WHITTIER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GLEE CLUB - 1945

The year was 1945. The town was Long Beach, California. The occasion was the John Greenleaf Whittier Elementary School Glee Club having its picture taken just before the school children came out to sit on the asphalt while we gave our annual Christmas Program. I was 10 years old.

Little Chuckie Newmyer, one of the smart kids, stood solemn and official in his role as Narrator of this little Christmas concert. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for “Chuckie” because his mother and my mother were friends and pregnant with us at the same time in 1935. Sometime after we were born one or both families moved away, but our mothers discovered each other again when we moved into the Whittier school district in 1945. I don’t think Chuckie ever knew that in my baby book there is a notation that his mother gave me a baby dress when I was born.

But moving back to this early Christmas program we needed a Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus. A doll was used as a stand-in for baby Jesus. Joseph was played by Joseph Fayant, a tall fellow with dark hair who probably looked more mature than most of the kids and truly made a good Joseph. Mary was portrayed by Loretta Carlson, who had a sweet face and a widow’s peak, which gave her a heart-shaped visage just perfect for the role.

I can still identify close to half of these kids in the choir. This is amazing, I think, because some days I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast! But about twelve of the girls in this picture were in a newly-formed Girl Scout Troop 28 and we stayed active until we graduated High School in 1953 and then have had regular reunions and personal contact through the years. But other than that, most of the kids from Whittier Elementary went on to Alexander Hamilton Junior High School and then graduated from Long Beach Poly, and having them as classmates for nine years surely has helped their names being imprinted in my mind.

I suspect that the narrative was read from the Gospels and that Chuckie did himself proud in his delivery. I do not specifically remember what songs we sang, but it shouldn’t be too hard to surmise what they were. I also doubt that they were sung with any parts, as we didn’t have a formal choir at the school; I’m sure we all knew the traditional Christmas songs and one of the teachers probably offered to wave her arms at us to try to keep us on the beat. I’m also sure she used a tiny pitch pipe to give us our beginning note, because rolling a piano or even a little portable pump organ onto the asphalt was beyond the call of duty. It was a capella for us.

It was a good program. The weather cooperated and our parents all came and stood behind the students seated on the ground. My only sadness was that my new boyfriend, Charles Clifner, was not in the choir. I asked him a couple of years ago why he wasn’t in the picture and he said he was many things but a singer he was not!

In those days it was perfectly ok to mix religion and education. No one fussed. It was just not thought to be a big deal, and hearing Chuckie read the gospel did not raise any church/state conflicts.

When I look at this picture I can’t help but think about how different Christmases were back then. However, maybe Christmas just wasn’t so different but Society was. Kinder. Safer. More polite. More considerate. Slower, for sure. We still were quarantined if we got measles. We entertained ourselves on the playground with jacks, hopscotch and monkey bars, merry-go-rounds and rings. We walked to and from school with little fear of being kidnapped. Girls wore dresses to school. Children looked like children, not like mini-teenagers. We secreted “Sen-Sen” in folded-up sheets of Kleenex and couldn’t wait for recess to share those powerful tiny little black licorice squares. In spite of the depression and the second world war that affected us, we mostly had a wonderful childhood.

Christmas is a time for remembering “the reason for the season” and it is also time for looking backwards at Christmases past. I was blessed with good family, good friends, a good school, good teachers and teaching, and a good town in which to grow up. I have Christmas pictures taken at an earlier stage of my life, but looking at those doesn't really bring any specific recollections. But the Whittier Elementary School Glee Club photo is full of remembrances and recollections – and makes an awfully good trip down memory lane in December of 2010 – sixty-five years later.

REMEMBERING AT THE 55TH

Fran and I met in September of 1945, when I entered the 5th grade at Whittier Elementary School in Long Beach, California. She and I have always been friends, from being in the same Girls Scout troop, to seeing each other at periodic Scout and school reunions, to the present. Last week we attended our 55th high school reunion and Fran's husband took our picture together. As those of you who are our age will understand, we know we have aged, but we look exactly the same to each other as we always did....which certainly is some kind of magical happening, I think. Between our 50th reunion and the 55th, Fran and I decided we would be sisters. I know, it sounds strange but there is something in it for each of us that we both missed - having a sister to share with, to laugh with, to complain to, and to gain strength from.

Now there were a couple of others there at the reunion who we have known for the same length of time. On the left is Charles Clifner, my very first boyfriend, Fran, me and on the right Larry Baldwin. All four of us also appear in the class picture that is at the end of this blog.

Probably the funniest happening for me at the reunion was hearing from Charles that when I came into school as "the new kid" in 5th grade, the word went around that we lived in a very big house with very thick carpeting over all the floors. Apparently everyone was talking about it. Fran and Larry nodded when Charles spoke, so I guess everyone heard it. All I could say to them was that as I got older, the house sure must have shrunk in size. And somehow the house moved up closer to the sidewalk; the lawn was much smaller than I remembered!

And then Larry told me that he had always known all about my family, because his cousin, George Turner, was the sales manager for my father's little appliance store, and through the years Larry always knew everything there was to know about the Dobbins family. I'm so glad that we were just an ordinary, normal family and that honestly and truly, Dad was awfully good to his employees.

One other little thing happened that tickled me. I have always kept the little hand-made autograph book that our teacher gave us at the end of our 6th grade year. It had our class picture on the front cover, and we had everyone in our class sign in the book. Sure enough, Fran, Larry and Charles all put their "John Henry" in it but next to Charles' name was the following: "XOXOXO" When he looked at that, he said, "Did you put that there or did I?" I told him I thought he did.....but later I did a little handwriting analysis and I had to e-mail him and report that I do think it was MY handwriting, not his! It didn't matter, actually, because for 5th and 6th grade, we were an item. (Remember, this was a long time ago, when elementary kids didn't date and our "love affair" was never more than xoxoxox's).

Of course we are all hoping that we'll be around for our 60th reunion. There are days I think I'll make it, and other days I feel I'm lucky to make it out of bed! But it is wonderful to reconnect with all these people and share the past with them.

So you can see me in this photo, our sixth grade class in June of 1947, because at some point I drew a circle around my face. Fran is next to me toward the left side of the photo. Charles is the red-head and Larry is the one who didn't know the camera was getting ready to click!

And for all you younger people, just look at the clothing that was de riguer for that day and age.

Reunions are so much fun, even when you think they aren't going to be!