Thursday, August 13, 2009

Skywatch Friday = Okinawa Memories Part V

Skywatch Friday = Skies Over Okinawa 1968-70
Sukiran Elementary DOD School
Still In Operation Today
Called Zukiran Elementary Today
View of Sukiran Elementary From Helicopter Pad
At Fort Buckner Headquarters
When The Top Army Brass Flew In and Out They Flew Over The School.
Noise Was So Loud!
You Stopped Teaching Till They Were Gone.

The Okinawa Culture Teacher
Teaching Origami To My First Graders
This teacher would visit our classroom three times a week. When she entered the room the students would stand and bow and say good day in Japanese. When she left they would say "arigato" thank you! You can see the students' chairs in front where I had reading groups. The larger chair was my chair. One day my chair started moving and I thought one of the boys sitting next to me was playing a little joke and moving my chair. Then it happened again and all the students felt their chairs move a little. What's this. Then one bright little boy exclaims "Miss Gariety, I think we are having an earthquake!" Sure enough we were! But it was not high on the Richter scale.

Blurry Picture of a Halloween Party

The reason I'm including it is that you can look up and see the high windows are open. They were open across the room too. No air conditioning in 1968 in sub tropical Okinawa. The first two months of school (August and September) were the hottest and most humid months. At those times you didn't mind a typhoon to bring some cooling winds to the island.


Official First Grade Class Photo
Sukiran Elementary 1968
First Row from left to right: DOD School Superintendent, Principal Mary Muehring, Vice-Principal, Administrative Assistant to Principal, School Nurse and Yours Truly.

Now look carefully at the last little girl in the second row. She is wearing a dark jumper with a white blouse. All of you I am sure have seen her on TV. She grew up and became a news media person. You might recognize her by looking at her photo. She still has the same eyes and smile. Come back here tomorrow and I will tell you what news media personality was in my first grade class on Okinawa in 1968.

Meantime go visit some other Skywatch memes by clicking here:
http://skyley.blogspot.com/
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5 comments:

  1. ninjaAugust 13, 2009 at 4:31 PM

    That's very interesting.

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  2. nonizamboniAugust 13, 2009 at 6:05 PM

    Such an interesting post! I graduated from high school in Idaho that same year.
    And the sky is amazingly large and open. Thanks for sharing your memories and photos.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SandyCarlsonAugust 13, 2009 at 10:08 PM

    Those are some fun and loving memories. You make it so real and delightful. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This Is My Blog - fishing guyAugust 14, 2009 at 10:03 AM

    Joann: Thanks for sharing your old time skies for SWF.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 17, 2015 at 4:49 PM

    This is too cool! I was on Okinawa and went to Sukiran Elementary at the same time! 5th grade, 1968-1969 and 6th grade, 1969-1970. My sister went to Kubasaki High. I no longer have the school yearbooks though, as they were lost in the move back from Germany in 1976.

    ReplyDelete