Mae's Real Stories

Before I went to kindergarten, once I visited Beaumont High School in St.Louis with my father, who taught math. Usually he walked out of our apartment every morning, down the steps, and over to the bus stop, and then in the late afternoon he came back. On the day before Christmas, schools had a half-day of school, so my father said I could go with him and see what he did while he was gone each day. I don't remember the bus ride, but I remember visiting some of his friends and students. I remember what a big building it was, as shown in this photo.

The physics teacher was Mr. Mitchell. He invited me to see his laboratory. He showed me a funny water container. It was made of three or four tubes, attached to a small container at the bottom. One was twisted, one was skinny, and one was fat (I think). When you put water into the top of one tube, the water came up in all the other tubes, and it always stayed the same level. He explained this to me: the shape didn't matter, the water always went up the same amount. He showed me other things too. Everything seemed interesting.

The Spanish teacher was Miss Moreell. She showed me some decorations in her classroom. I knew her already, and she always had interesting things from far-away places where people spoke Spanish. I visited an English teacher named Miss Childs. Then a bell rang. I had to sit still during short classes in my father's classroom.

The last part of that school day was the Christmas assembly in a big auditorium. We sat far in the back. The whole large room became very dark: someone had turned off the lights. On the stage, the school choir sang Christmas songs. They all wore dark choir robes and stood in very straight lines. I only recognized one or two of the songs. I think there was a big Christmas tree on the stage too. I tried to be very quiet and good while they were singing. I liked visiting the Christmas celebration at the school and seeing my father's classroom, the assembly, the other teachers, and the students.