1/2 of 5th Grade: back to Alton

The construction jobs my Daddy was working on at the Fort were now done. So we moved from Plato back to Alton where I finished out my 5th Grade. Whenever we weren't sure where we were going next, we always ended up back at Alton. I guess because that's where my Mom was from and all her family were there. And she always wanted to go back there every chance she got, even after the three of us kids were grown up and gone.

Anyway, my teacher for this stint of my 5th Grade was Mrs. Margaret Johnson. There really wasn't much that happened that short part of my school career...except for the French. The French teacher came in and taught us French a couple of days a week. I still remember a couple of the little French songs he taught us, and I'll teach them to London. She's already pretty good at Frere Jacques in rounds. I'm not sure why someone thought the kids in Oregon County, MO, needed to know French, but there you go.

If you've been keeping tally, this would have been not only my 5th Grade, but my FIFTH school. Granted, some of them were "repeats" but still count as a different school. I'm almost halfway through my 11-schools-in-12-years' school career.

Grades 3, 4, & 1/2 of 5th: Bloodland R-V, Plato, MO

We moved near Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where my Dad was working on some huge construction jobs on the Fort. We lived outside the Fort, in the "Palace Community" which, I believe, was considered the rural part of of Plato, MO. We rented a house from Chesley ("Chess") and Daisy Helton, who lived right next door in the back of their little country store in which a postage-stamp sized Post Office was tucked into one corner. Miss Daisy was the Post Mistress, if I remember correctly. I do remember what our address was: "Palace Route, Plato, MO." Neat.

We attended a tiny schoolhouse called Bloodland R-V School. I think the the Bloodland school had only two classrooms, two teachers, a cafeteria, and the best cooks in the whole USA! I still remember those homemade rolls... But I digress. Back to school. If there was a third classroom for the "big kids" in 7th and 8th grade, they must not have made much of an impression on me because I only remember the two classrooms.

My first year at Bloodland was my 3rd grade (our room was the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades), which put me in the same classroom as my brother, which was kind of a bummer. But since I was the Big Sis, it was good, too, so I could keep an eye on him during his career as a 1st-grader. Our teacher was Mrs. Carter. Bonnie Carter. I don't know how many students there were, but not very many. I'm guessing less than 20 in each room.

I moved to the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade room the next year, so my brother was on his own. Besides, that classroom had something magical in it: a piano! My teacher was Mr. Otis York, and I loved listening to him teach the 5th and 6th grade kids while I was supposed to be reading my 4th grade stuff and doing my 4th grade work. I sure learned a lot that year!

Anyway, back to that piano. There was a girl in school that knew how to play because she took real lessons and everything. I would stay inside during recess and beg her to play so I could watch her. I mean really watch. Then when she would go outside to play, I would stay behind and start pecking out the tunes she had played...by ear.

I went home and told Mom and Daddy that "I know how to play the piano!" I told them several times. They didn't believe me. I mean, how could I play the piano? We didn't even have a piano. But I begged and begged them to get me one, and finally one day Daddy said, "Well, if you prove to me that you know how to play, we'll get you a piano." DEAL!

One night we went to some friends' house to visit, and, oh joy, those friends had a piano. I knew my Daddy had by then forgotten his promise to me, but I hadn't. I sidled over to the piano, sat down, and while the adults were visiting, I busted into a two-handed rendition of a boogie woogie. My Mom and Daddy about fell in the floor. Well, it wasn't long after that I got a $35, upright, twelve-thousand pound piano. And boy, did I wear that thing out! It was the beginning of a lifetime love of "making music" with whoever we could round up. And that Bloodland boogie-woogie ended up affecting the path of my whole life.


Oh, and something else happened while we still were in the Bloodland School area: we had a new baby sister. I was almost eight years old when she was born, and now I was a Big Sis 2X over.