THE LIFE STORY OF CAROL JANE PRICE AGLE - PART 2

The Life Story of Carol Jane Price Agle - (Part 2)

Kindergarten

I was thrilled when I finally turned four and could go to school. My kindergarten class was a huge room and it had a piano for singing time, a sand box and a climbing rope hanging from the ceiling. At that time, Kindergarten was just to get children socially ready to go to school. We took a nap every afternoon and to “wake” us, the teacher would go to the piano and play two notes over and over until we all stood up.

We had a rhythm band and my favorite instrument was the tambourine and I would seldom settle for anything less! On my birthday, Mother made Halloween treats and took them to the class for all the children. I felt very special and proud. 

I loved going to Primary on Wednesday afternoon and especially music time. The first song I recall learning was, I Thank Thee, Dear Father. 

When it was your birthday, you could bring a penny for each year of your age and put it in the container one at a time so the children could guess how old you were. We could also bring pennies for the Primary Crippled Children’s Hospital and we would march up to the front and drop in our pennies as we sang this song:

Five pennies make a nickel,

Two nickels made a dime.

Ten dimes will make a dollar

How we’ll make it shine.

It’s for the crippled children

Who cannot walk or run.

Who have to lie in bed all day,

And cannot join our fun.

So let us be unselfish

And bring our pennies here.

To help the crippled children

Become stronger year by year.

We’ll march along and sing our song,

And pray that they may be.

A little stronger every day,

Because of you and me!

My mother was an exceptional seamstress and made all our clothes. I always felt very special because they were so beautiful. (She even made my wedding dress and my trousseau.)

I particularly remember two costumes she made for me for  Halloween. One was “Little Bo Peep” (but I refused to carry the staff!) The other was a Scottish outfit and she let me choose the type of hat, a “tam” or the “cap”. I chose the “cap” and loved parading in a big circle in the cultural hall as we showed off our costumes.

Summers were especially fun with lots of outdoor games. We roamed from one house to another but towards dinner time my dad would put his two index fingers by the side of his mouth and whistle. You could hear that whistle for 3 or 4 blocks. Everyone would say, “there’s Brother Price calling his kids in,” and when we heard that whistle, we came running! 

Our neighborhood had lots of children and we played games like, Red Rover, Red Rover, Hide and Seek and Mother May I. We would play these games across 3 front yards so when you were called for Red Rover, you had quite a ways to run.

I do remember a time when we were not allowed to play with the other children and had to sit on our porches and just look longingly over at each other.  There was a polio epidemic taking place and since it was not known what exactly caused polio, it was felt the best thing to do was to stay away from other people as much as possible.  I had a terrible fear of contacting polio because I had seen  the pictures of children in iron lungs or terribly crippled and knew they would be that way for the rest of their lives.

Who wouldn't be scared seeing pictures like this?

In Autumn they dug a basement for a new home across the street, but couldn’t start building until spring so all winter long we played in that excavation and had great fun. 

One winter’s night Mary Ann woke me up to go with her to the dining room window. The moon was bright and outside snow had fallen and everything was a blanket of white. It was magical.

Once on a Christmas Eve, I must have been 5 or 6, my father said, “Carol, Carol. Come quickly.” He was standing on the front porch and said, “Look”, pointing to the sky and showed me Santa Claus flying away. So vivid was his description that to this day in my mind’s eye, I can still see the scene. 

Our big tree was in the basement recreational room and that is where we opened presents. I just knew that Santa had come down the fireplace that went to the basement and deposited our presents and then had taken off. How lucky was I that my Dad had seen him just in time and called me over!