have revolves around a water tower at the elementary school.  Back then for PE, we used to run to and from the back of the school to the water tower.  At least that’s how I remember it.  And in my dream, I’ve run up to the water tower and as I am running back for some reason the water tower is falling towards me and I don’t seem to be able to outrun it.  I actually have had that same dream many, many times.  Not sure exactly the meaning behind it all but on our trip to Fredericksburg I of course had to stop and see it.

It does not look the same.  I clearly remember it having 4 legs and of course there wasn’t a fence around it either.  I am assuming a new one was built or something. 

• What teachers do you remember?
• Do you have any recurring dreams?

(((hugs))) ~lisa