Tuesday, January 26, 2010

A P.S. 131 class picture, 1962–1963


[Click for a larger view.]

Looking at class photographs from P.S. 99 moved me to make my own small contribution to grade-school nostalgia. Here’s the first of five class pictures that my parents handed over to me some years ago. The above photograph shows Mrs. Frazier’s first-grade class, P.S. 131, Boro Park, Brooklyn, New York, 1962–1963. Mrs. Frazier was my mother’s first-grade teacher at P.S. 131 in the late Depression, a fact of our family life that still amazes me.

I like seeing the details of this classroom, which looks like a lively place (especially with thirty-one kids). I remember reading at a table off to the side of the room with my friend Barry (sitting, wearing a cross tie). We must have been in the Library. I believe that we were ahead of the class, reading-wise, and that Barry was ahead of me. Syd Hoff’s Danny and the Dinosaur was my book of choice. Note the Play House: “We can have tea.” And we still can!

Do click for a larger view. The girl in the saddle shoes rules.

[I’m uneasy about identifying fellow first-graders by last name without permission, so I haven’t. These photographs have faded and remain so here, as unimproved scans. I’m the kid with the red cross tie.]

More from the P.S. 131 collection
1963–1964 1964–1965 1965–1966 1966–1967

Related posts
P.S. 131
P.S. 131, 44th Street, Brooklyn
Some have gone and some remain

comments: 4

Elaine in Arkansas said...

a) The teacher MUST be dying her hair!
b) The little girl in saddle shoes DOES rock!
and
c) OMG! in the front row! The little red-headed girl (with naturally curly hair!)

oh, plus
d) You have barely changed a bit.

I do not get the cross ties. Uniforms in PS?

Michael Leddy said...

Cross ties looked sharp, or so we had been led to believe. Ties were pretty common in school pictures at my school.

No uniforms, though kids dressed nicely for school. After school it was time to change into “play pants” for running around outside.

The Social Death Index leads me to believe that Mrs. Frazier was born in 1908 (died 1989). She would have been about thirty when my mom was a student in her class. Yes, she probably was coloring her hair by 1962–1963.

Ben said...

I think you should wear red cross ties more often.

-Ben

Michael Leddy said...

Ben, maybe we can find a father-son set!