Written by Bekki Maier Welch
I thought I would see what I can remember about growing up in Terminal.
I remember in the first grade Jackie Reed, Freda Caudle, and I started school together. Freda and I were in Mrs. Dukes class and Jackie was in Mrs. Harmon’s .
I remember a kid we called Punkin… No not pumpkin! He was one of those kids that was mischievous as for a nicer way to put it. He jabbed me in the arm with a pencil, and I still have the lead in there where it broke off. Now… you get the picture of what kind of kid he was!
Jackie tells the story about when we were at recess and she got mud on my new red tennis shoes. I was so mad at her that I put glue in her seat. Then one day we were playing on the seesaw. Freda and I on one end and Jackie on the other and Jackie jumped off and I landed on my butt. I told the teacher on her(Jackie) and she was punished by having to stand at the chalk board with her nose in a circle that was drawn on it. At least that’s the way she tells it.
For some reason I don’t remember the second grade. Maybe Jackie can remember.
I do remember some of the third grade, however. One day Martha Howard and I decided to skip the second half of class and we climbed into some cabinets with doors on them. About 30 minutes later, we couldn’t stand it and we came crawling out. I’m pretty sure our parents got called out on that one.
We had a square dance group. Davis Ellis was my partner, James Hubbard was with Melody, Jackie and Milam. I’ll have to ask Jackie who else was in the group. Well my point to all this is there was a telethon at KMID and our square dance group was on it. We went on right after Roy Orbison. I’m sure you all have heard of him. Lol! Of course this was before he became popular. Our parents were so mad because it was after 11:00 p.m. before we went on. That was a little late for us little tykes to go on.
One time at lunch, we all went home for lunch because we didn’t have a cafeteria and I decided not to go back to school and talked a lot of the kids into following me on my bike. Probably got in trouble for that too. We all had bikes and roller skates. We rode all over Terminal. I can’t believe I was such a little rebel rouser.
I’m still friends with Jackie and Freda… 70 years and counting. Of course a lot of these stories come from Jackie. I have accused her of making them up because she knows I can’t remember anything.
I remember a Halloween carnival at school but don’t remember what year it was. Back in the day when we had real Halloween carnivals.
Someone out there(Terminal) had puppies (half bulldog and half boxer). My mom and James Hubbard’s mom, Faye, arranged for James and I (when we went fishing) to pull up puppies in our buckets. That was the best (fish) I ever got! His name was Tuffy. My mother was the president of the PTA and one day they were having a meeting and Tuffy followed mother up on the stage. Everyone got a big laugh .