I attended Trumbull Elementary from Kindergarten to Graduation- 1941-1950. Back in those days, Trumbull was a forbidding looking building- mostly gray granite. It dominated the corner of Foster and Ashland and when my mother brought me to the front door on the first day of Kindergarten, I was a little overwhelmed and hesitant to be left there alone. Once inside,I knew I was in a good place. The teacher was friendly and welcoming and soon the class was having fun and  we forgot about how cold the school looked on the outside.

Trumbull was a wonderful school.I remember many of the  teachers- all "Miss" as women teachers were, for the most part, unmarried. the only men in the school were the janitor and the principal, Mr. Herr. There was, Miss May, Miss Periolet( we  called her Miss Perculator  behind her back because we had trouble with her name) Miss McConnell, Miss Devareaux, Miss Kiley and Miss Lund. My favorite teacher was the Librarian, Miss Hannell. She was like a grandmother to us- snow white hair and a kind wrinkled face. We went to the library once a week for story time. She would read from various books and tell us about the authors. We learned to love reading and to appreciate how words could create imagination and emotions. She always took time to help us find books that would interest us and taught us how to locate them on our own. I am an avid reader today because of her and I'm sure that is true of all the students who were privileged to be in her library.

Across from the school on the South-West corner was the school store.It was filled with supplies, trinkets and candy.We still were using pen and ink back then so we could buy either stright pens or fountain pens along with Squibb ink in black  or blue. Candies were plentiful from buttons on a paper to wax lips and licorice sticks.

 It was the first place we went after school so we could have a treat to eat on the way home. Most of us walked to and fro regardless of the weather.In the Winter, we all had snowsuits, galoshes, mufflers and mittens. We were so bundled up that we could barely see. The heavy snow suits and leggings made us all walk like penguins on ice.

Each  home class room had a cloak room at the back. We'd get to school and start to peel off the heavy layers and hang them on the hooks at the back wall. The last arrivals closed the doors. About an hour later, the aisles between the seats  would begin to look like small streams as the snow melted from our clothes and streamed into the room. Those in the back rows could smell the odor of wet wool. What a great memory! The janitor would come and mop and it would start all over again after recess and lunch.

Trumbull did not have a cafeteria, but a big lunchroom on the first floor. We had an hour for lunch so some ate in the lunch room, some went home, and, if we were llucky, some of us would walk North on Clark Street to Woolworth's and have a sloppy joe sandwich and drink at the counter.

My memories of Trumbull always bring me pleasure. It was an outsanding school with teachers who cared and who gave us a solid fouondation for more education. It's grat to know it is still there and still setting a hight standard for the students who walk through the doors every day.

Nancy Weisz