I went to the same Catholic school for the whole six years of my elementary education. I began my first grade when I was still 5 years old. At that time, usually kids of 6 years old would be admitted. Lucky, my school was an exception. I don’t remember much about the admission interview, except that I was asked of calculating 4 + 4. I remember that my hands were hanged at the edge of the desk of the examiner, and I kinda counted four figures on each hand and got the answer. Anyway, I got in.
The school was about 15 minutes away from home on foot. At the very beginning of first grade, my dad did put me on a school bus. However, it didn’t last long, cuz that wasn’t really a school bus officially, but a private white van running by someone to pick up and drop kids in various schools in the district to make money. So, in spite of getting up early enough to catch the van and should be at school on time, as the driver had to take kids to various school, I sometimes got drop at my school in the last minute, my parent found that out and it became a waste of money on such service. So, my dad began taking me to school and picking me up afterschool for the first 2 years of my elementary school. I think I was able to go by myself some times during my third grade when I was 8 or 9 years old. At that time, there wasn’t stringent rule that kids have to be accompanied by adults below a certain age either on street or at home. So, there was more freedom and flexibility for us and let us to be more independent while growing up.
My elementary school was for boys only and the classes were large comparing with the current classes. I remember that there were 55 students in my first grade class, 58 in my second grade, and stayed above 50 all the way to sixth grades. My school was half-day school with 6 classes for each grade. The naming of the classes was like 1D, 2C, 3E, etc. The number referred to the grade and the alphabet was the class. Class A, B, C are all morning school and D, E, F were in afternoon school. So, we took turn each year, like I was in 1D, 2C, 3D, 4A, 5E, and 6B. So, I had the chance to get up early and late for different school years.
I can’t recall much about my school life in elementary school, These are some random items that I could remember:
- My class master during my first grade is Miss Ko who taught us English. She was ruthless and the whole class scared of her. She liked to scold students and punished them like telling them to grab their ears while standing up. She also like to punish the whole class to write statement like “I will not talk or make notice in the class in future” 100 times. The only time that I pissed in my pant was during her class when I was too scare to raise my hand to go restroom while she was scolding the whole class. I just pissed!
- Miss. Ko had an older sister who also taught in our school. I remember that a young handsome Math teacher came in during my third grade and left a year later. There were rumor that the older Miss. Ko and that Math teacher got marry soon after.
- I was more or less considered as a shy person in most of elementary school years, never been any kind of leader or focal point voluntarily. However, I was named the chief of the class in my second grade for being the student got least marked for discipline issue during the first few months or so. Being a chief of the class didn’t mean much. Yes, I got a badge, but my role was mostly as the representative picking up exercise booklets and distributing tests in the class. Also, marking number of students who didn’t behave during class breaks for the teacher, nothing fancy. There were two such students (one chief, one vice-chief) in each class from first to fourth grade. In fifth and sixth grade, there were 6 (2 chiefs and 4 vice-chiefs) in each class, just don’t ask me why there’s such structure. I was vice-chief in my fifth grade, but I don’t’ remember anything about it.
- There was no cellphone back then, I don’t start calling my classmate to chitchat until my fourth grade, just talking about silly stuffs I guess.
- I started to learn about money when I was in my first grade. At that time, Coca Cola had conducted promotion with yo-yos, that actually happened every few years. I don’t remember the details, but I guessed you could get a yo-yo by submitting a seal of the bottle cover and pay few dollars. I asked my dad for a $5 yo-yo, but my dad turned me down reluctantly. That was something I still remember, perhaps because I shouldn’t be given a toy for doing nothing. Also, it might be because it was considered to be expensive. Back then, a bottle of Coke costs around 50 cents more or less. I didn’t know how much my dad was making, but we were not rich that’s for sure. Toy was not a priority anyway.
- If I want something, I had to do well in school (usually with good overall averages in seasonal exams, not simple weekly test or something) to earn that with effort. I remember that the ultimate toy that I wanted in my second grade was a big plastic shuffle. I still remember the handle was blue, the middle was yellow and the tip itself was orange. I couldn’t remember the price, but I was looking forward to ask my dad to buy me that if I could do well in the final exam without and failed course. At the end, I got it.
- My dad started to give me pocket money in my second grade, $1 a day. I remember the first time I spent my pocket money was at my school’s snack counter to get a cup of grade juice that cost 20 cents. It was nice cold drink down my throat after running around in recess. My dad didn’t clearly tell me why I was given pocket money and how should I spend it. I usually didn’t spend that on soda or snack. Rather, I saved them up to buy stuffs that I like, like stickers with Japanese Robot characters of cartoon series, or snacks that come with toys. I usually visited those stores that carried those goods after school. There were no store on the shortest route from school to my home, but I would take some out of the way routes which would involve walking uphill in order to visit those stores.
- Also, I would have to hide my purchases from my parents. Small stuffs were easy, but hiding magazine and comic books would be a bit difficult. However, for some unknown reasons, perhaps through the trust from my parents, they never really dug into my collection and scolded me for spending money on them. Even though it shouldn’t be too hard to spot my collection considering there were paper boxes or all sizes on my bed that contain cassettes, comic books and magazines. If they wanna check, sure they would find them, but they just never did. I thanked for their trust, but didn’t regret too much for spending money that way. Cuz, looking back, it was a way of growing up for me, namely, able to develop certain interests and making collection of things. Certainly, I might make different choice now….
- I first scared of my own death when I was in second grade. Looking back it was quite silly but I did worry about dying back then. It was a result of what I had been told in a health class in school about the hazard of auto-emission which would kill human. For unknown stupid reason, I was drawn to smell the emission of cars and didn’t find it repulsive at all. When I was playing outside my home, if there was any vehicle coming around, I would smell the emission. Certainly, that didn’t take too long, but as soon as I learnt about the hazard from school. I thought I would die in few years. I’m sure I stopped smelling those emission right the way, even held my breath and ran away from emission as quick as I could, I don’t remember how long did I have that worriness, but certainly that thought existed in my mind at that time.
- Academically, I think I did okay throughout my elementary school years. Never been the top of the class, mostly stayed in the top twenty I would say. No class that I was particularly like or dislike, except Art class which was my favorite. Perhaps, drawing/painting was my hobby back then, just loved visual art.
- Socially, I had good friends, I was no loner by any mean.
I would say that my elementary school life was pleasant overall while looking back.
