This photograph, and the date on it, confirm that we were living in Whittier, CA, from the fall of 1954 since kindergarten lasted a year and, as with the other school photos, this was taken in March of 1955. I enjoyed attending Laural with our neighbors and friends. With 29 students, we baby boomers were obviously filling the schools and classes to capacity. Our teacher looks rather weary. I'm in the front row, to the left of the gap.
I have two memories, neither particularly pleasant. Mom visited the classroom and brought Georgann by that day to watch us at play. Georgann got all tangled up in the toys in the fake home in the back of the classroom and some of them fell with a loud crash on top of her. She began bawling and mom had to soothe her and then leave. I was embarrassed.
Late in the school year, the teacher made us hats. For some reason, I was the last kid to get a hat made. For the boys, the hats looked like soldier's service caps. For the girls, the hats were rounded sunbonnets. Unfortunately, each type of hat required a different size of color construction paper. When the teacher finally got to me, the proper size to make the boy's hat was gone. She volunteered to make me a sunbonnet instead, never imagining that it would bother me in the least. However, I was already gender identified and was certainly not going to wear a hat that the girls wore. I put up a fuss and, somehow, Mrs. Archibald found another sheet of paper and made me a boy's hat. I happily left the classroom for recess with the proper hat.
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