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The Thumb's Christmas

  Our daughter, Anne, was a prolific artist when she was young. Our refrigerator door was full of her drawings, paintings, and school artwork. She liked to create little books, too, as she was also a natural storyteller. One Christmas when she was about eight years old, Anne wrote and illustrated a Christmas story for her little brother, James. If memory serves, she drew her inspiration from a book she had recently gotten from the library by illustrator Ed Emberley. He wrote and illustrated The Great Thumbprint Drawing Book . In it, Emberley showed how to make a variety of animals and people using a thumbprint as a starting point. The creations are simple and charming. It's amazing what you can do with a blog of ink and a few black lines. It's art that's accessible to anyone. Anne's story is called "The Thumb's Christmas," and is based on our family. There is a thumb with glasses (Anne), a thumb with little hair (toddler James), a thumb with a mustache (Ji...
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Welcome to Kindergarten


And now, a blast from my own past. I can do that, right? I believe that even "recent" history is still history!

I came across this "Welcome to Kindergarten" booklet issued by Cleveland Public Schools in a box of my school items. My parents received it when I enrolled at East Clark Elementary School for kindergarten in 1966. The school was just down the street from our home at 902 E. 147th Street in the Collinwood neighborhood.

Front cover of Kindergarten booklet from 1966.
 

The best part of the whole booklet was the notes my mom, Ann Kozlina Gilbride (1937-2010), wrote about my first visit to the school.

Mom wrote about my first visit to East Clark Elementary.

"I registered Nancy at East Clark School today, April 29, 1966. She behaved very well. They're going to notify me at the end of Summer as to when to bring her in for orientation. Don't know yet when she'll be going or who her teacher will be."

"After we left the office we took a walk to the Kindergarten Room & looked in the door to see the children & what the room looked like. Nancy thought it looked NICE."

"Then we found Timmy's Room (104 - Mrs. Wills - 1B)." 

Tim is my older brother. 

"We didn't see him at first & then Mrs. Wills came to the door & let us in. Then Timmy saw us & yelled, 'Hi Nancy,' 'Hi Mommy.' All the little girls were asking him - 'Is that your sister?' They were having recess & playing Huckle-Buckle Bean Stalk. Mrs. Wills said Timmy does 'beautiful work' but she wishes he would sit still & quit turning around. She is a very, very, sweet woman. I'm glad Timmy has her for a teacher."

"When we were leaving, we saw Denise coming up the stairs and Nancy got all tickled." (Aside: No idea who Denise was...)

"Well so much for Nancy's first look at school."

 "Oh yes, she did manage to fall in the driveway coming home & scratched her knee. Just like her brother!"

—Mommy

I especially love these notes as I can see in them early signs of lifelong habits. For me, it was tripping and falling. I joke that I spent a good deal of my childhood on the ground. And I have the scars to prove it! It was also funny to see that big brother got into trouble for not sitting still and turning around. I think all us kids got in trouble for those things, and talking—my other Achilles heel. But my "motormouth" days are a story for another time.

To complete this stroll down memory lane, I'll leave you with Mrs. Dornbaugh's Kindergarten Class of 1966-67 class photo. God Bless my Mom for writing all the students' names on the back! 


Look at these faces!


Until next time...

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This post was chosen as a Friday Family History Find by blogger Linda Stufflebean. Thanks, Linda!

 

BONUS PHOTO: East Clark Elementary, formerly Clark School

East Clark Elementary was formerly a high school; this image is from a 1908 postcard.1

I doubted my memory for a minute when I looked up the location of the East Clark school. It turns out that it was demolished in 2006 and rebuilt, so now its new address is on E. 146th Street. I wasn't even sure this was the same building, but I found photos taken just before its demolition, and it's definitely the same.2

The original Clark School was built in 1889 at the corner of Clark Street (E. 147th) and St. Clair, and served all grades. The school graduated its first senior—its one and only in that class—in 1892. The building shown in the image above was the third Clark School to occupy the site. This is essentially how the school looked when Tim and I attended there perhaps with some additional outbuildings, parking lot, playground, etc. By then it was just an elementary school.3


BONUS BONUS

If you—like me—are wondering what the heck "Huckle Buckle Beanstalk" is, click here.

 

NOTES 

1 "High School Collinwood O.," postcard, about 1908, unknown photographer; image, Clevelandmemory.org (https://clevelandmemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/postcards/id/7/rec/4 : 10 August 2023); citing Special Collections, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University. 

2 Aaron Turner, "Cleveland East Clark 1" undated photo, Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/oldohioschools/2240661660/in/album-72157603847671875/ : 10 August 2023); citing Ohio School Facilities Commission.  

3 James Lanese, “Collinwood High School,” Cleveland Historical (https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/695 : 10 August 2023).

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