It's Not About Me

My Kindergarten Days…

Yes…Bolivar had a Kindergarten School. Miss Elizabeth Ingram operated the school in the basement of her antebellum home in Bolivar, TN. I entered Kindergarten at age 4 on September 16, 1948; at the age of 4 years and one month … I was speaking French – “merci” = thank you!

I still have all my Kindergarten report cards…incidenta lly, back then, it cost $5.00 per month to

attend Miss Ingram’s Kindergarten. Here is a video clip on You Tube of our 1949 Kindergarten class playing at recess; Miss Ingram is pictured at the end of this clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJyZ4385m7k

Each day when we entered Kindergarten, the boys had to “ b ow” and the girls had to “curtsey”. Each kid would bring a piece of fruit from home for recess. Miss Ingram would slice up the fruit and serve it to us on a tray. I think Miss Ingram must have been a vegetarian because we never did get but a couple of slices of fruit for recess each day!

Each year we held a public recital at year end…this picture was taken in 1949 … I am the “middle soldier”! This production was entitled “Dancing through Storyland” and had over 50 children singing and dancing and acting in this performance.

Yes…I did graduate from Kindergarten!

Miss Ingram was a concert violinist in the Jackson TN Symphony Orchestra, lived to be 100 years old and though blind in her final years…was as “sharp as a tack”!

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