My Schools

There were three Schenectady schools in my youth; Pleasant Valley Elementary, McKinley Jr. High, and Mont Pleasant High School. All three schools were in easy walking distance from our home on Main Street, in Mont Pleasant. Each school is still standing to this day but serve different purposes. Pleasant Valley is now a magnet school; Academy of Culture and Communication. McKinley Jr. High is now a trade school; The Career Center at Steinmetz. Mont Pleasant High is now a middle school serving grades 6-8. I have three distinct memories of Pleasant Valley Elementary School. The foremost was one teacher, Miss Sedgewick. I don't remember the grade she taught, but she made me feel intelligent, and important. It was she that led me to the next memory. I was, and have always been creative. Miss Sedgewick encouraged me to write a class play. Can you imagine? Grade school. But I did. Somewhere in its content was something to do with a spider web. My memory is vivid of me creating a spider web out of white string on a black curtain drop in the school auditorium, which was the backdrop used in the play. The last memory is of my inclusion in a school "May Pole" event. I wore a purple satin suit which my mother sewed. That purple color is a favorite of mine. My wife, Shirley, recently wore an outfit using that shade of purple color, and it was amazing how quickly my school memory of the May Pole returned to mind. The Jr. High school class grades used during my youth in Schenectady were 7th, 8th, and 9th. Growing up in a deeply immigrant area of Schenectady, coupled with the ages of students in the 7th through 9th grades, made attendance at McKinley Jr. High a real learning experience, to say the least. McKinley school collected students from areas outside of the Mont Pleasant neighborhood, they were areas that where known to be "rough." Although Mont Pleasant was also an immigrant section of Schenectady, it was quiet and peaceful. So, I was not really prepared for what I learned at McKinley outside the classroom. And imagine, I played violin in the school orchestra. It was a rough three years to live through at McKinley Jr. High school. Mont Pleasant High School was built in 1931. I entered the ninth grade in 1944, meaning the school was only 13 years old at that time. A really beautiful campus. The school building is a square with a courtyard in the middle. It was possible, and we did in track, to run through the halls around the school. Start and finish was in the men's gym, second floor. In that period of education, with its immigrant influence, it was thought that a man should have knowledge of a trade, even if going on to college. Mont Pleasant had three trade wings, automotive, mechanical, and electrical. Even though I never entered a trade, the knowledge I received as a "Mechanical" student back then has made me a very good homemaker. One nephew of mine used to say, "My Uncle Sam can fix anything." Years later, after serving in the military, I registered as a freshman at the University of Colorado. Freshman were required to take an entrance exam. When my guidance counselor saw that I had graduated from Mont Pleasant, the exam was waived. That was a nice bonus. My memories of Mont Pleasant are too many to enumerate here. Let me just sum it up by saying that going to Mont Pleasant High was one of the most rewarding periods of my life.