It simply CANNOT be sixty years ago today that I began kindergarten at E.A. Orr Elementary School. Yes … it was on September 5, 1961. I will tell you that for several years before beginning school, every afternoon Mom and I practiced math using “Smarties” (the Canadian version of M&Ms) and she gave me spelling and vocabulary lists to learn as well. Reading my storybooks was done after dinner while my parents read the newspaper. I don’t remember how old I was when I was able to rattle off “My name is Linda Susan Schaub; I live at 497 Sandmere Place, Oakville, Ontario, Canada and my phone number is Valley 7-3219.” I know it is ingrained in my brain, as I recalled it very easily to write this post.
So … for the life of me, when I zoomed in on these photos of my first day of school, what a surprise to see my name tag with my last name spelled horribly wrong. I hope that Mrs. Kellett made that spelling boo-boo and not me! Also, I note I was wearing white “Mary Janes” and it was after Labor Day! What kind of fashion statement was that back in the day?!
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Pretty photos and inspiring lines 👌🌷🙏♥️
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Thank you Thattamma – it was a very long time ago. 🙂
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But the photos still beautiful 👌🏼🌹you are most welcome 🙏🏼🌹
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Thank you Thattamma … my parents took a lot of photos as I was an only child and they put them into albums.
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Very inspiring message reply .🌹♥️🙏 You are only child and parents unconditional
Love made your life brightness and brought lots of success 👌🏼🙏♥️ grace photos 👏
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Thank you Thattamma – you are very kind.
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You are most welcome 🙏 🌷
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Great pictures. My mother never took a “first day of school” picture so sadly I don’t have any. Actually my family did not take a lot of photos so I have very few of me as a child.
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Thank you Kate. There were no other first-day-of-school photos after this one and I was an only child so I did have a lot of photos taken of me growing up. Most of them had notations on the back of the photo before they were put into the album with photo corners so that was nice as well.
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Your mother was a lot more organized about that stuff than mine. We did have an album but I don’t know what happened to it.
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Well I was an only child too, but my mom had the family album of her grandparents and parents through the years, so I got that too.
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I was going to school the same day as you Linda! Instead of stills my father shot film. It shows me being lead down the street by my mother. No name tags.
Not familiar with “Mary Janes” or the fashion statement?
You looked like a happy child.
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I knew you’d identify with this post Wayne – we’re basically the same age and our first day of kindergarten would have been the same day. Do you have the film your father shot? The “Mary Janes” are shoes that little girls wore with a strap at the ankle. I had white ones on – the old adage of not wearing white shoes or purse after Labor Day. I hooked up with a woman who was in that kindergarten class quite by accident a few years ago. It was fun and we spent an evening catching up on Facebook … she stood next to me in our class photo. I wrote about it here. The picture is small. You have to click it to see it better. I have the same class photo. I scanned them in a few years after that. She sent me her copy.
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That was funny! But I guess we didn’t learn the the fashion rules until we were older! Cute pictures and a cute dress – I always loved plaid for back to school.
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Thanks Joni and I’ll bet this date was the first day of kindergarten for you too since we’re the same age (well, you’re a few months younger than me). I think a plaid dress, jumper with white blouse or a plaid skirt and cardigan were part of the new Fall clothes every year. I laughed when I saw the white shoes. Yes, just one day past Labor Day – I’ll let it slide. 🙂
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I never went to kindergarten Linda. We didn’t have it at the one room school house I attended for the first year of school. It closed in grade two and we went to the Catholic school in town, but they didn’t have it either and there weren’t any buses until a few years later so our parents had to drive us (and my cousins next door) there and back. Even my (4 years) younger brother, didn’t go to the public school kindergarten in town, although his cousin did, mostly I think because it was only half days and would have required a third trip to town! I didn’t feel I missed anything, as I knew my letters and numbers from Romper Room and from my mom helping my older siblings with their homework. In fact I think I learned more there at the dining room table then than they did, as I always found learning (and reading) interesting and they would cry over 15 minutes of homework. Today when I see the little ones start junior-kindergarten at age 4 they just seem so small and way too young to be there all day! Do you have any memories of kindergarten? and was it half day or alternate days?
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I didn’t realize that Joni – that is interesting. That is good, learning as you did and I watched Romper Room too – there was a lot to be learned from that show and the one-on-one tutoring lcourtesy of Mom. I think they are way too young to go at 4 also – most of the time they are scared and only go a few hours anyway. We did not go a full day, so I’d say a half day but we had a naptime in there too. We had a blanket and had a little nap after a snack as I recall. I wrote a post about reconnecting with a girl from kindergarten years later when I discovered that the elementary school had a Facebook site. This was Maggie’s class photo that she scanned and sent to me. I scanned all my photo albums in 2017 and had my own copy of that picture. I used smaller pictures in those days, but if you click it you’ll see I was wearing that new/favorite plaid dress.
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I think they go full time every day here, which is way too much, and have quiet time but no naps? It’s really just paid day care for the parents from age 4 on. That was a cute photo and post – your teacher looks like Jackie Kennedy. I can remember my mother wearing that kind of dress with the pearls.
