Reply to the History of the class of 66
From Ginger LaRocque Poitra (’65): Belcourt, ND

Hey!  Larry. Ginger here, class of 1965

Good job on your classes history.

Your 1st grade teacher Miss Fern Strauss, ours too, wasn’t she the best teacher,  having us read aloud in class,  very good learning experience. I think our 3rd grade teacher was her sister, Florence.  Our 2nd grade teacher was Mrs. Masvelten.

Otherwise our 4th Mrs. Conroy and 5th Miss Jesslyn Selzer, was the same as yours,  6th Miss Nordine,  7th and 8th Mr. Art Rude, were ours. Anyone correct me if I’m wrong.

I was figuring— that I was four years old whenever I started 1st grade. Pretty  crazy!! I turned 5 in November.

I remember a little bit of our first grade classroom , there were pictures of Dick and Jane characters hanging on the walls.

Reading,  I loved it!

I sure wish I had a memory like yours,  Larry.

I remember Mrs.Conroy’s classroom,  I truly enjoyed it in there. One of the things she did was read us stories. She read us, “Lorna Doone”, when she read the book it made me feel like I was part of the story.  I remember looking through the book later on and the book wasn’t written in English, but she read so fluently in English. There was a movie of the book,  no comparison to listening to Mrs. Conroy’s reading the book.

Another was,  “The Secret Garden”. Again it was so lifelike describing the flowers as she read I could visualize every color so vividly. The character’s were described so well in the book and with Mrs. Conroy reading about them just made them seem so alive. I never will forget her reading to us and the books she chose to read.

I was excited to see the movie,  “The Secret Garden”,  when I was watching it I’m saying to myself,  nooo, this I is not! ” The Secret Garden”,  the garden, the characters,  all just not like the story that Mrs. Conroy read to us.

The stories she read to us all had a lesson,  a family,  of olden days.  I just came to realize that because the stories she brought into our minds, at least for me, I prefer to watch old movies that have a good story of real life, and books of the same .

Once in a while Anthony watches one of the oldies with me and really enjoys it. My son also gets caught up in a story or two of the kind, he to enjoys them.

I feel that teachers should still read stories to their students,  what is wrong with them listening to them in 4th grade.

There were other things she brought out in her students and that was their artistic abilities, crafty art, plaster of Paris as I believe they called it putting it in molds then painting whatever you made, for Mother’s Day, Christmas etc. We made colorings designs. I still have them,  I made so many of them Mrs. Conroy gave the book of colorings to me.

Those were the extra things she taught, besides reading and writing and arithmetic not to the tune of a hickory stick.

The other teachers also showed us things that I remember vividly but of all of them Mrs. Conroy’s class is the one I remember most things from.

3rd grade school Ms. Florence Strauss , besides some other things,  I remember the Christmas party,  exchanging gifts drawing names mixed gender.  I remember Donald Egbert drew my name, so his mother surely picked out the gift which was a beautiful blue designed scarf with a small bottle of Evening in Paris. I loved the gift and kept the scarf I have it packed away for safe keeping. I often wished I would’ve kept the perfume as well. I never did tell him I kept that scarf, maybe I should’ve. Maybe she inspired my love of Christmas and of giving from the heart.

2nd grade Mrs. Masvelten, I remember how she loved to play piano, I loved to listen,  she could have helped in my love of music, I remember that from her class. It was while in her classroom that I got measles,  I had to stay home from school,  this happened not long before Valentines Day,  we of course were going to have a party with her music playing the piano.  My mother made me think I wouldn’t make it, but all this time she had bought me a nice short sleeved white sweater, and I already had a red skirt to wear. You guessed it! I loved the Valentine party.

5th grade, Miss Seltzer, Miss Seltzer was a grooming person,  I remember when we came to school in the morning we lined up by the chart that was made to check each child off. She checked if hair was combed, teeth brushed, face washed, hands clean, finger nails clean and cut,  shoes tied, clothes clean and neat. This all was very good to do. Children learned from this.

This should still be done in schools.

I do remember once walking into her classroom,  with her!  The students who were there before us were shooting spit wads at each other, I wasn’t the only one who walked in with her. We were all innocent as could be and we all had to write 500 words. I went home told what I had to do, my sisters decided to help me out after hearing what happened,  well my mom got wind of that and wouldn’t let them help me. She said ” If the teacher said to write, you write by yourself.   I suppose we had to write something like,   I will not shoot spit wads or something of the sort. Well needless to say I had no respect for that kind of punishment!! ! MASS PUNISHMENT! !  I remembered that all my life, it happens to frequently in workplaces. She taught me a couple of things that really stand out.

6th and 7th grades Miss Nordine, she was an older lady. You know nothing stands out for me in her classroom.  I remember her shoes, they were different.

8th grade, I remember our Home economics class the teacher was great she taught us how to sew,  do some cooking, I need to mention this one thing she had us make, it was shaped like a fish, a large fish and tasted sooo goood. Tuna, or some kind of fish but was delicious, I sometimes wish for the recipe.

In high school I learned about favoritism in the classroom,  which is sometimes in our homes, workplaces. This usually works for the worse. People see this happening.  They react in ways of maybe hating the one who is being favored, while they should look at the one who is playing favorites. There are many things I saw in high school that I didn’t like. There were also many things in high school I did like. I learned I know that.

I was always a listener. I observed, I didn’t say hardly anything in my young days.  But I was learning all the time.  Everyday of my life wherever I went.

Thanks for bringing these all to mind Larry

Posted by Neola Kofoid Garbe:  Bottineau & Minot, ND

Bottineau High School Class of 1964  7^th grade pictures
Posted by Neola Kofoid Garbe: Bottineau & Minot, ND

Hi Gary,

I don’t know if you can use this picture.  There are at least two fellows in the picture whose parents were from “the hills”: L. D. Hiatt and Charlie Carbonneau.  Dwight Coleman might be of interest to your readers???

Mrs. Harlan Renick and the other half of the class are in another picture.

Neola

Gary’s comments

Neola, So both you and Wally were teachers and good ones too I know.

There are a lot of familiar faces and names in these pictures that will be of interest to many of our readers. I recognize a whole of these folks too.

Thanks.

Bottineau High School Class of 1964: Wally Garbe’s Class/names on picture, 7th grade

Bottineau High School Class of 1964: Mrs. Renick’s Class/names on picture, 7th grade

====================================
Blog (429) posted on April 16, 2009