Butler County Boyhood Penn Twp School 0
(sung to the tune of the Notre Dame Fight Song) Words by (I believe) Betsy Day and Tamara Sinkevich Cheer, cheer for our school of Penn! That’s where we learned to count up to ten. With our teachers, books and all We learned a lot inside these walls. Sometimes the homework comes our way But […]
Butler County Boyhood halloween, Penn Twp School 0
Everyone’s Elementary School days were plagued by at least one mean old witch. The Good Provider, however, usually ensured that in between those years when you were sentenced to jail or forced into a coven, you might have an angel of a teacher. That was the kind of teacher my dad used to call a […]
Butler County Boyhood Penn Twp School, religion 0
Now it is almost inconceivable to imagine how, for all of my elementary school years, we would spend a chunk of every Wednesday morning. Students who had their parents’ permission would dress for the weather, leave school, and march two-by-two a half mile up the hill to the Nixon United Methodist Church. There we would […]
Butler County Boyhood penmanship, Penn Twp School 0
For reasons I could not understand then and I cannot understand today, we were subjected to an unusually heavy dose of instruction in the art of “penmanship”. Somebody in the school system believed that nice, neat handwriting was an indispensable hallmark of a good education. Our district mandated that we should be schooled in something […]
Butler County Boyhood history, Penn Twp School 0
She had mousy brown hair that was always a bit messed. She had an unsteady walk that accented her dowager’s hump. Her glasses were as thick as a telescope lens. There was no hiding the gold in her teeth. For a nine-year-old boy who wanted to learn about history and geography, she was the most […]
Butler County Boyhood Penn Twp School, Thanksgiving 0
Ruth Beikert, my fifth grade teacher, was an old fashioned patriot, the kind who never questioned our great land. She was jovial and good hearted and overly generous with praise for those of us who fit her patriotic tableau. “Very good, very, very good! A plus, A plus, plus!” could be her evaluation of your […]
Butler County Boyhood bully, Penn Twp School, school bus 0
At some point in time, during my most vulnerable years, our school bus was routed southward down Pennsylvania Route 8 towards Dinner Bell Road. On that route was a stop dedicated to a single family. The family owned a business there and they seemed to me to be prosperous. The family was composed of members […]
Butler County Boyhood Penn Twp School, speech therapy 1
My father was the Supervisor of Special Education for Butler County Schools. One aspect of his job was to recruit and supervise speech therapists. In this aspect of his work his greatest triumph was finding Art Hays. Art was a young guy with the brightest and most sincere smile imaginable. He had red hair and […]