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I think we went home mid-afternoon, because I can remember the blanket … did we sleep on the floor or just sit on the blanket. That would not be really clean would it? That I recall though. I remember Mrs. Kellett was pretty and I think that was the style, maybe a pullover and pearls or a shirtwaist dress or plain with jewel neckline. At least people looked sophisticated back then … there is no real dress code for teachers nor kids here. I see posts in the local forums I follow. I am glad you liked that post – it was a fun evening communicating with Maggie. I don’t recall what type of job she had, something administrative, but she had a hobby. She was a painter. I don’t think she had commissions; it was painting for enjoyment like your mom. So we “followed” one another on Facebook and when she finished a painting, she’d post it. I used a few paintings for posts. I asked if I could use them and then I sent the post. That was nice, but she closed her Facebook account about a year or so later – she did not like Facebook breaches so shut her account. She got remarried and moved from Oakville to Orangeville. So have lost with her. We are in line for a bad storm to roll thru here in the next half hour. There were tornadic warnings for north and west of us, but the weather radio has gone off and there are 60 mph winds predicted. I hope it fizzles out. When will this Summer end and Fall arrive with its less-volatile weather Joni?
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I remember my grades 4-6 teacher wearing such pretty clothes, including shirtwaist dresses, or sweater and skirt combos. I think she had a big influence on me as I’ve always tended towards the classic look. The way I see working people dress now – so unprofessional – it makes me cringe. We had heavy rain about an hour ago 9pm, but I hope it’s over for now. The rest of the week looks good.
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I agree with you Joni. We lived in a different era – people loved getting dressed up for work. Kids got dressed up to go to school, doctor’s offices, etc. Classic clothing never goes out of style. Even if they are 15-20 pounds of black pants hanging in our respective closets. We had a bad storm last night. The winds died down (great as it was projected to be 60 mph winds). But there was a storm with rotation in Monroe and headed to Trenton (the park with the big bridge is Trenton and that is 9 miles from my house). Thankfully, it fizzled out. We’re having nice weather but another heavy thunderstorm/torrential rain late Sunday. One of the meteorologists I follow says we will have a “toasty September” – didn’t make me happy as I see more volatile weather days.
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PS. I had a similar haircut, perhaps with shorter bangs, and a red plaid kilt skirt with a red sweater. I’m wearing it in my grade one picture. That kind of fashion never goes out of style. My mom kept it, and when my niece was around the same age, I have a cute picture of her wearing the kilt.
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Those styles were classics then, just like they would be now … the kilt skirt would be cute. I had one which fastened with a big metal pin.
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I love your smile in the last picture! I used to have a similar looking dress but no first day of school pictures. And I had the same haircut. 🙂 Sixty years! My, how time flies and how things change…
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Thank you Barbara. I almost didn’t include that last photo as there was a shadow over my face. I was an only child so there are lots of photos from my childhood. The haircut had a bobby pin, clip or bow holding the hair in place – likely you did too. The other day I was walking and saw a school bus and I was thinking about school. The Catholic schools start a week or two earlier than the public schools. We always started the day after Labor Day. Yes, things changed a lot in 60 years. I did a Google Map to see my old house and was surprised to find it was not there. I joined a Facebook page about Oakville “Back in the Day” and I learned from someone in the group that the houses on our block were razed and larger, two-story homes were built in their place. I was shocked – the whole subdivision was built in 1959 and we moved there shortly after it was completed. That person was nice and drove over and took photos of the house as it looks now.
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My mother called a clip a barrette and that’s what she used for my hair. It’s funny she parted my hair on the same side as yours, but for my sister she cut bangs and parted her hair in the middle, with no barrette. I wish I had thought to ask her why she styled us that way…
How shocking it was to discover your childhood home was razed! That was nice of the person who took pictures of the new house taking its place for you. I can only imagine the sense of loss you might feel. My sister and her husband still live in my parents’ old house.
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There were many different words or items in Canada versus the U.S. that we learned about when we moved to the U.S. One was clip versus barrette. Toque (for stocking cap); serviette (for napkin) and chesterfield (for sofa) are just a few of those words. Did your mother think you two girls looked identical and that’s why the different hairstyle?
Yes I was shocked as we moved there in 1959 so why tear down good houses just to build them bigger and higher? This person not only took pictures, but even sent me a recent real estate ad for the house with a virtual tour, to show how it was the same address, but not the same house. My grandmother had a very old house and they were all attached, like in San Francisco.
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Never heard of chesterfield for sofa before. 🙂 Here there was always the old sofa vs. couch debate… “’Couch’ is the more casual term used for a comfort-driven piece, while ‘sofa’ is the more formal and might refer to a polished, design-driven piece.” I guess that’s why my family always used couch. 😉 My sister did grow up taller than me, even though she was a year younger. There was a period of time we were the same height and often mistaken for twins. But she had dark brown hair which was straight and I had blond hair (it turned light brown when I got to my teens) which was wavy.
