The Pastor’s Piece – September 3, 2023

The Pastor’s Piece

FCFI

September 3, 2023

School is back in session for the most part. Which makes me think of my own school days in the public school. I was smart enough to skip a grade right off the bat – kindergarten. At six years old I was plunked down into first grade, but it didn’t settle well with me. I missed the carefree days of being home and hanging out with mom and dad on the farm. There was some adjustment required but I muddled through and eventually came to accept the fact that this was my new normal. I was a bit disappointed when I came home that first day, still unable to read. I was even more disappointed when I realized I had to go back tomorrow.

Desks – In first and second grade my desk was the kind that had the place to hold the books under the seat. It was like a wire basket under there, open on both sides. I didn’t have many textbooks back then, just workbooks and we had to pass those forward after each lesson. There was little need for storage. By third grade however, we started to get more textbooks, so I graduated up to a desk that had the lid that opened and the books were all stored inside. There was a handy pencil tray that ran the width of the interior too. As I recall, some students kept their desks very organized and orderly, others not so much. The teacher, Mrs. Hewitt, would do random inspections from time to time to check for tidiness. Quite a bit of scolding took place during those inspections.

From time to time we also had government sanctioned bomb threats and tornado drills. The fire whistle would go off outside in a constant, shrill, uninterrupted scream and we were instructed on how to dive under our desks for protection. Those must have been some desks. Outside, (I heard) people had bomb shelters in the ground. Inside, we school kids had our trusty desks – bomb proof and tornado proof. These drills were always a little scary because we didn’t know if they were real or just a drill. The teacher didn’t tell us ahead of time because the whole idea was to be ready at a moment’s notice. 

Recess – I don’t recall how long recess was, just that it wasn’t long enough. We always went outside no matter what the weather. Us boys played a lot of baseball and we argued a lot too over safe and out and fair and foul balls. We had no umpires, and the playground attendant mostly ignored us as she had a crowd of girls circling around her at all times. That was fine by us.

Lunch – The cafeteria was shared by everyone from grade school to high school. In high school, when the bell went off announcing the end of class and the beginning of lunch hour, the high schoolers would leap out of their seats and run into the hallway. They had the combination locks on their lockers pre-set so all they had to do was move the dial left to the last number of their combination and the lock would fall open. They’d then stuff their books in the locker and rush to be first in line at the cafeteria. Us little kids watched in awe. We had to line up in single file and walk to the lunchroom, with a different leader each day. 

The cafeteria attendant was the wife of the janitor, Buster. I don’t remember her name. She sat at a table with a big self-serve salad bowl full of lettuce and a few fixings in smaller bowls. She had a sign hanging from her table that said: “Lettuce Eat In Peace.”  One time I got in trouble at the drinking fountain. Buster’s wife had oranges on her table that day and my fingers were still sticky from peeling it and on my way out of the cafeteria I stuck my hand under the flow of the drinking fountain by the door. Mrs. Sells, a high school teacher, saw me and was none too pleased. She grabbed me by the ear and made me stand with my nose to the wall the rest of the lunch period. That was a bit traumatic. 

My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Hall, was the best teacher ever. She was gentle and kind and pretty. I was still traumatized by school even at ten years old. As much as I tried not to show it, the first day was always emotional for me. Mrs. Hall knew it and befriended me with a kind welcome and a hug. She was a Godsend. I gave my first speech in her class – and as scared as I was standing up in front of 30 other students with just a 3×5 notecard for 3 to 5 minutes, she gave me an “A” and when I thanked her, she said, “you don’t need to thank me. You earned that “A”.  I knew at that moment, that one day I would be a preacher! Funny how that works. God knew what He was doing.  

Oh the days of yore … 

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” (2 Timothy 2:15).

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).