Hattie Watts

Kindergarten graduation had come and gone and the summer of 1970 was quickly coming to an end. I was headed to first grade. I was going to ‘real school.’ I was excited and scared at the same time. A few weeks before school was to start, my mom and dad sat me down in the front living room to have a talk about going to school. The front living room, this must be serious. No one used the front living room except Dad when he had church visitors and when my sister Sally practiced the piano. Besides walking through the front door and passing through the living room, the only time I was in there was to peek out the curtains to see if any of the neighborhood kids were out playing. My dad pulled out papers that parents had to go through before their child could start school. One of the things I had to do was memorize the Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I remember vividly Daddy saying this was not only for first grade but for everyday, no matter what grade I was in. This was about doing the right things in life. Whoaaaa, serious stuff, no wonder we were in the front living room.

On the first day of school, I was up early with butterflies in my stomach. Well, butterflies and grits that my mom had made for me. On that day the butterflies were overpowering the grits. Dad drove me to Hattie Watts Elementary in his blue VW Beetle. We met my teacher, Mrs. Smith, and did all of the basic things kids do on their first day of school. The next morning after eating breakfast and brushing my teeth, I went up to my Dad, who was at that time of morning always drinking his Community Coffee and reading The Morning Advocate. I told him I was ready to go to school. My dad said, “Okay Bud, off you go,.” and walked me to the front door, opened it and then waited for me to walk out. Something wasn’t right here. Yesterday my dad drove me to school but today he’s acting like I’m supposed to walk to school? It was a good mile or more walk but yes, my dad was expecting me to walk to school. So I did. Because my house was close to the first two schools I attended, I walked to school for the first eight years. Guess what, it didn’t kill me.

This was an interesting time for public schools in Louisiana. We were in the first years of total integration in the state and sadly not everyone was on board with the new law. From Mrs. Smith’s class, we could look out the window and see the road and the front of the school. On several occasions we would see the students from the High School walking en masse to our school to hang out in the gym because someone had called in a bomb threat. While the High School was being searched, the students would hang out at Hattie Watts until the coast was clear. Looking back on that time, I appreciated that color was nearly non-existent in my mind. I hope it makes sense when I say I didn’t pay attention to the color of a person’s skin. We were all just kids. Kids trying to learn the alphabet, how to add and subtract. Having all of that on my mind, as well as wondering when we would have recess and go to lunch, was enough for me to deal with at that age. The highlight of first grade was being in the Christmas Play. Our class acted out “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” that year. Along with Crystal Vinning, I was to play the part of one of the mice. But not long before we were to perform, the student who was to play Santa Claus became ill, missed a lot of school and couldn’t be in the play. I know this sounds bad but the reason he was chosen to play Santa was because he was the biggest kid in our class. For whatever reason, I was asked to take on the role of Santa. Sorry Crystal, but my acting career was taking off and I needed to go on to bigger and fatter roles. Since I was one of the smallest kids in the class, my mom had to stuff me with pillows so I would fit into the Santa Claus suit. Funny how you remember things like that.

I returned to Hattie Watts for second grade expecting to be placed in another nice classroom inside the school like first grade but to my surprise my classroom was one of about 6 buildings outside of the main school. These were temporary classrooms/buildings or T Buildings for short. The problem was, these ‘temporary’ buildings seemed to stay for years and years. The same thing happened in third grade, another T building. My second grade teacher was Mrs. Edna Richardson. Like Mrs. Smith’s class, I loved every minute of the time I was in her class. I had a year under my belt and I was starting to catch on to this writing and adding and subtracting and reading thing. Another reason I was excited about second grade was knowing that Lonnie Easley would be starting school as he was a year behind me. I remember the very first day I met Lonnie on the playground. I asked him if he wanted to go play on the seesaw. He said yes and off we went. I swear that we had only done two or three up and down cycles when all of a sudden, while I was in the air, Lonnie jumped off and sent me falling down to the hard dirt below. He never said anything, just got bored I guess and jumped off. I never got on a seesaw with Lonnie ever again.

The really bad thing about T buildings was the heat. Of course they were not air-conditioned and had windows on two sides. The windows were always up, the shades always up and those of us inside these little ovens constantly hoped for a strong wind to blow through to cool us off. Probably the biggest thing to happen to me in second grade was coming down with the chicken pox. While I was home, my classmates made this big card where they drew pictures and said nice things about getting well and sent it to me. When I returned to school, all excited to see my friends, I was disappointed to learn most of them were absent. I asked Mrs. Richardson why the class was so empty. She said that thanks to me, they were all home with the chicken pox. Ooops!

Wow, look how fast two years have flown by and now I’m in third grade and sitting in Ms. Favors’ class. I know it was the style back then but Ms. Favors had the biggest Afro I had ever seen. Of course we didn’t know anything about style at that age but I guess you would say my teacher was ‘hip.’ She was also deadly with her thick yardstick. If you started to fall asleep she would smack the stick across the desk and scare the heck out of you and everyone else. She was also fond of using her stick on our backsides when we misbehaved. It was in Ms. Favors’ class I was first exposed to Black History Month and to politics. I was most impressed with George Washington Carver and all the things he invented and discovered. Because it was an election year we had our own campaign and election for President. We learned about George McGovern and Richard Nixon and about primaries, the different political parties and the general election.

As I write about my time at Hattie Watts Elementary, a few other things stand out in my mind. For one, the cafeteria still had the old vending machines where you could buy candy for ten cents. What’s really funny is they sold those packs of candy cigarettes. I think that was my favorite candy. Different times.

Speaking of the cafeteria, I hated that our teachers made us try everything on our plates. There were things I just hated, like turnip greens or spinach. I don’t know if there was a correlation or not but why was it we always had cooked greens or spinach the day after they cut the grass on the playground? I know that is crazy but I remember thinking that. I recall the plates were warm to the touch, probably because there were not enough and they had to be washed several times over lunch so everyone would be able to eat. Because they were warm, the Jell-O had melted by the time you sat down. I did love the big fluffy rolls and peanut butter that was served.

Another highlight about Hattie Watts was the school library. Our librarian, Mrs. Henderson was so excited to see kids wanting to read, check out books, learn and discover. I am so proud of my friend Rebecca Easley who is now the librarian at Hattie Watts and has been there for many years. Rebecca, if your husband Lonnie has a wild hair and suddenly wants to go on the playground with you and ride the seesaw…Don’t.

Finally, by the time I had reached third grade I had a host of friends who were walking to school with me. Karla Brown, Susie Fryar, Kenny Russo and others made the daily trek with me so I always had company. Thank you to Hattie Watts Elementary and to my teachers for such a great foundation.

From Back to the Bayou, by Steve Achord