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When we first moved here, there was a litany of new words to use and my mom staunchly refused to give up her Canadian vocabulary. I “converted” pretty quickly. That is interesting about the comparison as to sofa vs. couch. I had a friend who mother called the couch a davenport. I remember coming home and telling that to my mom. I had that same friend call for me at the door – my mom was aghast saying “you tell your friend to knock and be civilized or you’re staying inside.” You’re lucky you had a sister … people say it’s great being an only child, but not always and my parents were 30 when they had me, so they were pretty rigid and set in their ways. As for you and your sister resembling one another, that would have been fun if people mistook you for twins. I once had a boss who had triplet girls. They used to sell Girl Scout cookies every year and Ed hung up a sign-up sheet in the kitchen and when they came into work to pass them out, I took them around to deliver the cookies. They were fraternal – two were identical and the third looked nothing like them. It was amazing. Two were tall, big-boned with blond wavy hair. The remaining triplet was very tiny, with delicate features and straight, dark-brown hair. She didn’t resemble either of her parents either, but did resemble her older brother. Go figure.
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What a cutie and what a large name badge! Spelled correctly or not that thing is big big! 😂😂😂 cute post.
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Thanks Kim – glad to give you a smile. It was a large name tag! You sure couldn’t forget kids’ names with that big tag – maybe she spelled my last name phonetically?
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Ha Ha –
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What fun photos! You were cute and so dressed up!
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Thanks Anne – that first day of school ever and my parents memorialized it with these photos. I had my school picture for kindergarten taken in that dress as well that year. I think we got dressed up more for school back then don’t you?
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Clothing was more formal for everyone years ago
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That’s for sure – even for grocery shopping, you dressed up!
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The photos are darling,Linda!
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Thanks Cherie! Just about 8-9 years before I met you in ninth grade!
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I love your cute dress! (or is something like that style called a frock?) Hairstyle and smiles are adorable.
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I would say that would be a frock Esther. Boy I’ve not heard that word in a long time. I miss reading and can’t seem to fit it in my schedule these days, but I used to see the word “frock” in print more than hearing it. Thank you – glad you liked my hairstyle and smile … I was excited about that first day of school!
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Little Miss Linda………………………………….you haven’t changed a bit……………………………..still likes to dig in the dirt………………………………………….
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Ha ha – well thank you for saying that Ann Marie … your comment took years off my life!!!
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Great post Linda time moves on at a such speed.
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Thank you Andy – yes, not fast enough when you’re young and way too fast when you’re getting older.
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So true
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We never did first day of school pictures, we had Easter photos in our Easter dresses I remember but not school. We also had school cloths and play cloths. We had to change out of our school clothes as soon as we got home. We could not afford lots of different outfits for school so there was no playing in them for sure. 🙂
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We used to have our class photos but as a group and I think these were the only collection of first day of school pictures as it was a special day. I had my playclothes and shoes too and never the two shall meet.
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What a little cutie!!
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Thanks Pam – it is always fun to reminisce. 🙂
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Cute photos! I must have similar photos somewhere. And, I had the same haircut too! As I remember, my mom took me to the local barbershop since a more “fancy” salon was too far away. 🙂
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Thanks Janice – it is fun to reminisce, even if I give my age away. Funny about the haircut as another blogger our age said the very same thing, right down to the barrette. My hair was stick straight. I remember you said yours was too as you got the perm and I had one of those perms leave me looking like I stuck my finger in a light socket.
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You are so cute! I wish my mom had used smarties!
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Thank you Diane – all those years ago. It does not seem possible. I liked learning math that way because I was not allowed to eat candy except special occasions or a couple of pieces of a chocolate bar occasionally at home – that was it. 🙂
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Oh, my, so precious!! I’m very impressed that you remember your childhood address and phone number. You were a trend-setter, nothing wrong with that!! 😉
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Ha ha – thank you Shelley. My mother drilled me until I remembered it and years later, once Google maps came out, I Googled the house and it did not look the same. I knew I could not have forgotten the address, though it was many years. So I belong to a forum for people who once lived or still live in Oakville, Ontario. I mentioned it to a member (administrator) and the guy told me they razed every house in the cul-de-sac to make taller and pricier houses. He sent me a real estate virtual tour of the house that is now at 497 Sandmere Place. It was amazing. He then went and and took photos of the house as well.
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That’s awesome. I bet it is weird to look at the area, at the same time a bit sad?
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Yes, it was a bit sad Shelley. The meadow and forest area where we kids played at the end of the street was gone – everything was unrecognizable. Same thing happened when I Googled my grandmother’s house on Google Maps and found the owner had bought houses on either side of her and put a walkway between them on the top and main floors. It looked weird … the houses were always attached as it was an old neighborhood and I figure they made them into apartments perhaps?
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Very interesting.
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I’m with Kim – that may be the biggest nametag I’ve ever seen. Reminds me of an ornament on a Christmas tree. Guess your teacher wanted to be able to know who you were from clear across the classroom!
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Ha ha – maybe the teacher, who was very pretty, needed glasses and was too vain to wear them, thus the huge nametags. 🙂
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White after Labour Day? You can be glad you were allowed back!
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Ha ha – if my mom was still here. I’d say “what were you thinking?” The teacher too with that big nametag!
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