The Third Year

Here we are all grown up! That's our story and we're sticking with it.

Mrs. Gray's class. Alas, no Mrs. Gray in the picture. What's up with that?

As I recall, Mrs. Gray was doing double duty. Not only was she our teacher, but she was moving to a new job as principal at a different school. We all liked Mrs. Gray, but for most of the year we had a marvelous substitute teacher, a veritable clone of Mrs. Gray named Mrs. White.

From my report card I can tell that 3rd grade was a banner year for me in terms of Citizenship! Apparently, during this Prague Spring of my youth I learned to obey school rules.

And like Prague Spring it wouldn't last forever.

There were two aspects to the Third Grade that I recall. First, we moved from the first wing to the second wing. We had access to a different part of the playground but not the back area where the fifth and sixth graders hung out. We were sort of in the middle. But, we were moving up and in a few years we would be kings, all of us.

Second was the Twilight Zone. As a third grader I was deemed "old enough" to watch the Twilight Zone every Friday night. It came on at 9pm which means my bedtime had been extended. In fact, I was allowed to stay up past 10pm on a Friday which meant I could take in the monster movie that came on after the Twilight Zone.

Being able to watch the Twilight Zone was a very big deal because it was the main topic of conversation for much of the subsequent week. This was 1959 and the episodes were new, never before seen and the Twilight Zone was by far the most exciting show on television.

The 1959-1960 season had some of the best Twilight Zones ever:

One for the Angels with Ed Wynn.

The Lonely with Jack Warden.

Time Enough at Last with Burgess Meredeth.

Third from the Sun about escaping TO Earth.

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street with Jack Weston and Claude Akins.

A Stop at Willoughby with James Daly.

It was a sterling season for Rod, that's for sure.