In first grade, when the bell would ring for recess, a few of my friends and I would run out to the playground and get on the swings. There were only four swings and the three of us would play on the swings the whole time for recess, leaving only one swing for the rest of the children. It was grossly unfair, and after a week or so Mrs. Brumba, our teacher, called a class court. There, we were convicted by a jury of our peers of “hogging the swings.” We were banished from them for the rest of the school year. What cruel and unusual punishment!
Still, I must say that I look back on those school days with fondness. On the last days of both Kindergarten and first grade, as I was walking home, big tears welled up in my eyes as I realized I would not have the same teacher the next year. I probably would have cried after most school years in the same way, except I was older then.
At recess, there was little chance that kids would act up. If they did, the school safety patrol would nab them with “a ticket.” Everyone lived in fear of the “safeties” as we called those older students who were on the school safety patrol. The tickets were given to the teachers to take action. The teacher could decide what punishment, if any, needed to be given. Actually, the safeties were just acting out what they saw deputy Barney Fife doing on “The Andy Griffith Show.” They roamed the playground looking for even the slightest infraction of the school rules.
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