School in Novato and the SDA School

My life in Novato was pretty good.  Novato only had 13,000 people.  A nice size town. The bummer for us was we lived on the south end of town and all the south end of town people had to go to school either at Lynwood Elementry once it was built or an elementry school on Hamilton Air Force Base.  Living at the south end of town became a bigger problem when I had to go to High School in Terra Linda.   I remember being bused to Hamilton AFB... but then, I remember kindergarten at Lynwood.  I may be confused.  The school on the AFB was old and had ivy growning on it.  I liked that school.  It was at the south end of the AFB and there was countryside close by.  Cows even.  But most of my memories of grade school are at Lynwood.  It was a nice school--brand new!  It had a multi-purpose room and a cafeteria.  Once I was old enough I volunteered to work in the cafeteria so I could get a free lunch.  But then, I really liked volunteering at school.  I did crossing guard duty also.  I also tried my hardest to get into speech class--so maybe I wasn't so much into volunteering as I was into getting out of class.  All of the above got me out of class early!!  But I do think part of it was I did GOOD at lunch duty and crossing guard duty.  Much better than I did at my school work. 
I remember playing tether ball at school.  Susie Willis and I were really good at that sport.  Previous to tether ball I played on the bars and swings.  I was always an active kid.  I never was good at running, but moving around...I was good at that.  I remember Susie Willis and I singing "Great Balls of Fire" as we hit the tether ball.  For some reason we thought we were real original in that one.
After school Susie and played "dogs" when we weren't running all over the neighborhood.  Behind our house was open space..and all of us kids knew every inch of it.  We all knew what we were talking about when we referred to the Big Oak Tree, or the sliding hill, or the creek at the end of the road.  In the Fall we would get cardboard and rip it up big enough for our butts to sit on and slide down the sliding hill.  It was great fun.  That is also the best area to fly a kite (over the sliding hill).  I could get my kite out so far it was hard to even see.  Winter time was great in the open space also... once year we all (that's ALL the neighbor kids, young and old) decided to build tunnels in the ground.  We dug and dug... first it was big enough for one person to get down into.  then it went along underground for a few feet...by the time we were done we had built a tunnel system that went for quite a ways.  I'm sure it was 50 feet long and branched out in many directions.  Being kids we had no idea that the ground could cave in and kill us!!!   I guess that's one time the CA adobe dirt was a blessing.  Anyway, we played in those tunnels for probably one full season.   Since all the kids were involved that was an opportunity that I got to play with Judy.  Judy was always my hero.  I loved to be around Judy, she could do so much.  She loved to sing, dance, act...she got along with everyone and everyone loved her. 
One Summer Judy decided to put on a skit for all the neighborhood parents.  She got a bunch of the neighborhood kids together  (by this time Susie Willis was gone and I think Allard Parfitt was around).  Anyway, she decided that everyone would do "He's got the whole world in his hands".  I (being very uncoordinated) was the record player person.  Anyway, Judy sure  taught all the kids her little rendition of that song and it was quite cute when she had her presentation for the adults.   If I'm not mistaken she even had costumes for the kids.  Judy loved costumes.
AND...talking about dressing up.  One year we went to the "dump" spot near the crest of the hill behind us and found an old wedding dress  (I wonder what the story is behind it being there???).  Judy had so much fun dressing up in that dress.  Judy would have modeling shows down the hallway in the house.  She just loved to dress up and walk all funny down the hallway. 
I guess it was a natural with Judy's love of clothes...that one day she started sewing.  I remember some lady down the street made clothes professionally and she hired Judy.  I thought that was so cool...Judy making clothes for "real" women!! 
Judy and I never attended school together--- well, almost never.  There was that ONE YEAR we were forced to go to SDA school!!  Dr Shelton thought that going there might help us wild Tucker kids.  WRONG!!!  I was in the fourth grade at that school.  I was in a class with kindergarten through 4th grade.  Judy and JoAnn were in a 5th through 8th class.  My teacher was also the bus driver--of the LITTLE YELLOW RETARD BUS that we had to ride.  We were so embarassed!!   We were sure our friends thought we were all retarded that year!!   My teacher was new to teaching and a bit fragile.  She ended up having a nervious breakdown--- I'm sure mainly to having us Tucker girls on her bus and one in her class.  She wasn't much of a teacher...I remember her having us 4th graders teach the 1st or 2nd graders how to tell time... heck, I had no idea how to teach.  It was just a big waste of all of our time!!  but it was better than listening to the teacher try to teach me something. 
At one point a girl in class that I really hated got sick...lock-jaw.  Everyone in the class was supposed to sign a get well card... I didn't see the point, I didn't want her to get well.  So I didn't. 
On the bus we (Tucker girls) ruled the bus.  Judy was the best... she got on that bus and told everyone other than JoAnn and I that they had to sit 2 to a seat up at the front and we "owned" the back of the bus.  Nobody ever got back there... they tried, but NO Way with Judy protecting our territory.  No body ever thought about messing with me either with Judy around!!!  That was a great year--even though we hated every minite of it!!   PS  Dr Shelton never tried to talk dad into sending us to the SDA school again!!! 
Dr Shelton was "different".  He was the typical SDA person.  He once said all prayers should be at least 5 mintues long...and he stuck by that EVERY time he prayed.  and we had to kneel at that church!!  5 minutes is a long time to be kneeling with your eyes closed.  Dr Shelton tried to teach us about health also.  He was a total vegetarian--I'm sure he was disappointed that we ate meat.  Of course we NEVER ate pork or shell fish, but we ate plenty of beef!!   Once Dr Shelton had a talk on health and he stated that we should never put pepper on our food.  Pepper has a tendancy to excite humans and sexually stimulate them!!   Guess which two Tucker girls went out and bought a can of pepper right away!!!  yep, Judy and I!!  At first we had to sneak the pepper, but then it became common place.  Dr. Shelton also told us the reason the SDA church opposed dancing was it also excited humans sexually and then it was difficult for them to control themselves.  Judy was always a dancer... not with a partner at first...just dancing to have fun. 
I never danced...but I got sexually excited just like every other normal teenage child!!   Dr Shelton had no idea what real life was like in my oppinion. 
Anyway, it was great to get back to Lynwood School and a more normal education.