I started public school at Steven's elementary, E. 11th Ave & Elizabeth St – now a high-priced condo complex! My folks considered it a waste of time for me to spend a year in “kindergarden,” since I could already read, so I had to take a test. The test lady was very nice, but I thought the questions were “stupid,” like 2+2= – everyone knows its 4! And I remember reading a “silly” book, “See Jane run...” In the event, I was allowed to start 1st grade at age 5, and did quite well in classes. I also spent many hours building up the callouses on my hands from hanging on the rings in the playground. (Never see these anymore – did someone decide they were too dangerous to be on playgrounds?) I also loved my 1st and 2nd grade teachers, Miss Holmes and Mrs. Gray. Just before I was to start 3rd grade, we moved to New York City, where the environment was quite different from Denver. At P.(ublic) S.(chool) 187 I “skipped” 5th grade; when the family returned to Denver, I re-entered DPS as a 15-year-old senior at East High – the one friend I knew from Stevens was a junior, so we didn’t have any classes or see each other at all. Robert Colwell was the principal at East then, and on some occasion my parents met him, and asked if he wasn’t the prinicpal at Stevens back when I was 5. He was, and he told them he probably would have vetoed my starting 1st grade so “early,” however, I did graduate from East in June, 1963, just 16 years old. In September, 2003 I plan to attend my 40th East High reunion.
Liana R. Lansing