Saturday, April 16, 2016

A to Z April Challenge: N is for Newton's Kindergarten

Genealogists and family historians get a lot of satisfaction from chasing their ancestors’ stories. Finding a diary, a message on a postcard, or a photo with a name attached is like the sun coming out after a storm. One day we will be somebody’s ancestor. We need to leave our descendants a little bit of sunshine too. So here is my story told alphabetically, not chronologically: Growing Up in Cradock.

is for Newton’s Nursery and Kindergarten.

Kindergarten was not provided by the public schools when I was growing up in the Cradock community of Norfolk County (later Portsmouth), Virginia. Parents who saw the value of early preparation had to pay for it. For my family, the service was provided at Newton’s Nursery and Kindergarten.

Newton’s was owned by Elizabeth J. Newton, the librarian at James Hurst Elementary School. Her building was located on Harris Road, close to her own home. There were two classrooms, the nursery for the toddlers and the kindergarten class for those heading to first grade the next year. In the middle of the building were the office, kitchen, and bathroom which had child-size toilets and trough sinks. A woman prepared snacks and lunch, but I don’t remember her name. My teacher was addressed in that typical Southern way: “Miss Sue.” She was actually MRS. Sue Montzingo.

snipped from Google Maps
Today Newton's is a regular house. Aside from new siding,
the exterior looks the same. The nursery was to the left;
the kindergarten was to the right.
The fenced playground was likely a second lot.
The fenced side yard was huge, providing plenty of playground equipment and room to run. On rainy days there was even enough room to run inside. It must have been on such a day that my friend Melissa and I decided to hold hands and run in circles, a bit of fun that resulted in a bloody mess when she let go and sent me flying face-first onto the linoleum floor.

Newton’s Nursery and Kindergarten was invited to participate in a special event featuring all the children. The Woman’s Club of Cradock put on a Tom Thumb Wedding as one of its major fund raisers. An American fad from the 1920s-1970s, a Tom Thumb wedding was a pageant in which the minister, bride and groom, their parents, bridesmaids, flower girls, ring bearer and groomsmen were portrayed by children all in elaborate costumes. The idea was based on an actual wedding between two famous little people, Tom Thumb (real name Charles Stratton) and Lavinia Warren, who were stars in P. T. Barnum’s circus. The event attracted a lot of attention back in 1863. Recreating the wedding must have seemed like a good idea to various schools, churches, and social organizations seeking to make money from ticket sales. What parent and grandparent wouldn't pay to see their darling in such a spectacle?

On the day that we paraded before the club members who decided who would be the bride and who would be an attendant, I wore this pretty little dress:

Wendy Slade in blue flowered dress 1955  http://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Wendy 1955

Not surprisingly, my friend Alice was chosen to be the bride. She was (and is!) tall and beautiful, even at age 5. I was one of many bridesmaids. Our gowns were layers upon layers of tulle forming a full skirt as wide as it was long; some of us wore blue and some wore yellow. The younger girls from the nursery were flower girls decked out in pink tulle. I suppose the boys wore little tuxedos, but I can’t see them in my mind’s eye. The groom did, for sure.

The “wedding” was held in the Cradock High School auditorium. I can remember lining up and walking down the aisle to the stage, and I can see Alice and Eddie (the groom) in the center, but there the memory stops.

Other than that, my only other clear memories of kindergarten are positioning some mats on the floor for naptime and playing rhythm instruments while marching around the room. I loved the triangle, tolerated the sticks, and hated the sand blocks and castanets.

Many of the children in my kindergarten graduation also graduated with me from high school.

Newton Kindergarten graduation 1956 Portsmouth, VA  http://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Newton Kindergarten Graduation 1956
I am on the back row, third from the right. 


Lest I neglect the niceties, all neophytes, newcomers and novices are welcome to navigate the numerous news, narratives, novels and notes at the A to Z April Challenge.

© 2016, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved

30 comments:

  1. You have such clear memories of your kindergarten days. There did not seem to be pre-school education when I was little, and so starting school was the big event. I have memories of my mother meeting me on the first day with my little brother in a baby blue outfit. Two years later in Primary 3, I was chosen to read at the Christmas carol service/nativity play, but I went and left my card with the reading in big print at home and was on tears on the day - easily remedied of course with another copy = and then a box had to be found for me to stand on, as I was too small to reach the lecturn.

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    1. Now who has clear memories?? I can understand how the Christmas program is unforgettable. Forgetting your card was quite traumatic at the time.

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  2. Kindergartens did not exist when I was young and it would well into the 1960s before my children attended them.

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    1. I do not remember when kindergartens became part of public education in Virginia, but my girls attended in the 80s, so well before then.

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  3. Such a sweet little nursery school! When the Weatherington family took over it was named Little Bo Peep.

    So glad you survived the broken nose!

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    1. Oh yeah - I had forgotten that. Thanx for the reminder!

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  4. Thank you for such a heart-warming post. My only memory of kindergarten is when I made chocolate truffles. I was ill on that day but struggled to complete my task of filling my tin with the small round sweets before I cried for my mommy to fetch me. When I got home, I sat on the step leading to the dining room with my tin and ate all of the chocolates! I was sicker than sick for the next few hours :)It is funny though, when I talked to my mom about that time, she doesn't remember it.

