An Update to the First Grade Class Picture

Here’s a slight update to my tentative list of names of classmates in the picture I posted of the North Charleston Elementary School first grade classes from 1952. Joanne Trotter (Kelly) and Charlene Gates (Stuart) have enabled me to identify them in the photo. After examining the picture further and also a photo of Charlene’s first grade class play (with names attached), I’ve guessed all the names I can manage. If anyone can help to match names with other faces, I would be delighted to have your assistance.

Just a Little Flicker

A few days ago Carole had gone for a walk down our road. When she came back home, she wanted me to go with her to look at something she had seen. At the corner of the neighbors’ fence there was a pile of leaves that had been blown against the fence. But there was also something else that appeared to be a mass of feathers. Looking more closely we determined that it was a bird, possibly a flicker, which seemed to have been caught in the fence where it died. Its eyes were open, but it was hanging head down and unmoving.

I moved closer to get a better look. From about four feet away I could see that it was indeed a female flicker. Her body was within the two-inch space between the two layers of the wire fence, the tip of her long beak rested on the ground, her feathers were all ruffled in disarray, her wings were spread and caught at odd angles in the two-inch-wide rectangular openings of the fencing material. I thought I might have seen just a little flicker of light in her eye, but it could have simply been a change of sunlight hitting the open eye.

I decided to move around to a different spot on the hillside where I would be able to get much closer to the bird. As I moved within a foot or so of the bird, there was absolutely no movement. It seemed that the flicker had been inside the fenced yard, possibly searching for food on the ground as they usually do. Perhaps she had been alarmed by the dogs in the yard, and had become entrapped while attempting to fly through the openings in the fence. Unable to free herself and getting more entangled by her struggles, she had ultimately died.

Saddened to realize what had happened to this beautiful creature, I reached out my hand to gently stroke her soft feathers—a gesture to comfort myself since I knew the flicker would not feel my touch. But the bird suddenly cried out, tried to move her wings again in another futile effort to free herself. Startled, but ecstatic that the flicker was still alive I began trying to determine what I could do. A flicker is a large bird, bigger than a blue jay but smaller than a crow, with a wingspan between sixteen and twenty inches. But this flicker’s wings appeared so delicate and they were spread in different directions through the holes in the fence. Hoping that she was not already injured and that I would not add to any injury she might have already sustained, I tried to help with an escape. She remained calm and still as I moved my hands around her. Supporting the flicker’s chest and head with one hand, I began moving the wings, pushing the tips of each wing back until I could maneuver it into the same small opening with the bird’s body. When both wings were finally folded in close to the flicker’s body, she was compact enough to fit through the fence opening and slide down onto the ground.

We didn’t know whether or not the flicker was injured, but feared that either wings or legs might have been broken in her struggle or in my rescue efforts. The flicker sat still for a few moments looking around, no doubt exhausted from her ordeal as she was hanging in the fence for however long and trying to escape from that trap. Then she stumbled forward a foot or two and looked up toward Carole and back toward me. Just as we exclaimed with excitement that the flicker could move, she suddenly shot up into the air, flew over the fence and across the yard, and disappeared into the woods beyond.

We were ecstatic. Wow! What joy. A few minutes before, we were distressed that this beautiful but unfortunate bird had been trapped and died. And now we had seen her soar back into the trees. It had turned into a very good afternoon.

Yesterday as I was looking out one of our windows at an eastern phoebe who has apparently returned to our homeplace for another year of nesting and raising a family, I saw something much larger moving among the leaves on the ground. It was a male flicker. We don’t often see them close around the house; usually they are farther out near the garden or flying among the spruce trees. And then the male was joined by a female flicker, both of them searching among the leaves for a morning meal and climbing up the nearby tree trunks. I’d like to think that this was the same female flicker I had helped get free from the fence. Maybe she came around to let me know she was OK. If so, she is now happily back where she belongs and that makes me very happy as well.

Northern Flicker      Photo: Docent Joyce (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

More Names from 1952 and Pictures from 1960

Thanks to Betsy Walker Chambers I have a few names to add to my attempted identification of the kids in the North Charleston Elementary School first grade classes photo which I posted recently. As before, I would urge you to view the pictures on the largest screen possible so you can enlarge the image to see the faces more clearly. The additions to the spreadsheet are highlighted in a pinkish color. Also Teka Rogers Pierce advised that I was wrong in my guess that she was in the picture since she didn’t attend NCES until later. Likewise, Al Hall, Randy Wright, and Sherry Johnson Gooding were not in first grade at NCES so we shouldn’t look for their cute younger faces.

