Elmira Shenanigans

The year before we left to go to Yakima, Washington, I taught at Elmira Elementary School, in Solano County. Though it was part of Vacaville Unified School District, it was out in the country a piece and was known as a sort of “farm school.” Students in the past had helped to create a baby animal farm and had raised chickens, a goat and rabbits. There had also been a vegetable garden that was student driven, all under the tutelage of Shelly Dally, the legendary teacher and later Vice Principal there. My year there was a wonderful breath of fresh air, because of the enlightened teachers and administrators, the reprieve from the lower elementary grades (I FINALLY GOT TO TEACH SIXTH GRADE…My favorite!!!!) and because for a special reason, Daniel went to Fifth Grade with Mr. Beck in the next portable. It was great! Not the least of the treats was the fact that the school was situated about 500 yards from the Southern Pacific Main Line and trains incessantly roared by, causing teacher Parrish to spend much time on the stair landing leading to his classroom. Elmira, was a quiet sleepy, little old railroad town. A relic and monument to the era of steam engines, a rusting old steel water tank still stood by the tracks, marking Elmira’s once great importance as a water stop. Lazy afternoons, after school, Dan and I would wander over to that tank and poke around the weeds at its base, hoping to find a rusty relic or two before heading home.

The legends surrounding Elmira in our family, however, have to do with the crazy antics of a father/teacher and his two youngest children. These occurred on weekends or other “gotta work in the classroom days” when Becca and Dan would accompany me there. Patiently waiting while I dittoed (yes, we had ditto machines then!) copies of lessons and did lesson planning for the coming week, when chores were done the fun began. We closed the blinds of the portable making it very dark. Then, taking some fuzzy, cloth, stuffed fruit and vegetable shapes that I had found in the closet upon my starting there, we would laugh and shriek and run around the room, caroming into desks and chairs, trying to hide on the floor while the person in possession of the soft fruits and veges hurled them at the sounds they heard. More often than not it was a “miss” but all too often the larger bulk of the paternal figure would register a “hit” making me “IT.” When we were all tired out and panting, we’d open the door and go outside to look at the “farm” before going home. I wonder what my students thought when they arrived early Monday morning and Mr. Parrish had forgotten to straighten up the desks and chairs from the insanity of the weekend. Did they think the custodian was lazy? Perhaps they guessed the truth. If they had any good sense of their Sixth Grade teacher, they probably did.

Progress has caught up to Elmira and now the whole area is built up with ugly tract homes. The old SP water tank is gone as is the Southern Pacific itself. Big Union Pacific freights still roar past but the school has been shrunk, many portables (mine included) are gone as is the “farm.” More numerous and modern neighborhood schools have taken over the load.

Time has passed Elmira by but our golden memories of fun live on.

9-1-2010