A Look Back -- Jerry Person

You know when summer vacation begins and school ends, when you hear

the patter of feet rushing to get to the exits and the cheers wafting

throughout the hallowed halls as even the teachers make a beeline for the

exits.

This week we will look at what their students accomplished during an

open house held in April 1946 at Central Elementary School (now Dwyer

Middle School).

We will begin our tour as a parent, looking into each classroom to see

what the teacher and their students were doing throughout the year.

We’ll start in Betty Steidinger and Dora Ellis’ kindergarten classes

where their students were learning to do impressionistic painting with

their hands and fingers -- I’ll bet those paintings looked better than

our new “Surfhenge” monument.

Wilda Kruger’s first grade created a beach scene for the parents, and

in Betty Frankhouser’s class an Easter Egg Village was created by her

students.

Going over to the second-grade classes we find in Elinor Greer’s room,

that her class painted pictures of our oil fields and these were hung

around the room to enjoy. In Ruth Wegley and Ethel Hunter’s classrooms

the pupils had made an exhibit of drawings and cutouts of their

impressions our city and its people.

Native American history was the theme of Fern Greenwald’s third-grade

class and their contribution was a series of drawings on one side of the

classroom depicting life in a pueblo and on the other side the students

had drawings showing what life is like in the navy, and the drawings were

graded in Naval ratings from seaman to admiral.

Doro Dow’s third-graders exhibited paintings in sand and handmade

Indian blankets displayed for the parents to see.

Frances McKelvey’s third-grade class was for the birds, with the walls

filled with every type of bird in their native environment.

Not to be outdone, Kathryn Scales’ fourth-grade class had a colorful

exhibit of an imaginary trip through Mexico and scenes of the everyday

life of its people. Wildflowers abounded along with a display of

seashells and silkworms weaving their cocoons in Agnes Snasdell’s class.

Do you remember blue willow dinnerware? Eunice Black’s fourth-grade

class had a display of the blue willow in miniatures.

Don’t worry, I’m not leaving out Edna Elliott’s fifth-graders and

their fine study of early California, and the people of the California

mission days. Their display brought history to life.

A storybook character parade with all your favorite heroes, heroines

and villains was found in Lois LeBard’s room.

Stark black and white designs were featured in Frances Shipp’s

sixth-grade class in which the kids drew a history of man through the

ages and this theme was repeated in Norma Watkins class.

An exhibit of life-size birds in paper mache was Alice Sturgeon’s

class contribution to the school’s open house.

Martha Pickering was a wonderful person, who I knew briefly, and in

her seventh-grade class her pupils were learning about our neighbors to

the north and south as she explained the customs, products and daily life

in Canada, Mexico and South America.

Al Moffett had his class learn of the customs and people of Latin

America by using illustrations, maps, flags and pictures.

With World War II still fresh in the minds of most people, Hobart

Zody’s eighth-grade class had an interesting collection of war souvenirs

to show the parents.

Original copies of stories written by future newspaper writers were

shown to good advantage on the walls of Lea Hood’s eighth-grade class.

The art department was the domain of Rhea Gillette and she had her

students prepare a series of puppets being built in several stages from

the beginning form to the finished product.

The music class of Frances Lyon featured classical music and opera.

This music filled their room with the sounds of the great masters of

classical composers.

Beth Cosner explained to the parents how the school’s library worked

to help students find just what he or she was looking for and in so doing

showed them what a big wonderful world out there was waiting for them to

conquer.

I hope this short tour evokes a few fond memories of those dedicated

teachers who shaped the minds of today’s scholars and educators.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.