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Health & Fitness

First Day of School Comin' at Ya!

First day of school is upon Napa. A native remembers his first day and other things, including one notable classmate, about the neighborhood in east Napa.

With the first day of school in Napa upon us, it reminds me of my little school on the corner of 2nd Avenue and Coombsville Road: . The school, in its few incarnations, has been at or near Coombsville Road since early in the 20th century.

In those days schools began the day after Labor Day, always a Tuesday. Seemed it was always hot too. 

It could have been 75 on Labor Day, 75 on the Wednesday, but always hot on that first day of school.

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It was September 2, a Tuesday. Mt. George was, and for the most part is, two buildings: one for the primary grades, one for the upper grades. Two portables have been added over the years. 

Students numbered in the mid-100's while I attended, and rose to just over 200 students during its recent years.

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We lived on 2nd Avenue, 3/10th of a mile from the school. We walked. Mom did not drive until I was in about 2nd or 3rd grade, and even then, we walked. It was tough going uphill both ways in the driving snow.  (wink, wink.) After Mom began driving, she drove us a few times, but then only during inclement weather. 

Though it was only 3/10th of a mile, we could find a myriad of things to do in that short distance. As good kids, we weren't allowed to go on anyone's property, unless we were invited. We would generally make the trip in about 15 minutes, though one day my brother and I had a race with some other kids and we made it home in four minutes, which was certainly a world land speed record.

Both of my brothers, Carl and Kevin, went to Mt. George. Carl was 5 years older than I and was in 5th grade when I started that warm Tuesday morning. Kevin, just 21 months older than I, was in 1st grade.

For a couple of years, the school had the three Ontis boys. 

The teacher was Mrs. Clayton. She had been at Mt. George forever (a really pejorative term for a 4.8-year-old boy). Both of my brothers had had her in their first year. 

Kindergarten, German for the 'garden of children,' had its own private fenced-off play yard, with a few pieces of equipment and a lot of sand, most of which seemed to end up in my cuffed pants. 

All the boys had to turn their cuffs inside out before we returned to the classroom.  With short legs, my cuffs were quite wide.

In the 1950's, kindergarten was more about social skills than education. We had to learn to tie our shoes before we could get promoted. I made that just by the famous "hair of my chinny, chin, chin.: 

We did a lot of drawing and nothing of mine will ever end up in the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, (though I did earn an award a few years later for interpretive art while drawing to music.)

We called our teacher 'Teacher,' a bow to our inability to pronounce her name.  In all those years, even as grown ups, when talking about her, we called her 'Teacher.'

Mt. George had a huge play area, not only the asphalt part, with all the lines for games painted out, but a slightly grassy area where we would play football or baseball, or just run around. It still stands almost the same more than 50 years later.

I had known many of the kids that I started school with from just being around.  My mother was active in Mother's Club, kind of like today's PTA.  I started school and went through 4th grade with Doug(gie) Kofford, today's .

We didn't have any air conditoning at Mt. George.We had old-fashioned windows to keep us cool.

When I visit Napa, I still drive past Mt. George. Though they have renumbered the rooms for the upper grades, the building that parallels Coombsville Road, is still the same.

Some things do not change, much. You can go home again, but don't expect it to be the same.

Tom Ontis is a Napa expatriate now living in Contra Costa County with wife Shelley, niece Kayla and five kitty cats.  He grew up on a two acre ranchette in Coombsville, east of .

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