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PLYMOUTH &mdash; After spending my first year of grade school at Nottingham Street Elementary, the school closed.
				I don&rsquo;t think I had anything to do with the decision, but I was kind of glad I didn&rsquo;t have to go back there.
				You see on my very first ever day of school. my mother literally had to drag me up Reynolds Street, through Balita family&rsquo;s yard and over to the school on Nottingham.
				It was a pretty cool school &mdash; a high wall wrapped around half of the schoolyard, forming a stadium-like atmosphere. When I saw all the other kids running around, I ran from my mom and joined the madness.
				As I ran around the back end of the building, unbeknownst to me, Eugene Polak was running from the opposite direction and for whatever reason &mdash; hey, we were kids &mdash; Eugene flipped a rock that caught me in the head. I woke up in the nurses office, my head bandaged and my mom standing there.
				Mom took me home. If she thought getting me to school the first day was difficult, heck, I wasn&rsquo;t about to go back. I have the scar to support my position.
				But I did return. My first day ever for school was actually the second day of the school year.
				And I had a headache.
				We had first and second grade in that school, but I only got credit for completing first grade. The following year, we were sent to Central Elementary School on West Shawnee Avenue.
				This was a big school and we had good teachers. My favorite was and always will be Miss Marlyn Strongoski, who later became Mrs. Zlotek. She was my fourth grade teacher.
				The highlight of fourth grade was a group of us winning a spelling bee. Miss Strongoski was so pleased, she invited us good spellers &mdash; and bad grammarians &mdash; over to her house for a little party. See the attached picture.
				The photo brought back many memories, especially of that sweater I&rsquo;m wearing. This is evidence as to why I do not own any sweaters today. What was my mom thinking? That is one ugly sweater. But then again aren&rsquo;t they all?
				My memory had expunged that sweater from my mind. I recall me being the cool kid wearing button down shirts of light blue, yellow, dark blue, plaid and matching socks. Yes, I had yellow socks. And Argyle patterns as well. All of these shirts and socks went well with my khakis, although I&rsquo;m not sure they were called khakis back then.
				No socks could ever match that sweater.
				And please take note of the tissues tucked into Karen Mundy&rsquo;s belt. Moms did that a lot back then. Stylish? Not really, but effective in the battle against runny noses.
				But what this picture shows is how different things were back then. We were all dressed nicely and we were polite.
				And, apparently, we were pretty good spellers.
				I also find it interesting that I am the only kid not looking at the camera. I&rsquo;m not sure why that is. Maybe Miss Strongoski had a dog? I really don&rsquo;t know.
				Looking at that picture is consuming. I keep finding little details every time I look at it. I wish I had more pictures like this to stare at and remember good times of long ago.
				As long as I&rsquo;m not wearing that sweater or any sweater for that matter.
				I can&rsquo;t spell it out any better than that.

Of grade school, a rock and an ugly sweater