Waterman Street Elementary School 4th Grade Class, c1950

Waterman Street School, 4th Grade, c1950. Left to Right: 1st Row: Late Tony Hester (lived around the corner from me. When we said we were “going to see Smokey Joe” in reality, we were going to smoke rabbit tobacco, in the field behind his house; Me (I noticed I was also the 2nd from left on the first row in the 2nd grade class; Archie Richardson, my hero, he could piss higher on the wall than anybody else, he also introduced me to MAD comicbook; Frankie somebody, Walker Gaines, he lived right across the street from the school, next door to the house my dad was born in. He got me a brick when they bulldozed the school; ?, Tony Partain, I broke Tony’s wood burning kit he got for his birthday and had to buy him another one; ?, and ?. 2nd Row: Janice Bernson, Her father owned the Hobby Shop in Marietta. I saw her working behind the Volunteer Station desk at the hospital a few years ago, she did not recognize me, people rarely do; Pat Rainwater one time I remember double dating and she was my friend’s date, we walked and met them at the strand, and the girls sat on one row and we sat behind them, were we romantic or what?; Betty Edwards. Donna LeVann. I had a crush on her in grammar school and I don’t think she knew I existed. Many years later I ran into her sister when I was using coupons at Publix. She told me Donna was wealthy. I told her she could have had a more exciting life with me, making ends meet with coupons; Alice Tibbets, Alice’s father was a Marietta Postman; ?, ?, Janice Belmore, , ?, and Carolyn, I felt sorry for her, everybody turned their nose up at her. 3rd Row: Mickey Wilbur, Mickey grew up and owned his old garage and ran his own fishing tournament on Lake Alatoona. In the 2nd grade one time Mickey and I had a scuffle and he took a little container of honey and rubbed in my hair; the Late Gresham Howren. His mother was a teacher at school, not his. Because our names we were usually seated next to each other, which I enjoy, with my wise-cracks I kept him shaking. He became a successful businessman managing meeting offices for companies; ?, Jo Ann Mitchell, she lived down the street from me, her back yard was like a canopy of three limbs full of leaves, I enjoying visiting; ?, ?, Jerry Flowers, Jerry was considered good looking by our female classmates, the girls would chase him around a lot at recvess. Both his parents worked at Nu-Way Cleaners. I heard Jerry lives in Texas and is a mechanic working on race cars. Larry Southern. A good friend. I could go on and on how creative and self-surviving he was but I won’t. Late Van Callaway, Van was also good friend, and sometimes not. Late Sam Carsley. Life long friend until he took his own life. His father was killed on a ship in WWII. Sam was very intelligent. See the patch on his eye. He had a serious eye operation and leg operation that caused him to be out of school for months. I carried his homework assignments back and fourth after school. He was married twice.; and ? 4th row. Behind all the students, teacher Miss Rakestraw. She either relieved Ms Pool or visa versa. Ms Pool did not like me. Ms Rakestraw was good.