Mrs. Johnson

Biography

Timeline

1. First day of kindergarten and subsequent school days

   Kindergarten tears and warm milk

   The narrator cried before boarding the bus and again over warm milk at school, which she refused to drink. She carried a rug for naps and remembers her teacher playing piano.

   Dee's Chapter

Stories mentioning Mrs.

• Remembered Faces, Flowers, and Childhood PlayBarbara lists people and families she remembers: Mrs. Rohrer shared flowers from her beautiful garden, and Mrs. Johnson asked Barbara to zip up her formals. She also recalls Old-lady Clyde, Earladine and Jean Hoglund, the Petersens, especially Eileen, and Sis Vergaine and her son Stevie, whose possible imprisonment she questions without confirming. The Hancocks had an abandoned little house where the children liked to play. The Ferrys and The Gillersteads are also remembered by name.
• Midwest Seasons, Family Outings, and the First School BusDee recalls gardens, suntanning, summer treats, drive-in movies, and Fourth of July fireworks. Family trips took her to Chicago’s Museum of Art and Science and The Loop, then to Clarence’s farm in Worthington, Minnesota. Halloween brought homemade treats and Bernie’s prizewinning window paintings; winter brought sledding, snow figures, and Bernie and Bob’s newspaper-worthy igloo. Her earliest school memories are of crying before the kindergarten bus and refusing warm milk at Roosevelt school, where Mrs. Johnson played piano.

Referenced in

• Barbara's Chapter — I REMEMBER
• Dee's Chapter — SICK DAYS