My Third Grade Years

Dear Audrey,

You are now in the Third Grade. I can't believe how fast time is flying and how much you have grown up.

I started trying to remember my Third Grade year so that I could compare with you. But you know what, I don't remember that much about my actual class time anymore. It's amazing how some things you think you will never forget slip away as the years do.

I went to Third Grade at Mading Elementary in Houston. I remember being in a "temporary" classroom. I put temporary in quotes because it seems like in every school, the "temporary" classrooms in "portable" buildings seem to end up permanent structures on the school campus. I don't remember my teacher's name, but either she had a baby or she got married, and left mid-term. I ended up with a substitute teacher for the rest of the year.

I remember that was the year I learned cursive - and thought I was all grown up since I could write in cursive. I'm sure I had math, English, science, and probably geography. But I don't remember that much about my coursework.

Grandy was pregnant with your mommy when I started Third Grade. Kathy was just starting Kindergarten. It was definitely a year of change. Grandy's daddy, my Granddaddy died on October 1, 1965 - just about a month after I started school. Your Mommy was born on February 27, 1966.

We moved to Pearland in April of that year, but since it was so close to the end of the year, Grandy and Grandpa Harold decided that Kathy and I should finish out the school year at Mading. So Grandy would make 3 trips a day from Pearland into Houston to take us and pick us up. It was 3 trips because Kindergarten was only a half day back then. She would have to pack up your Mommy and the diaper bag each time.

I remember one of my friends in Third Grade, Cheryl Heflin. And I think the reason I remember her the most, is that when I started school in Pearland the next year - there she was - at Pearland as well. Another girl that I got to be good friends with in Pearland, Pam Rabon, had also gone to Mading.