Literature at Ives Elementary School
Dear Miss Blue,
Well, this has been such a busy time for me, hardly enough time to read about Bertram and his imagination. Yes, imagination that I stumbled upon long ago, during our once a week hour in a class called Literature. Literature meant we were allowed access to a magazine rack near the door to the school's hallway, among other wonderful pastimes. I liked the magazines best, since most of us didn't have subscriptions to magazines.
The hour was spent in a number of ways suitable to fourth graders in our school, Ives Elementary, on Philip Avenue, just a cut through the backyards between our street, Marlborough, and Philip Avenue. We could perform just by raising our hand and announcing whatever it was we wanted to perform, jokes, poems, songs. Especially wonderful and new to me was Elecution. I loved it when one of my friends, Ruth DeVoe, dramatized The Blue Wart or Oh Joy, I Wish I Could Be A Boy, my favorite. And so I memorized the words and gestures for future times - mainly when we visited our relatives in Kentucky. They didn't like The Blue Wart, preferring I Wish I Could Be A Boy! But it was the race to the magazine rack to pull out the Child Life magazine that I loved best. Always flipping through the pages to find the most recent Bertram story; Bertram and His Kangaroo and Bertram and his Giraffe. I wanted to be Bertram. My mother was sad, I think, that we didn't subscribe to Child Life. She didn't say that we couldn't afford the magazine subscription, instead she suggested our library on Kercheval, eight or nine blocks from our house. Never, did I find Child Life there, just Boy's Life!
Love from Pearl
Well, this has been such a busy time for me, hardly enough time to read about Bertram and his imagination. Yes, imagination that I stumbled upon long ago, during our once a week hour in a class called Literature. Literature meant we were allowed access to a magazine rack near the door to the school's hallway, among other wonderful pastimes. I liked the magazines best, since most of us didn't have subscriptions to magazines.
The hour was spent in a number of ways suitable to fourth graders in our school, Ives Elementary, on Philip Avenue, just a cut through the backyards between our street, Marlborough, and Philip Avenue. We could perform just by raising our hand and announcing whatever it was we wanted to perform, jokes, poems, songs. Especially wonderful and new to me was Elecution. I loved it when one of my friends, Ruth DeVoe, dramatized The Blue Wart or Oh Joy, I Wish I Could Be A Boy, my favorite. And so I memorized the words and gestures for future times - mainly when we visited our relatives in Kentucky. They didn't like The Blue Wart, preferring I Wish I Could Be A Boy! But it was the race to the magazine rack to pull out the Child Life magazine that I loved best. Always flipping through the pages to find the most recent Bertram story; Bertram and His Kangaroo and Bertram and his Giraffe. I wanted to be Bertram. My mother was sad, I think, that we didn't subscribe to Child Life. She didn't say that we couldn't afford the magazine subscription, instead she suggested our library on Kercheval, eight or nine blocks from our house. Never, did I find Child Life there, just Boy's Life!
Love from Pearl
posted by your faithful correspondent at
1:57 PM
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