Abraham Lincoln

I was among the first students to attend Abraham Lincoln Elementary School when it opened in 1953.  It was built to help address the tremendous growth that post war Royal Oak experienced.  I attended Whittier Elementary the year before where I was an enthusiastic Kindergarten student.  All the kids in the neighborhood made the eight-tenths of a mile walk to Whittier as a group.

Diane lived across the street from us.  She was the eldest in the neighborhood and our unofficial leader.  We had one busy street, Campbell, to cross but the remainder of the walk was straight down Farnum a half block from our house.  Such a walk today would probably be investigated by CPS.  We didn’t know the difference, so we just made the walk.  There were no two car families, and all the dads took the cars to work, so we walked in a pack.  By the time we arrived at school, there were dozens of us.

Abraham Lincoln was being built while we made our walk.  It opened in time for me to attend as a first grader.  Its original construction was a one level school, but the following year a two-story section was added at the rear of the building to house grades four through six.  I spent six years at Lincoln before heading off the Clara Barton Junior High.

Neil Levens was our principal.  As an elementary school student, I knew principals existed, but I wasn’t interested in knowing one personally.  Getting “sent” to the principal was low on my bucket list.  All in all, I was a good student, but I was definitely an underachiever.  I could, and should, have excelled in school, but I just never buckled down. I did my work and got along well with everyone but got by doing as little as possible.

I served on the school safety patrol during my fifth and sixth grade years.  I held three different “posts” over my two-year tenure.  Our squad had a captain and two lieutenants.  They wore official badges on their patrol belts but didn’t have assigned posts.  They were in charge of making sure the rest of us reported for duty and covered for us when necessary.

My first post was the corner of Edgeworth and University.  I followed that with an assignment to the school playground and was ultimately promoted to the front of the school.  The front of the school post was a big deal because I was in charge of welcoming visitors, making sure students entered the building in an orderly fashion, keeping track of the time, and dismissing everyone from their post as our “on duty” time expired.

During my tenure on the playground, I did indeed get to know Mr. Levens a bit better.  A kindergarten student tried to kiss me while I was on duty, and I pushed her away. I’ve written about this before, so you know it was a traumatic experience.

She told her teacher I pushed her but left out the kissing part.   The teacher told Mr. Levens and he had me report to the office.  During our discussion of the push, I told him I reacted in self-defense.  I explained the kiss and he let me off with a warning.  He transferred me to the front of the school for my own safety.  If that happened today, I could have her charged with sexual harassment, but it was 1958 so no charges were filed.

TBC