School Nostalgia

Living the small-town life that is the same small town you grew up in is not for the weak. From running into old classmates at the local grocery store, to seeing classmates on the local police sites for not the most honorable mentions, there are daily reminders that you have never left. Sometimes it can feel like you have grown and changed, but the town has not, even though you see changes in the businesses and growth of population.

One of the upsides of living in the same small town is seeing your children have the chance to attend the same schools you attended. Walking down the same halls. Occasionally, even having the same teachers. For both of my children, their elementary years at the beginning were held in a newer school. This was not the same school that my husband nor I had a chance to attend in our younger elementary years.

For our daughter, however, we were able to walk down the same hallways and breezeways that we once were young and walked down. The newer primary school was at another location but the elementary school we had attended had changed to 3rd-5th grade elementary school by the time she was of age to attend. This meant her 3rd grade year we were walking her to class to meet her teachers for the first time in the same school that both my husband and I had attended for our kindergarten through 5th grade school years.

This opportunity was special. The smell seemed much the same and brought back memories in and of itself. Walking the stairs made me remember all the times I was scared to go upstairs when I was younger, for fear of heights and fear of older students, since in those times only the 4th grade and 5th graders were allowed upstairs for classes. My husband was the first to mention how much smaller the halls and classrooms seemed from what we remembered.

However, this set of buildings would now house our daughter in her upper elementary school classes. It is where she would make more lasting friendships and start inviting friends over for slumber parties from her selection of classmates for that year. It is where we had a first year teacher call and tell us she did not know how to handle the girls in class that year and yet the next year we had a seasoned teacher who told us to not worry about any drama because there was no drama allowed in her class and she would be able to handle it, and she did. This was the same set of buildings that both my husband and I had learned our basic spelling and skills and yet we were also learning how to parent our baby girl during some rough custody times.

Being a parent at the same school you attended in your youth has a way of coming full circle. The first time my husband and I walked through those halls we were learning sets of skills to prepare us for our futures. Nothing could have prepared us for some of the experiences we had when we were parents coming back to meet at parent teacher nights and having special meetings with the Assistant Principal to ensure the safety of our girl.

I would not trade the experience for nothing though. By the time our son was attending elementary school, they had changed the primary school to be a full elementary school and so he never had a chance to attend the same classrooms and buildings that his father, mother, and sister had attended for elementary grades. The primary school was same school for sister though, so he did share those school hallways and memories with her. Both of our children have attended the same middle school as my husband and I though, and our daughter attended the same high school as we both did, and with any luck our son will too, unless redistricting does something weird to the lines for which school he will attend in another year’s time. Being some of these schools are the same as our parents attended also, it just makes the memories that much sweeter. Also, the old elementary school has now been torn down completely. There are no chances of any newer generations getting to walk down those same hallways and smell the same smells and see those old photos they still had up on the wall of classes from the past. It makes it that much more special to know that our daughter did get this chance to share those same classroom smells, sights, and make new memories in the same place that her past generations of family did.