Toddy Pond Days - Meeting my New School

MEETING MY NEW SCHOOL

If you've been reading my posts, you probably know that I was  NOT  excited about moving between my junior and senior years of high school. I didn't want to go to a new school. I wanted to graduate with my friends, but we did move . . .  and I needed to register at my new school.

As we were signing in, the secretary was very helpful. She signed me up for my senior pictures and told me of a summer job program. (Maybe it would help me get used to the building before September.)

In a few days, I met someone else going to have her senior pictures done, too. Her name was Pickles - actually Karen Pickering, but hardly anyone called her Karen. She made me feel so welcome. I wore my green home-made gingham dress for my pictures. (I'll scan it sometime.) 

I reported for my new job and met Mr. Raymond Gross and Mr. Pearly Chipman, the janitors there. My first assignment was to paint the boys' gym lockers. They were disgusting! I tried not to read the graffiti as I painted over them. (I think a boys' locker room is one of the stinkiest and dirtiest places ever!) I finished that job as quickly as I could.

Next, I painted the radiators in the jr. high building. Mr. Gross liked my work and gave me a more prominent painting job - the front of the stage. Being satisified with that work, he taught me how to paint the classroom doors with a very high gloss paint. Each door was a different color. The gloss was so shiny that I could see myself in the reflection.

One day, I was painting the posts outside a back door of the high school. My bucket of gray paint was on a small shelf on the back of the step ladder. Mr. Chipman, a jolly bald man, opened the door and bumped my ladder. Just like a slow-motion cartoon, the bucket fell upside-down on his head. What a mess! I was glad he had a good nature and found it as funny as I did.

That was one of the few times, I earned money with SS and taxes taken from each check. It wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough to buy my senior pictures and some new clothes for the coming year. I'm glad I worked there that summer. I made friends with some of the kids and staff, which helped the first day of school to be easier than I thought.

(to be continued)