The Second Day at School

Since I am now celebrating the beginning of my second year of retirement, I look back on memories of the first days of school.

I really disliked the very first half-day, well, at a bit over two hours I guess you couldn't call it a half day.

I would have my homeroom and have to go over the school rules according to the "In the Know" booklet. That was boring and seemed to go on and on forever.

As bad as that was, it wasn't anything as bad as trying to teach the kids how to open a combination lock. A few would have had experience with it, but most had never seen one. I tried to make it as simple to learn as possible, but to no avail for some of the seventh graders, who were getting lockers with locks for the first time.

It was even worse until the last several years at Magee, when the combination locks built into the lockers finally gave up the ghost and quit working. The district replaced them with the hand-held combos. At least this way, we got to practice opening the locks in class instead of at the lockers.

The hardest part was the second move to the left which requires going all the way past the first number. This threw many a kid. And then there some kids who hadn't quite figured out the left-right thing.

To Be Continued...

Let's See, is that L-R-L, or R-L-R? --RoadDog