Page 43 - 1933

N the year 1921 on a morning in late September, one might
have seen a band of youngsters approaching the Lower School
building of Moses Brown. All were timidly clutching their
mothers’ hands, as they were by no means convinced of any
overwhelming desire to begin school and the serious business
of life at this particular moment. However, when we fellows
in this group were presented to Miss Bradley, our first teacher,
we were charmed by her friendliness, immediately lost our former misgivings,
and decided to stay.
This first year, with the aid of A, B, C blocks piled along our teacher’s
desk, we learned that words and sentences were literally built of letters. Great
progress also was made in our first primer and in that most occult of subjects,
arithmetic. It must be admitted that many of us used our fingers when we
aspired to the lofty realms of mental addition and subtraction, but later, much
to our own surprise, this dodge became unnecessary.
The liking for track work was early instilled in us by reason of the fact
that every recess we ran en masse from rhe locker room door around the far-
famed hollow tree and back.
Soon the school year was over, and stronger in mind as well as in body we
went our divers ways.
All the veterans of the first primary were back next fall, but we had a new
teacher, Miss Partch. Also our class was considerably augmented, as Clint
Dean, Johnny Walker, and Herman Toof had thrown in their lot with us.
"Toofie” later gained no small local fame by reason of his remarkably skillful
and most violent debate with the teacher on the subject of personal liberty. At
that time, Miss Partch had just invited him to visit Mr. Kendall, principal of
the Lower School.

‘Tage thirty-nine