63 years ago today

Sixty-three years ago this morning I posed with Jeannie Taylor and Susan Kent in front of the bush behind the big brick duplex their families shared on East Franklin Street in Delphi, Ind. It was across the alley from my parents’ house at 609 E. Franklin.

We were on the threshold of academia. Minutes later, I was in Mrs. Kathleen Baum’s first grade classroom at the southwest corner of Monroe Street Elementary School with my pencils, crayons and oilcloth (to protect the desks from modeling clay).

Our first assignment was to draw a big red apple on a sheet of manila art paper to take home to our mothers.

Mrs. Baum seemed very nice and I remember trying to show her a photograph of our house that I kept in my wallet. Yes, I carried a wallet as a 6-year-old.