Who Are These Kids?

Recently I posted several photos from my kindergarten and first grade school years. I had hoped that some of my classmates who saw the photos would recognize themselves and others in the pictures and let the rest of us know the identities of those kids from long ago. Several people have responded with a name matched to a picture, but most remain a mystery to those of us still searching our memories.

I decided to dig a bit deeper myself to see whether I could match names and faces. You will find the picture of the first grade classes below. I would strongly urge you to view the picture on the largest screen possible, so you can enlarge the image to see the faces more clearly. I’ve also added a spreadsheet with my attempt to identify as many people in the picture as possible. I was pleasantly surprised when I felt reasonably certain about twenty six of my classmates. Those are in cells shaded pale blue (they may appear in a different color on your device). Some of those also have a question mark following the name, indicating I thought I was correct, but was not totally sure. The eighteen names in the cells with pale green shading are my best guesses after comparing the first grade photo with class photos in my 1963 North Charleston High School yearbook. I subsequently found class photos from the 1960 yearbook online, so I also used those to make a few more guesses. I’m definitely not sure about the accuracy of my guesses, but maybe other viewers will help. I hope to post those 1960 images soon for anyone interested.

As you will see, many of the spaces in the spreadsheet are blank. If you are disappointed because I have either not identified or have incorrectly identified you or someone else you would like to see, I apologize. I’ve strained my memory in trying to reach back sixty eight or so years, but I’ve definitely enjoyed the process. There are many classmates I thought I would surely be able to recognize, but so far they have eluded me. I imagine that additional time spent examining the picture will spark other memories and maybe more names will come to me. It’s amazing how many times a name popped into my head when I saw “that look” or “that smile” or “those eyes”. If you have a similar experience, please share the result with the rest of us looking at the photo.

Some viewers may already have an original of this photo, but if you don’t and you would like to have an image with higher resolution, let me know and I will try to get a scanned high resolution image to you. You might also want to share these photos with your children and grandchildren; I’m sure they would enjoy seeing what a cute little kid you were back then.