School Days in the 70′s

Berlin, Wisconsin, USA circa 1976

This was my first home in Berlin, Wisconsin, USA in the 1970′s. I was (happily) an only child for 6 years…and then along came my brother. I don’t remember if we all lived in this house but we did move from it to another house a few blocks away. I couldn’t tell you the circumstances leading up to what makes this house special but suffice it to say that we had moved house and I was meant to walk home from school to the new house.

I would have been in 1st Grade, I believe and 6 or 7 years old. My parents were both teachers but my Dad taught PE at the High School and I was in school at the elementary (primary) school. My parents had gone over the route I needed to take and I believe had even walked me through it. The route from my school to our new house was easy peasy. Walk up a hill, turn right at the top and we were only a few houses down from the corner.

I believe my journey would have taken place in October. Why do I think this? Well, October, in the US is usually Fire Safety Month and I had received a Fire Safety colouring book in school. This would come into use later. After school I walked up the hill from school and probably turned right and walked right…past…my…new…house. I couldn’t find it. I’m not entirely sure why my mom wasn’t standing outside looking for me…maybe she was but all I remember was that I was LOST. Lost, lost, lost. Nothing looked right, nothing looked like I thought it should, nothing looked like my new house. I wandered. I seem to remember everything looking a LOT bigger than it really was. I remember being very frightened and not knowing where to go.

So what did I do? I found my way back to my old house. The one in the picture above. The new owners must not have been living in it at the time so I sat down on the front stoop and cried and cried and cried. And then I rooted around in my book bag and found my Fire Safety colouring book and started to colour. I don’t know how long I was there but eventually my Dad found me…Little Girl Lost. Sitting on her former front doorstep, colouring and crying.

I know I scared the bejesus out of my parents and we laugh about it now. However, now that I have my own Little Miss I can finally understand the panic that must have been in them at the time. Their daughter was missing. Mind you, it was the 1970′s in a VERY small town in the Midwest of the US so I was relatively safe. But still. This was one of my school memories…not very fond but very vivid. Obviously, nearly 34 years later it’s still a strong memory. I will always remember my Fire Safety colouring book and think back rather fondly on colouring those firemen. They were a real comfort to me.

This post was written in support of Tara Cain’s Sticky Fingers Gallery. The theme this week is “Back to School” and as Little Miss isn’t old enough to go TO school much less BACK TO school, I thought I would share a wee memory from my past (and use my scanner!). Enjoy other blogger’s take on the theme at Sticky Fingers on Wednesday 8 September.