Fifth Grade: James Madison

 

Back to school, my new fifth grade teacher was Miss Krobert and we liked each other from the start. While my grades had not been better than low Cs at Christian Brothers, I somehow tested at an eighth grade level for reading at James Madison. I was farther ahead in the SRA program than the other kids were using in fifth grade in the Jefferson Parish school system, which I think impressed Miss Krobert. It was fun going from running laps around the pond to cleaning the black board for my sweet teacher when I would finish my assignments ahead of the class. Miss Krobert wrote in the comment section of my final report card, “Jeff has very good potential. He’s my right hand man and I have enjoyed having him.” 

I just looked her up on Google and sadly report that Lucinda Krobert Frutos passed away on June 26, 2015. She was one of my favorite teachers. May her soul Rest In Peace. 

I still have this report card, as well as all my other report cards from every year, thanks in whole because my awesome mom kept all of our school records and photographs from each year in a School Days book for me, and each of my siblings. She was always such a wonderful and loving mom.

And there was something fun about being the ‘new kid’ in class, not only for myself, but for the other kids, as well, especially the girls. I mean, there were about five or six girls that immediately took to, including Janet Keller, Tracy Parke and Shelly Smith, but my most favorite was Kathy Deichmann, whose dad ended up knowing my dad from their high school days, back Uptown. She had the prettiest smile and we became friends. Actually, I used to go visit her brothers, Greg and David Deichmann, but I was really going over to their house to see her.

The interesting thing about where we lived in Metairie was that there were so many families that had moved out of Orleans Parish, from Uptown, around the same time as we did, or maybe even a couple of years earlier. I would later come to understand that our families had all moved for some of the same reasons as we did, including bigger homes and property for less money, less crime and a much better public school system. As a matter of fact, pretty much each neighborhood in Jefferson Parish had its own little country club and multi-purpose play- ground. And all of my new classmates not only lived close to school but also went to the same playground and one of the little country clubs in the area.

Going to school closer to my house now allowed me the freedom to play with my school friends after school in the neighborhood, as well as getting involved in sports at Girard Gym, and meeting even more kids there. I became fast basketball friends with Timmy Kottemann, twins Scott and Rick Sharp, Greg Donnelly, Dean Neilson, Wade Blundell, Billy Rogers and Tippy Murphy. I also joined Pack 269 of the Boy Scouts. Life was fun again.

That summer, I went back to Sam Barthe Camp as a proud member of the Bullets team. Charlie Bishop was my coach again. And I was happy to play nighttime baseball with my parents in the stands, even though it seemed like my father enjoyed socializing more than actually watching games.

I had a growth spurt that summer and I was now 4‘8“ tall and weighed 74 pounds. My summer weekends were spent hanging out at the Beach Club and fishing on Padua’s Pier. I felt like Huckleberry Finn and rarely wore shoes. It seems like every house in the neighborhood had a bunch of kids, so there was always an opportunity for a game of some sorts. 

One of my favorite things to do was to play basketball against an older kid who lived directly across the street name Tad Jones. Tad played basketball on his school team at New Orleans Academy. He was always outside practicing in his driveway and I would go over and challenge him to a game of one on one. Tad was such a good sport about it and I did my best to beat him every time we played, but the reality was that he always won, by a point or two. I think he enjoyed the competition and I know I did. It was like having my own big brother to challenge me by pushing me to my limits. Thank you, Tad, for all those years of friendship.

With Summer finally coming to an end, my parents had what I called the “two outfit rule” for the new school year. My mother and/or father would take us to Sears at the Clearview Shopping Center where we each could pick out two new outfits. It was 1970 and the style that year called for plaid pants and button-down collared short sleeve shirts, somewhere in the brown and olive green color range. The idea was

to be able to mix and match the shirts and pants to make four outfits instead of just two. Luckily, I still had my fifth grade clothes that still fit, so I really had eight outfits, if I mixed and matched enough. Whatever. Oh, and I got a pair of black and brown leather lace up dress shoes and a pair of all purpose white tennis shoes, which my parents expect me to wear for all sports, including football. Whatever…

© 2022 Jeffrey Pipes Guice

My Wonder Years: A Book