Matt Hohmeister

'94

Hello,

While I never made it all the way through Jenks, it still remains firmly in my memory as the first school I attended (not counting church pre-school).

I started Kindergarten with Ms. Byron (sp?) in 1985-6, progressing through to Ms. Trotter for first grade, Ms. Getman for second, Ms. Attebury for third (or was it the other way around?), and Ms. Rosenfeld for fourth. Proper spellings have long since slipped my mind.

As I was entering second grade, my sister was entering Kindergarten--with a big hoopla, because here comes the Class of 2000! I knew my sister's high school graduation year before I knew my own (after counting it up in my head in fifth grade).

In 1990, in the middle of my fourth grade year and my sister's second, my family moved to north Jersey, abruptly ending my career at Jenks. My life has since taken me to Tallahassee, Florida, where I am the technology coordinator for the high school I attended. Some of my memories of Jenks include:

- We lived very close and could walk to the school in a matter of minutes--my parents would walk there to get my sister and I every day. My dad worked third shift at the Philadelphia Inquirer, which had him at home when school got out.

- The boys' and girls' entrances were long gone in the 1980s. Classes would line up by room number on the playground (two lines by sex) and would be escorted in by the teachers.

- Kickball in the corner of the yard.

- 100-yard dash from one end of the yard to the other

- Combination cafeteria/gym in the basement with special area classrooms to the side

- Class visit to boiler room to see coal boiler

- Computer lab to the side of the media center addition filled with networked (!) Apple //e computers

- "Surprise" fire drills (I swear there was one a month or something like that). The fire alarm used single-stroke bells, a technological dinosaur in today's era of speakers and strobe lights.

- The huge playground drinking fountains in the summer...definitely.

- The new playground was built by a father of triplets in my class, who was a carpenter.

- Sledding down "Typewriter Hill" in the winter...and going to activities at the water tower center in the summer.

Like anyone who moves while in school, that entire neighborhood, children, and school are frozen in my mind as of 1990. In December 2004, my fiancee and I spent an afternoon in center city, but unfortunately, we did not have the time to take the train to Chestnut Hill, where I wanted to have my first walk-through of my old neighborhood since 1990. I'll be sure to go back there on my next visit, though.

Cheers,

Matt Hohmeister
Jenks (would have been '94) :-)