Took a trip back in time to elementary school

I was slightly dreading my step back in time to my elementary school. They had just spent a big chunk of change to renovate it and I was afraid I might not recognize it.

I was touring the school with our Leadership Portales class and I was relieved that the outside of the building, at least from the original part of the school, looked like the L.L. Brown Elementary that I had attended some 50 years ago. A new annex had been built to the north several years ago but the original part had been pretty much unchanged since it was built in 1948.

Inside, things were quite a bit different. The halls looked vaguely familiar and the office was in the same location but most of the yellow/tan tiles had been covered or removed. I was relieved that certain areas still displayed that old tile however.

The classrooms were re-engineered with a lot of walls taken out and moved. When I was matriculating inside those walls along the back wall was what we called the “cloak room.” That was strange because we all wore coats not cloaks. Those were replaced with bathrooms in each classroom since the school is all pre-K.

When I was there in the 1960s, prior to the integration court orders, all six grades were there in one building.

When I started first grade I had several older neighbors and relatives looking out for me. I rode into town with a busload full of Brumfields and one of their older boys was charged with making sure I got on and off the bus with his siblings.

It really was a great place to go to school and I have very fond memories of all but a couple of the teachers there. I learned that I wasn’t much of an artist or musician and my penmanship wasn’t great while in classes there. I also found out I wasn’t too bad at singing and my biggest joy was I discovered the library and a love of reading.

As we took the tour I thought about getting sent to the principal’s office for popping a girl in the nose in first grade. I thought about helping my cousin get around on crutches after he nearly lost his leg to a peanut thrasher. I remembered the recesses playing “pass & touch” with Mr. Wahlman and Mr. Arnold and having Mr. Arnold read to us from the Ralph Moody “Little Britches” series after recess as we rested our heads on our old school desks. I also recalled the family fun each fall during Fun Festival with all the booths and people visiting and laughing, running the halls unchecked.

Then when we got to the end of the hall to the unchanged multi-purpose room memories really flooded back. The kids were on the stage doing their Christmas performance, just as my class had so many years ago.

I still remember the waxy taste of crayon the music teacher used to black out my teeth so I could sing “All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth.”

The kids were great, just like I imagine I was over half a century ago.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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