My Wise Old Grandmother - Russel Ray, 1965-1967

1965-1967
My wise old grandmother�s house was ideally
situated two blocks south of Charles H. Flato, Jr.,
Elementary School (see Figure 6) and two
blocks north of Memorial Junior High School
(see Figure 7) and the old H. M. King High
School (see Figure 8). Interestingly, in doing
research for my site here, I discovered that Jim
Morrison of The Doors attended Flato Elementary
School for fourth grade in 1952-1953, and sixth
grade at Longfellow Elementary School here in
San Diego in 1955; his parents were in the
military, which explains Kingsville and San Diego
since they both were, and are still, military towns.

My first term at Flato Elementary School was
indicative of the troubles to come. My home room
teacher was Miss Jones, who also happened to
have taught my dad and his three brothers. It
seems that the Kirk boys had a reputation with
Miss Jones, and I did everything I could to live up
to it. Perhaps that�s why my wise old grandmother
didn�t see any problem adopting me since she had
experience with four other rowdy young boys.

The first two friends I made at Flato were Dirk
DeKoch (see Figure 9) and Stuart Armstrong.
After sixth grade, Stuart was enrolled in a military
academy in San Antonio, but Dirk and I were
friends throughout grade school, junior high, and
high school. We were rampmates in Puryear Hall
our second semester at Texas A&M University in
College Station, and roommates off campus at
Briarwood Apartments our sophomore year
before eventually going our separate ways. Dirk
went off to dental school at the University of Texas
Health Science Center in San Antonio, and he has
been a dentist in San Antonio for all of his career.

I was enrolled in two music classes at Flato
Elementary, orchestra (violin) and choir. Dirk was
in band and played the clarinet. The music classes
were in the afternoon, first band, then, orchestra,
than choir. Everyone had to be in at least one
music class. For the classes that one was not in,
one simply sat in home room and studied.

There was a girl named Lucy Saenz (see Figure
10) who sat behind me and was always hitting me,
shooting me with rubber bands, and pulling my
ears and hair. One day she was particularly mean,
and after asking her several times to stop, I just
turned around and smacked her good, knocking
her out of her desk chair and onto the floor. Miss
Jones came over and pulled me up out of my chair
by my ears. Not the right thing to do since my
mom had always done that, and I didn�t like it.
I put my leg behind hers and struck Miss Jones in
the chest with my arm, knocking her over
backwards to the floor.

I ran out of the classroom and the two blocks to
our house and was in the back yard when my wise
old grandmother pulled into the garage and saw
me through the window out back swinging. I was
taken out of the public school and placed in a
private Catholic school at St. Gertrude�s Catholic
Church.

Things didn�t improve, because the first time one
of the Sisters hit my hands with a ruler, common
punishment in those days, was the last time she
hit my hands with a ruler. After negotiating with
the public school officials at Flato Elementary,
I was again enrolled there and finished both fifth
and sixth grades there, although not without
continuing problems, usually in collusion with
my good friends Jim Peterson (see Figure11),
Jim Word (see Figure 12), and Galen Gaither
(see Figure 13). The four of us were pretty good
at getting into trouble.

For the record, I see that Lucy Saenz signed over
her picture in my 1968 seventh grade annual,
which is why I didn�t use that picture, so I guess
by the time we got to seventh grade, we both had
forgiven and forgotten, as children often do.

Lake View Elementary School Teachers
Brigham City, Utah
Mrs. Larson, 1st grade�She lived right next door
to us and taught me about flowers. I remember
that she had the most beautiful nasturtiums, still
one of my favorite flowers. I got mad at her one
day and destroyed almost all of her nasturtiums
(see Figure 14), but she forgave me by presenting
me with my own potted plant, but not of
nasturtiums! Instead, she gave me a heartleaf
philodendron (see Figure 15), still one of my
favorite plants since it can grow virtually anywhere
under any conditions. I have one that I bought as a
freshman at Texas A&M University in 1973.

Miss Richard, 2nd grade�She moved to another
school the year after I was in her class.

Miss Fonnesbeck, 3rd grade�She moved to
another school the year after I was in her class. I
kept in touch with her through 1973. She also
taught my brother.

Miss Kimberly, 4th grade�She moved to
another school the year after I was in her class.

Mrs. Ruth Ann Gilmore, 5th grade�She was my
teacher during my final two months of school in
Brigham City before I moved to Kingsville, Texas.
I kept in touch with her all the way up to 1994,
when I last saw her in Casa Grande, Arizona, after
I had moved to San Diego.

Flato Elementary School Teachers
Kingsville, Texas
Miss Jones, 5th grade�She taught my dad and
his three brothers and had a disliking for them, so
she made it hard on me, and I responded, albeit
inappropriately.

6th grade - I can�t believe I have forgotten her
name because she was very important to me. She
wrote on my final report card, �A winner never
quits, and a quitter never wins.� I�ve always
remembered that, and I know something will jog
my memory of her name.

Grade School Friends, Kingsville, Texas
Dirk DeKoch, Galen Gaither, Steve Goddard,
Jerald Hedrick, Jim Maddox, Jamie Perez,
Jim Peterson, Jim Word