As I was trying to think about what to write about this first week, I thought about my friend Carole's posts. Hers are a mixture of what she did today and information about where she lives.
I thought about Jen's posts on New Zealand. They were more informative with her connections thrown in. I wondered where to start...there are so many interesting things in this part of the world. As I was driving into town, I saw the perfect subject...a historical elementary school. So my first post is going to be about the schools I attended growing up (there are 5 because of moves and rezoning). Plus, with school starting up soon for both school kids and homeschool kids, school is on the brain, right?
Okay...here goes.
52 Weeks in Bedford County, VA - Week 1
http://www.melissaomarkham.com/2008/08/52_weeks_in_bedford_county_va_1.html
Kindergarten was not something everyone attended when I was five. But my mom wanted to go to work and it seemed perfect timing, so I attended Kindergarten at Timberlake Christian Academy. I remember school being half days. I remember I had one teacher who was really strict (Mrs. Stone) and I was afraid to even ask her to go to the bathroom. My other teacher, whose name I don't remember, was a sweet and kind lady that I loved dearly. I graduated from kindergarten in a neat ceremony that saw me in a lovely pink dress with green sash and white daisies and my hair done up in curls. I have a picture around here somewhere. Mayhap, I can find it later and share it in a post. Timberlake Christian Academy is one of several private schools in the Lynchburg/Bedford area. What I remember most about TCA was the music class. I loved singing songs while the teacher played on the piano.
Next, I went to New London Academy. It was actually seeing New London the other day that made me think this would be an interesting post. New London Academy was established in 1795. When I attended the original building was still open for classes and provided NLA with the distinction of being the eigth oldest elementary school in the U.S. still in operation. When I went to school there, it had grades K-7. At times in the past, it was a high school. And currently it contains grades K-5. Thomas Jefferson was said to have walked the grounds at NLA. And he had high hopes for the little community of New London. He felt like New London, not Lynchburg, would become the booming metropolis of the area, but he was wrong. Lynchburg was located on the river and Lynchburg grew up to be a city of around 75,000 people. New London is pretty much just a small stretch along the road.
I attended NLA from 1st grade-the first month of 4th grade. It was my favorite elementary school. I fit in, had lots of friends and remember nothing except good times there. We played super heros and the Bionic Woman and Six Million Dollar Man (I was either Batgirl or Jamie Sommers). The bad thing I remember was a teacher, Mrs. Dempsey, who had a paddle that was 2 inches think, 4 inches wide and a couple of feet long made out of wood. She had written "Killer" on it and she was happy to use it for corporal punishment. She was also involved in a horrible car accident on the way to school. The teacher who was riding with her was seriously injured/crippled. Mrs. Dempsey went through several surgeries herself. Back in pre-seat belt days.
Above is the original building. I couldn't find out if it is still being used for classes now.
When I was in fourth grade, we moved to a new house. I was transferred to Forest Elementary. The school building I was in at the time was about 4 years old. It was an experimental set-up - open classrooms where there weren't walls that went all the way up to the ceiling. And the classes were divided by ability. For instance, I was in a reading group with two other girls. We were more advanced than our peers and so we pretty much were given our assignments and left to work on our own. Then students who needed more help got more teacher interaction. It was awesome. I also had several friends at this school, because they attended the church that I had been attending since I was a kid.
Forest Elementary was neat too because we had to go down 100 steps (yep, I would count them) in a silo. Our classes were underground (under Jefferson Forest High School). As years passed and the Forest area grew, an elementary school was built and the silo and underground classrooms became part of the highschool. I couldn't find a past or present photo of the school. Probably having to do with 9/11 security measures.
After spending less than a year there, I was transferred to Boonsboro Elementary School. I lived in Bedford County, but very close to the Lynchburg City limits. In 1975 or 1976...sometime around there, Lynchburg City annexed (which means that they took over parts of surrounding counties to increase their tax base.) 14 feet of our back yard became part of Lynchburg. People on my end of Bedford County were bussed to Boonsboro Elementary becasue the annexation had taken so many kids from that school, they had to bus us over there to help bump up the numbers. I went from riding the bus about 10 minutes to riding it for about 30 each way. My mom and other moms fought really hard against this happening, but to no avail. For the most part my years at Boonsboro were not the best. I didn't really fit in with the kids there (many of whom had known one another for a long time).
The teachers made the time tolerable for me and I was the teacher's pet. I got good grades, helped grade papers, and tutored other students. When I went to Boonsboro Elementary, it contained grades K-7. At times in its past it was a highschool. Today it is an elementary school and has grades K-5. Several of my most favorite teachers taught me when I attended Boonsboro. Mrs. Jones (who encouraged my superior spelling abilities), Mrs. Caldwell (who was loved by all), Mr. Snapp (who also worked in a florist shop), Mr. Lucas (who drove corvettes, wore his hair to the side to cover the thin spot and was the most laid back man ever) and Mr. Whitesell (who resembled a tall, young Kris Kringle.) I had a huge crush on Mr. Whitesell and he encouraged me and others in poetry writing, even assisting several us to get published in a local anthology. I still laugh when my mom met him for the first time, she said, "Hello, Mr. Whitesell, your house is a name hold word." My mother rarely gets flustered like that. we all laughed and she turned beet red. She thought he was cute too;) I was at Boonsboro from 5th-7th grade.
The big part of the school to the left was they gymnasium when I went there. The part of the school to the right is all new and there is more school to the left that is not in this photo.
Finally, it was time for high school. I went to the highschool on our end of the county which is Jefferson Forest High School. When I attended JFHS, we were considered the best high school in the county (it still is considered that by many). The building was only 8 years old (which didn't mean a whole lot because by the time I was in 10th grade and the building was 10 years old, the roof was leaking during heavy rains and ceiling tiles were falling on students). I enjoyed my time at JFHS. I reunited with a bunch of friends (NLA, Forest Elem, and Boonsboro Elementary all poured their students into JFHS. I loved the challenge, being able to pick my own classes, clubs, and sports. The first two years I was at JFHS, our football team went to the state championships. Our school mascot was the Cavalier and our colors were red, black and grey.
My class was one of the most together classes ever. When we had pep rallies, my class most always won. We were the loudest and peppiest. Our class produced a very high number of intelligent people. In fact, the year that the kids in my class took the Advanced Placement exams, five of us (yep, one was me) received a score of 5 (best score). Our class was the first to ever have any student that got a 5 on an AP test and we got 5 students who did it! We had a lot of spirit and when our beloved principal was demoted (politics), we were up in arms and even had a sit out and wore black arm bands in support of him. I remember we were threatened by the school board that prom wouldn't take place if we didn't straighten up. Mrs. Stinette, who was the teacher who helped with the prom told us that to keep the prom from happening, they would have to keep us out of the school and since she had a master key, that would be tough (we were all pretty upset by the whole demotion thing...
Anyway...that's a birdseye view of some of the schools here in Bedford County. And my thoughts on them.
Not sure what I will talk about next week, but if there is something in particular you would like to know, let me know and I will consider it for a future topic.
Last week, I reviewed 
I have been visiting 
