I started first grade in 1936. Thome School consisted of three classrooms on the same floor, roughly in an arc facing the entrance.

As I remember, the boy’s restroom was between first and second grades, with a door to a very small basement and a smaller furnace room. The girl’s restroom was between the second- and third-grade rooms. No office, no lounge, no nurse, no gym, no lunch room, no principal; just three very hardworking dedicated teachers and a part-time janitor. Oh, he worked full-time by filling in his day at Merrill School.

I lucked into a supremely gifted and helpful young second-year teacher, Miss Mary Kadel (now Mrs. Mary Baker of Parkway Center in Sterling). I owe so much to her.