Throwback Thursday - Turning Back the Clock to 3rd-Grade

by Skip Cohen

​I shared this image a few years back, but November is the anniversary of when Sheila and I first met. I wrote a piece for my high school's alumni newsletter a few years ago and ran across it recently. This is an excerpt of what I shared.

....Staying connected to my hometown, Painesville, Ohio  and digging back to Clyde C. Hadden Elementary maintains a particular place in my heart. There's a smile on my face just writing about it. So, turn back the clock to the 50s and Clyde C. Hadden. Here's a taste of what makes those days so unique and the memories so vivid.

My wife Sheila and I met in second grade. My parents moved to their first real house in November. I started the school year as the new kid, almost three months after everybody had already been in school. Being the new kid, the principal, assigned somebody to show me around.

Whether it was because he had a soft spot for this young girl or simply knew she had five brothers and was tough enough for the task, Sheila Fetterman was assigned to give me the tour. I remember it like it was yesterday – "Here's the gym… that's where we have lunch…this is Mr. Paxton's office… there's the playground… that's the Boy's Room…see ya!"

The photograph above is the 3rd-grade class at Clyde C. Hadden a year later. Both Sheila and I are highlighted. I'm in the top row, second from the right, and Sheila is in the bottom row, third from the left. 

But Throwback Thursday photographs always bring back memories beyond just the picture itself. 

...Rosemary T. had an autograph book, and everyone got to sign it. Thinking I was outrageously creative, I mimicked the Coke commercial at the time and wrote, "Feel refreshed, have a sh _ t." Little did I realize the teacher would be asked to sign the book following my page. Even more painful was that she played bridge with my mother, and the torn-out page of the now "ruined" autograph book was delivered to my Mom.

Like the scene in Christmas Story, I was marched into the bathroom, and the giant bar of Ivory soap came out. My mother was mortified and demanded to know where I had heard such language. As the tears flowed down my cheeks, I whimpered, "Grandpa uses that word all the time." Mom bought the story, and for the moment, I was off the hook.

A day later, she cornered my grandfather and screamed at him to watch his language around me. My grandfather took the heat, winked at me, and later whispered, "You owe me!" It was another building block in a remarkable relationship with my grandfather.

For the next ten years, Sheila and I would often be in the same homeroom, but that was it. We were never good friends. I was a nerd, and she was a cheerleader - we just didn't run in the same circles...So, Sheila went her way in life, and I went mine. Fifty years later, at the fortieth high school reunion, the friendship started. That was in 2007; we were married in 2010.

If you have yet to search for at least one throwback image, do yourself a favor and get started. Throwbacks bring back memories and even more important, they're a perfect reminder of the value our industry provides to the world. 

What would life be like without our photographs and videos?

Happy Throwback Thursday!