Glen Ellyn, 1967

Although I normally do my best work under pressure, this procrastinator is running out of time to write a meaningful blog of my last year of teaching.  How can I possibly fit the stories from 45 years of teaching into the last 31 days of my career?  This is even more difficult, considering that I must also clean out multiple drawers and cupboards, organize all of my teacher and student materials, make sure that student files are up-to-date, complete my final report cards, organize three field trips, write a couple of parodies, attend my retirement party and somehow make it through the last days of a career that I have loved.  Oh well, I'll just have to do my best.

In the spring of 1967 I had a letter from my college friend Judy asking whether I would consider moving with her to the Chicago area to teach.  In those days of teaching jobs begging to be filled, the idea was appealing.  I had been out of college for a year and was looking for a change of pace.  Judy had spent her first year of teaching working in Honolulu, and Chicago was looking good to her as her boyfriend was in med school at Loyola.  Both of us simply resigned from our positions without a firm job offer and without a care in the world.

On Father's Day that June, we flew into O'Hare where Dr. Hadley himself, the superintendent of the Glen Ellyn Public Schools, met us and took us on a tour of the area, ending up at Abraham Lincoln School, a state-of-the-art building where Judy and I could teach fourth grade together. Dr. Hadley was very persuasive and we were ready for an adventure.  I believe we signed our contracts that day and set out to find an apartment.

Judy and I found a handy place to live in Lombard, Illnois, just down the road from Glen Ellyn. Our apartment complex even had a slogan, "Harmony West Apartments, Where the Living is Easy." We found a third roommate from our home state of Ohio to share our two bedroom apartment.  Jayne had a room to herself while Judy and I shared one.  We decorated our living room in "early orange crate" which we stained "antique olive green." We found a Duncan Phyfe dining room set at a garage sale, a book case and a dresser and stained those too. I remember orange carpeting and an old sofa with a cheap cover to make it look good. We were so proud of that place! Sort of sad putting that stain on the Duncan Phyfe, but years later Judy refinished it back to the original wood color.

Lincoln School was divided into a primary wing and an intermediate wing with the offices and specialist areas in a rectangular section connecting them in the middle.  Our end of the building consisted of three sections of each grade third through fifth surrounding a central area that was equipped with a rear-view projection screen where we could take whole grade levels to watch movies (no videos yet in those days) or film strips or hear speakers.  Our adjoining classrooms had movable walls, enabling us to team teach with our third colleague, a more experienced teacher who had been at the school a good seven years. We thought she was ancient.  Each room opened directly to the outside, and students could enter and leave through that outside door.  

At noon, nearly every student walked home where their stay-at-home moms were waiting with their lunches.  A handful of students remained at school for the one hour and fifteen minute break.  A "lunch lady" was hired to sit with them while they ate their sack lunches and watch them during their study time and during the long recess waiting for  their classmates to return.  As for the teachers, we either brought sandwiches to school ourselves or else went out for a leisurely lunch.  It was our choice. 

Wearing slacks, however, was NOT an option.  Dresses were the required garb.  Once, when I came to school wearing a brown culotte dress with a Peter Pan collar, the secretary showed up in my room, and I was sent home to change.  This was 1967 and teachers just did NOT wear pants to school.

In my first year of teaching, I had a fourth grade class of 38 with 14 girls and 24 boys.  At Lincoln, I had 22 total students, and they all went home for lunch.  I remember one little girl asking to go to the restroom and asking me not to do anything while she was gone so she "didn't miss anything."  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Then there was Rush Street and Old Town and the excitement of being a young girl living near a big city.  Unfortunately, we were considered to live in the boonies.  One potential date told me that where we lived made us COOTQ (Completely Out Of The Question) to Chicago guys.  Judy didn't want to go downtown anyway, as she spent a lot of time with Dr. Larry.  Once when Jayne and I went to Rush Street, she disappeared with some guy and did not return.  First I had to walk several blocks to find my car. Then,  I frantically drove around trying to find the Eisenhower Freeway and ended up on some one-way street where drunks sat with their bottles-in-a-bag and seemed to watch me leeringly.  Scared to death, I was relieved beyond belief when I saw a sign pointing to the freeway and made my way home. I don't think I ever went there with Jayne again.

Next: Speeding?  (I am writing this more as a reminder to myself, than as a preview of coming attractions.)