This week’s question: Who was your first friend in first grade?
Welcome to Question of the Week, a weekly news column that poses timely questions about life, politics, culture, economics, health, and more to people out and about in our communities. Our hope at CCC News is this column dedicated to being curious about common experiences will help us to understand each other better. With school starting for many in The Dalles this week, we wondered who it was that people would remember from those first awkward days of class.
This week’s question: Who was your first friend in first grade?
We caught Valentino hard at work with the whole Kiwi Fence crew outside of Cascade Eye Center.
Bionicals
Valentino Romero, 24, The Dalles
“Her name was Kaitlyn,” Valentino said. “I can’t remember her last name. I met her in Mrs. Wong’s class.”
“I went to elementary school in Tracy, California.” That’s near Stockton in the San Juaquin Valley.
“We played with Bionicals a lot. I played Barbies with her,” he said.
“She was going to be the love of my life, but you know, life happens so… The last I heard she was married with a few kids.”
Andy Brokaw said he is still in touch with his first grade best friend.
Andy Brokaw, 42, Goldendale - and yes, he is a distant relative of News Anchor Tom Brokaw.
“Jason Stone,” Andy said immediately. “We went to Goldendale Primary school together. I think the teacher was Mr. Grey.
“We played at pretty much everything. We loved building forts.”
“The last time I saw him was in 2009, but we talk quite a bit on the phone. He lives in Mason City, Iowa. “He’s just recovering from a medical problem.”
“We got in trouble one time for staying out too late. We went to model train club and stayed out to late playing the park.”
“Yeah, we're life-long friends.”
Kevin Poff was busy taking care of some landscaping near the Fred Meyer gas station. The 31-year-old named his first grade best friend like they had just met.
Kevin Poff, 31, The Dalles
Bumblebee - the best Transformer
“Garrett Hicks,” Poff said with no hesitation. “We went to Chenowith Elementary. Phyllis Coats was our teacher. I think she married Mike Newman.
“We used to draw war games together with boats and flames. Both our dads were big World War II nuts. Those drawings would get us into trouble at school. And if that failed, we had Transformers.”
Poff said they had not spoken since third grade when he moved to Dallesport. “It was a lot farther away in those days with no smartphones or internet.”
Camron Gonzales said he and first grade friend could talk endlessly about Beyblade, an anime on Cartoon Network.
Camron Gonzales, 18, The Dalles
“Zachary Mock,” he said, noting they met at Dry Hollow Elementary.
“We mostly hung out and talked about the show Beyblade on Cartoon Network.
“We still keep in touch. I talked to him recently.”
Judy Sullivan, “Bad girls don't tell their age, The Dalles
“Lyle Anderson,” she said immediately. “He passed some time ago. We went to Spring Glen in Renton, Washington - home of the Seahawks.”
“The teacher was Mrs. Keller. I did not like her and she did not like me either. I had to sit in the corner a lot with a dunce cap.”
Judy said she and Lyle “went to the movies a lot. Horror films. We played a lot of games like tag, a lot of roughhousing.”
Richard Hunt, 72, Dufur.
“I remember a Japanese girl in first grade,” he said. “Her name was Victoria.”
“We just walked around the play yard. Yeah, my mother worked at the Star Café in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Her parents owned that café. We went to St. Mary’s, and the teacher was sister Odegard.”
How do you spell it?
“She didn’t teach me how to spell it,” he said with a laugh.
Tom Peterson, 53, The Dalles with better half Peggy Peterson - Family Photo went awry.
“My first friend in school was a kid by the name of Billy Peters. He was kind of like me with his last name and all. But what struck me was his ability to really dream. He was sick from school a lot. But we would always hang out at recess and talk. Billy would tell awesome stories about finding things, cool rocks, gold and checking out creeks and having adventures. Other kids said he lied a lot. But I did not believe them. His stories were so awesome. One time, I walked home with him to his house and I remember the bigger kids from fifth- and sixth-graders walking around us and teasing us a lot of the way. We seemed so small compared to those monstrous 11- and 12-year-olds. When we got to his old two-story house, his older teenage brother was even scarier for me. I remember we hid away from his loud-shouting brother in his room to play with his shoe box of of odds and ends before my mom came and picked me up. Billy moved away a few months later. I wonder where he is today?”
