My year at Irving School...

My 7th. grade was at Irving Washington school in the WestSide. It was the only grade I attended that school. It was a school made up of Hispanic and Black kids for the most part. There were some Italian and White kids as well.

My teachers name was Ms. Bruni. She was a good teacher. I remember some of the girls in my class at that time. It is interesting that all the girls I remember were Black girls. They were, Angela Ford, Penelope Jones, April Washington and Denise Banks.

They we all very pretty girls. I remember Denise and April the best. Denise was a heavy girl but she was the nicest. She always had a smile. I recall letting her see my blue ring and how she took it and put it on and did not return it for over a week. I guess she liked me. April lived across the street from the school. Even though she lived so close, she was late most of the time. I remember how Ms. Bruni would look out the window after we had all sat down at our desk and she would say, "Well it seems Ms. Washington decided to join us after all" You see she could see when April left her house. April would come in quietly and she would take her seat. After Ms. Bruni would welcome her in April, who sat behind me, would tap me on the shoulder and hand me some homemade vanilla cookies. We would wait for the teacher to look away and we would eat our cookies. I never asked her to bring me these cookies but I never said no either. I guess in her own way she was telling me she liked me.

These were nice times. I am glad I lived in that area. I lived among all sorts of people so I grew up accepting all people, regardless of their color as humans just like me. I understood they had the same or similar thoughts as I did along with the same fears. I was able to at an early age learn that fundamentaly we ar all the same...