This is me now. Last one on the left.

carole borges

I have so many wonderful memories of this school. My father taught me to ride a bike in it's schoolyard. I lived at 243 Englewood Ave. only a block away and from the time I could peek over my 3rd floor apartment window sill, I longed to go inside that school. I remember on the first day how enormous the stairway looked, lighted by a shaft of sunlight, it looked like it was rising into heaven, and how the smell of the milk that came in small glass jars floated in the air. I remember the coatrooms behind the blackboards that would retract and come down. The desks were so old fasioned they had ink wells, but we just used pencils. Everything back in those days was provided free, books, crayons, and a nice pencil case. I had a teacher that looked just like the Old Maid in the card game for kindergarten. It was so much fun. I can't rmember many of the teachers names. At 70 thngs get a little blurry sometimes, but I do remember Miss Watson. Miss Day (I think that was her name) had some kind of heart condition. Her skin was actually blue. and there was one male teacher. Recess was tough in the winter. You had to stay outside, so we'd spend all our time hanging on the wrought iron fence while we slid our feet back and forth to make ice. All the teachers were nice and the school smelled clean and the floors were all shiny. To me Lewis-Champlain was a warm friendly home away from home. Things got a little awkward when all our white neighb ors fled to the suburbs. My father thought that was stupid, so we stayed.  In my 6th grade picture I am the only white girl. At first I didn't make friends, and I learned about prejudice when no one would invite me to their birthday parties and I heard the name Honky, but eventually I did find people who were colorblind enough to play with me. It was a very enriching time for me culturally. I'm glad I had the chance to live in a black community. Today I  work for an African American newspaper. Lewis Champlain taught me that school was a place to hae fun, and I learned so much. It prepared me to go on in life with an A student attitude.