4th Grade

I am in the middle in a red jumpsuit if you don't recognize me

Carole Rice Hill, a cousin and childhood friend, posted our 4th grade picture from J. Paul Beam Elementary school on Facebook. I have all these pictures at home in a scrap book but it has been fun to relive some memories and read comments from childhood classmates as they try to remember the names. I can only remember a few first names and it is so nice to get people's full names. Kirsten wrote down all the names on her class pictures so she can name them all. She of course has a head for useless information. I don't. I really enjoyed going to school at J. Paul Beam. Mrs. Hubbard, my sixth grade teacher, was probably my favorite. We saw her once years ago on a visit to Gaffney. I haven't been back in probably ten years. She loved to read to her class and I loved to read so it was great. I remember all the books she read such as "A Taste of Blackberries" about a boy who gets stung by a bee and dies. A few after that I was stung by a bee and began having allergic reactions to it and had to be taken to the emergency room. Luckily I do not get stung very often and now just take some medication. Actually, I just freeze when a bee is around until it flies away. She also read "Bridge to Terabitha" also about someone who dies. Do you see a theme here? I think the summer before sixth grade a classmate had passed away in a go-cart accident. He and a girl drove under another car at night. She survived but he didn't make it. I wonder if she intentionally read those stories now to help anyone coping with the situation. I wondered it at the time but of course didn't say anything. She also read "How to Eat Fried Worm." She actually stole it from me. I had checked it out of the library and she saw it in my hands and took it. I had three favorite books I checked out of the library and read over and over again. One of them my name filled up the check-out sheet. My favorite was a mystery by Enid Blyton, I think. I just remember something about headlights shining in a window. The other book was about Swallows and one had a damaged wing and couldn't fly with the family south for the winter. I also read one about a Ghost Town. My least favorite books that I have read over the years..."Wuthering Heights"(I detest that book), "Desert Solitaire" (Snoozer) and "War & Peace." I actually only read that one because it was in a Charlie Brown cartoon and thought it sounded interesting. It wasn't. I can at least say I read it not that it does me any good.