Elementary School - North Carolina and California

I have no strong memories of my first two or three years at Lakewood Elementary School in Durham. My first memories of grade school seem to come from third or fourth grade, 1967 or 1968.

I was an early reader, and I was always in the most "advanced" reading group.

I recall with fondness my teacher "Mrs. Sanders" at Lakewood Elementary School, my fourth grade teacher.

When I was a third grader (about 8 years old) I was introduced to Mrs. Sanders (or by her to another teacher?) Naturally, I held out my hand to shake the teacher's hand as I had been taught to do by my parents. I remember the two teachers laughing, high above me, at this precociously well mannered gesture from such a little child. I was confused and blushed. Wasn't this what one did when introduced to an adult? The teacher shook my hand, but I couldn't understand what was funny about shaking someone's hand when introduced to them.

At Lakewood Elementary School Jeff Coke was my friend, and he and I didn't want to play with the other children. We wanted to sit on the lawn far away from every one else. We were told that this was not permitted. We must play with the other children.

In the morning, in 4th grade, in 1968 and 1969, I would walk from Spencer street over to Lakewood Elementary. We children cut through back yards, unsure if we were allowed but never stopped, and we all carried sticks to wave in front of us and cut through the morning spider webs in the small wood behind the school.

In the summer of 1969 my family moved from North Carolina to Los Angeles, as my father gained tenure at USC.

In California I struggled to fit into a new social milieu.

My mother left for Mexico in 1970 for a year of anthropological field work, and when she returned there were endless conflicts as she sought to reassert "control" over her children and family.

Late in 1971 I would enter the halls of LeConte Junior High School, a scrawny little kid wandering with others like me amidst the clanging lockers and packed hallways.