Smile for the Camera, 17th Edition "School Days"

The word prompt for the 17th Edition of Smile For The Camera is "School Days." It is September, historically the month when a new school year begins. We all have images of the days spent in school. The barefoot children gathered together with their teacher in front of the rural school your ancestors attended. Children at their desks, children at play in the school yard, and those obligatory school photographs - one for every year. Show us your family memories of school days. Thank you to Shades of the Departed for hosting.

Three Avalon, Pennsylvania school days chums from first grade through high school and then from college through medical school are my parents: George VanGilder Hughes and Martha Jean Stark Hughes and Joseph Nathan Arthur, Jr.

My parents and Joe Arthur attended Avalon public schools from grade school through high school. My Mom decided on Wooster College in Wooster, Ohio for further education and Dad and Joe attended Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. Following their college years, both attended the University of Pittsburgh Medical School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and after graduation served their internship at McKeesport Hospital. Dad and Joe did go into separate medical fields; Dad specialized in Internal Medicine and Joe in Urology.

A first home for both the Hughes and Arthur families was on Washington Drive near Perrysville, Pennsylvania. We lived two doors away. We spent a lot of time together and for years, took our family vacation in Stone Harbor, New Jersey usually sharing a duplex. The next generation (that would be mine) developed a close friendship.

Around 1960 we both moved from Washington Drive to other parts of the greater Pittsburgh area. We kids drifted apart, going to different schools, but the fond memories remain. The adults remained in close contact until my parents divorce. I guess the bond between my Mother and the Arthur’s was the strongest as she remained in contact with them until their deaths. In fact, my Mom and I visited Peg Arthur in Pittsburgh several weeks before she died.

Avalon Elementary School class photo.

The photographer was Alfred Walter Stark, my Mom's paternal uncle.