No trip down Memory Lane would be complete without a stop to the school where I attended Grades 2-6. Staatsburg Elementary School. It now sits alone and deserted. Its halls and classrooms empty of the sound of children. Even the playground swings and jungle gym that were still there seven years ago have now been taken down. Don’t you think it’s a handsome building?

See that room on the basement level on the left side? That’s my fifth grade classroom. I had Mr. Jubar that year. What a stir he made in a school that up until then had employed only older women for teachers! He was fresh, young, exuberant, and we loved him. One of the best teachers I’ve ever had. Here’s our class photo. Can you find me? No, of course you can’t, you don’t know what I look like. Okay, see Mr. Jubar in the middle? Count over two girls to the right and there I am! Second in from the right, second row from the top. My best friend, Debbie Volce is sitting right in front of me. I had a crush on Mark DeLucca (bottom row; first boy on right). I think I pestered that boy silly.

On to sixth grade. My classroom was on the top level, last room on the right. Mrs. Charbonnet’s class. She was a hoot of a teacher. She was convinced that the whole “man landing on the moon” thing was a hoax. She believed that they had filmed the whole thing on a Hollywood film set. No joke, she really did believe that.

There I am again, same spot with my long finger curls. oh boy. There’s that creepy boy (back row, third from left), I think his name was Chris, that rode his bicycle to my house one day. I hid in my room until he went away. There’s Julie Mayer standing next to me on the left. She was glad I left since she got my coveted spot in Ensemble [a special chorus group that got to put on musical revues throughout the year].

I think about them once in a while and wonder how their lives turned out. What they’re doing now, and do any of them remember me? We moved to Florida before the school year was over that year. I didn’t get to perform the HukiLau in my grass skirt. What would my life have been like had we stayed? Would I have finally convinced Mark DeLucca to be my boyfriend?

My life followed a course very different than theirs, and I certainly have no complaints, but it’s only natural to wonder ... what if?