I would love to have names to put with all of our classmates. If you can identify others or at least point out your own younger self, I would really appreciate a brief message with that info so I can update the spreadsheet later. Carole recently was delighted to access a photo from 1920 showing and naming the staff and student body of the small school in Jackson County, North Carolina, where her grandfather was principal. Our class photo with names might make some future researcher very happy.

I also found the 1960 edition of the North Charleston High School yearbook online. Since I don’t have a physical copy of any of my yearbooks except the 1963 edition, I have enjoyed looking back at these photos from our “sub-freshman” year. I’m including the class pictures in this post in case others might also like to have a look. Fortunately names are given for these photos so we don’t have to strain our memories. I hope you enjoy remembering our classmates.

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.

Fond Memories of Earlier Times

My birthday was yesterday, seventy-four years to recall in memory. As the day approached, one of the things I fondly remembered was that I shared birthdays with one of my very best friends from our younger years, Chuck Funderburk. As nearly as I can recall, we first met in kindergarten, the Funderburk Kindergarten which was operated by Chuck’s parents in a building next to their home, a few blocks from Park Circle in North Charleston.

My family had moved to the area around Park Circle only a year or so before, but we all discovered it was a great place to live. Likewise the kindergarten was an ideal setting for all of the kids who attended, always warm and welcoming thanks to Chuck’s parents and the rest of the staff. At meals and snacks I believe we had milk from his grandparents’ dairy business. The upstairs room even housed a huge (at least to young eyes) model train layout, a source of great fascination to some of us. Our time in kindergarten provided our introduction to formal education and the socialization experiences that came with our group activities. For many of us kindergarten was the place where we formed our first friendships beyond the circle of our immediate families. Most of my fellow students there continued as close friends throughout our elementary school, high school, and college years until time and other places called us away.

As incredible as it seems in today’s world, at the age of five I was allowed to ride my bicycle the mile or so from my home to the kindergarten. But then, we rode our bikes everywhere, at least from our time in kindergarten through the end of elementary school. Cars frequently relegated our bicycles to the garage once we were able to get our drivers’ licenses at age thirteen in South Carolina. Until then, on foot or by bike, we covered the area of a circle about two miles in diameter, more or less centered on Park Circle. If we didn’t have something else to do, we would say, “Let’s ride over to ________ (fill in the blank) and see what they’re doing.” We usually could find someone or something to occupy us until time for supper. We visited at friends’ houses, enjoyed various sports and other activities at Park Circle or in backyards and vacant lots, explored the undeveloped woods and marshes, walked along the train tracks, examined houses under construction in new neighborhoods, and created all sorts of other adventures for ourselves. Chuck and I (and I believe some of our other friends) even became young entrepreneurs and set up stands in front of his grandparents’ home on Montague Avenue to sell used comic books and perhaps other treasures and Kool-Aid. Like some later business ventures in my life, that effort was lots of fun but not particularly rewarding financially.

Memories tend to wander around, one recollection leading to another and then heading off in a different direction and this one has been that way for me. I started with a shared birthday and have revisited a number of other events and people and places in my mind over the past few days. I’m sure the pattern will continue and I look forward to recalling my past experiences and the people with whom I’ve shared them. I may not still be with those people in those places, but they certainly continue to be a part of my life.

I knew I had some special photos from those earliest days which I wanted to share in case some of the folks who were part of that time might enjoy recalling their own memories. I’ll attach a few kindergarten and first grade photos and hope some readers will find them interesting. It’s amazing to me looking at the faces of so many of those five- and six-year-olds that I recognize them, recall some memory about them, and in many cases remember their names even after seventy years; I don’t do that well with lots of people I met last week. Take a good look at each face and see what comes into your mind. If you see yourself and are willing, please let me know where you are in each photo. If you recall names of other classmates, I’d be happy to receive those also. And if these words and photos spark other memories or remind you of early photos you have, it would be great for you to share those as well. Most of all, just enjoy looking back at some special earlier times.

 This must have been a performance of some sort (I can’t recall what) and perhaps our graduation also since we appear to be holding rolled certificates.

Aren’t we cute?

Our first grade classes at North Charleston Elementary School.

Our first grade class play. I still remember my Frosty the Snowman song and dance (such as it was).

A Christmas play with all of us in authentic Middle Eastern costumes.

A May Day celebration in the playground area behind North Charleston Elementary, possibly later than first grade. What a lovely setting!