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    1. I'm getting a tummy ache just reading this. Why is it that bad memories stick with us more clearly than good ones?

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  5. How neat that some you went to kindergarten with were also in your graduating high school class :) That did seem like an interesting fundraiser with the Tom Thumb wedding :)

    betty

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    1. Researching Tom Thumb weddings, I ran into some discussion boards and articles that blasted groups who did them. They saw it almost like a form of child abuse since children were being "USED."

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  6. My aunt was a kindergarten teacher, and when she passed, I heard from one of her students, who had lost touch with her. It was very sweet.

    We are in sync. This is especially important to me right now.

    Beth Lapin
    Activities for a Good Life
    https://bethlapinsatozblog.wordpress.com/

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    1. I come from a family of teachers and have also heard from former students who admired my mom and grandaunts. It's a beautiful thing to learn how others saw them.

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  7. Kindergartens were a part of public schools when I started in 1951. I remember a film about red and white corpuscles and I remember painting at the easel as much as I could. I still have a fall tree I painted. I remember walking down the street to the playground with my class. It seemed so far away but was very close. And there was the substitute with the lavender dress and the wedding cake hairdo. We moved often. I don't believe any of my kindergarten classmates graduated with me.

    Finding Eliza

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    1. Corpuscles! Wow, that was some lesson for a 5-yr old. I wonder if we had anything like that and I've just forgotten. I definitely don't remember any substitute teachers but yours sounds just delightful - I can see that hairdo now!

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  8. I am sorry about you getting a bloody nose. My brothers and cousin did that once, running circles around our house. Somewhere along the way, one of them switched directions and BAM! Their heads found each other.

    I never went to kindergarten. It wasn't mandatory where I grew up and I don't think the public schools in our county in South Carolina had them at the time. I started 1st grade the fall of 1971. My mama was 11 years old when you graduated kindergarten. :)

    By the time my babies were getting school age, 4-year old kindergarten was available, but not mandatory. The children had to take a test, and if they made a certain score, they were considered at risk and had to go. None of my children were required to go because they did very well on the test, which broke the heart of one of my girls. She wanted to go to school something fierce. Now, she's getting ready to graduate college with her younger sister not long behind her and our boys are in the Navy and the Marine Corps.

    Sorry for the book-length comment. Some things just turn me into a chatty-chicky. haha

    Have a blessed weekend!

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    1. I love a chatty reply so come back anytime! I thank your boys for serving our country.

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  9. What a lovely, fun read today! It's always interesting to look back. We didn't have kindergartens either so I didn't go. My mom taught me some stuff before first grade, but kindergarten would have been fun. :)

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    1. It must have been fun learning from your mom, too.

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  10. I went to Kindergarten and it was the best! Like Kristin I remember just loving to paint on the easel, sharing Perkins Paste and hankering after a full set of Derwent coloured pencils.

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    1. Now that I think of it, I am sure we painted at the easel too. My girls got an easel and paints one Christmas. I put them in their dad's old shirts for a paint smock.

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  11. I had no memory at all about kindergarten so asked my mother where I attended (we moved often). It made me feel better to know that I didn't go to kindergarten, which is why I had no memory about it!
    It is amazing to think that in times gone past, reading the bible was the extent of some children's learning to read!

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    1. If reading the Bible was a child's first introduction to reading, that had to be some frustrating lessons.

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  12. We had kindergarten and because of my birthday being in December I was 4 when I started. It was quite a ways to go and was in the elementary school, which was on the college campus along with the high school. I don't remember much except there was a huge weeping willow outside and on a nice spring day our teacher would take us out to sit under the tree to hear a story.

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    1. That's a lovely memory. If you can't remember it all, you may as well remember a beautiful tree.

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    1. I had to laugh at this since THIS posted. I guess you ran into Blogger being glitchy.

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  14. Okay, now it worked.
    Wendy your memories of Newton's are mine exactly! I "graduated"one year after you.
    I also remember the cardboard "bricks" and the fisher-price (?) gears and how-to-tell-time sets.
    I still have my diploma and a picture of me in my cap and gown!
    I fought like crazy not to get on the little bus that waited patiently in front of our house-then 106 Afton Parkway..I hid under the bed!
    But after a couple of rather traumatic days, I loved it!
    Thanks for the memories! Jan Shuler

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    1. Yes, I saw your diploma in the Facebook group and I wondered if I had one. If I did, my parents didn't save it. I had forgotten those cardboard bricks but yeah! Thanks for stopping by!

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  15. I wish you had pictures of the Tom Thumb wedding. I bet it felt magical as a kid!

    My big memory of kindergarten is having graham crackers and milk every day. (leave it to me to remember the food portion of school!) I do remember doing the May Pole but I don't remember ever doing anything as big as your Tom Thumb Wedding.

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  16. Wow, what great memories you have!

    I have one memory of preschool. The owner/worker (a man) would drive around in an old station wagon and pick us all up and take us to school. Or maybe he just took us home, I'm not really sure. I also remember my best friend Erin Maria Mulcahy. I have not seen her since and have no idea what happened to her but I liked the name Erin so much that I named my first daughter after her.

    My only memory from kindergarten was laying out the mats for nap time. And it was either kindergarten or first grade when I got my first kiss (on the cheek) from Jimmy Drennan. :-)

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