RHYMING MEMORIES

Now here's something that's been running through my mind for the last couple of days ~ the very first poem I memorized so I could recite it in class.

I was in the first grade at Lincoln Elementary in North Las Vegas. Our teacher was Mrs. Mounce and I remember her as being VERY SCARY!  She wore her hair in an elaborate updo the was sprayed into a silver helmet. She owned a mink stole of which she was so proud, she wore nearly every day even in the desert heat!  After lunch she made a big production of rolling her stockings down below her knees and twisting the tops into a knot. And, scariest of all, she took her false teeth out several times a day at her desk to powder them from a blue and white tin of Polident! My dad thought she had taught school for so long she didn't like little kids anymore.

I remember the big long hooked pole she used to open the upper windows. She never actually SAID it, but if anyone misbehaved while she performed this daily task, the look she directed at the guilty party made it clear she wouldn't hesitate to use it!

Posted around the tops of the blackboards along with the usual alphabet were Victorian images of nursery rhymes and poems. My most favorite was a little girl playing with a kitten and this poem:

Pussy cat, pussy cat,
Where have you been?   
I've been to London to see the Queen.
Pussy cat, pussy cat,
What did you there?
I frightened a small mouse
 under her chair!

 

 

 

I spent some long afternoons going over and over it with the "proper" pronounciation.  "Been" had to rhyme with "Queen." My brother made fun of that until my mother explained that is how they would have said it in London. I don't think I had any clue what or where London might be but I so loved playing "London Bridges Falling Down" at recess I knew it must be a special place. I can even recall feeling a bit smug and superior to my dense brother!

 

I remember Mrs. Mounce calling me to the front of the class when it was my turn to recite. My mouth felt dry and my stomach had butterflies. But I got every line out just like I had practiced it! And I remember the pride I felt when she put a shiny gold star on my class chart!

 

That was 1958 and I still remember every line of that old poem.

I may have misplaced my car keys yesterday, opened the pantry three times because I forgot what I was looking for, and missed an appointment I totally spaced...

But those rhyming verses have stayed firmly planted in my mind for all these years! Go figure!