David’s Preschool and Primary Years

This page includes photos and artifacts from when I was three years old to about seven years old.

By Dave

May 11, 2021

My parent who saved this in the archives apparently had a sense of humor, and hoped that someday I would too. It’s a little hard to read because it was written on the back of Pomona Box Company scratch paper which we used for everything.

Apparently there had been some sort of set-to between me and my parents, and my punishment was to write a 100-word essay proving that I had learned my lesson. You can see the little numbers in the text where I was counting the words.

This picture was taken in the “front room” of Grandma and Grandad’s house. I had received this train set for birthday or Christmas, 1958 or 1959, and I loved to play with it, but it came with a rule: it had to stay at Grandma and Grandad’s house. So every time I visited them I would try to get Grandad to get the train set out and set it up for me.

We often went to the park on Sunday afternoon after church, and there we would have a picnic lunch. Whittier had two really nice parks: Palm Park (which is the one in this picture) and Penn Park, which was older and up on the hill. We loved both of them. 

On this particular Sunday we were celebrating my birthday, which is why I’m wearing the funny hat. I think I look a lot like Jeff in this picture. It was 1958, so I would have been 6 years old. For this occasion both sets of grandparents were present, which was unusual. Grandpa (Herb Martin) is taking the picture, and Annie (Mary Martin) is sitting next to my mom. Dad, Aunt (Tirzah Jessup) and Grandad (Harold Votaw) are standing up with me. Grandma (Mildred Votaw) is way over to the left, since she didn’t like to appear in pictures. She may be watching Sue, who was undoubtedly present but we can’t see her in this photo. Peggy is wheeling Sue’s baby stroller around.

This was probably the most embarrassing birthday gift I ever got. I think it was my seventh birthday (judging by Sue’s age in the photo). I kept falling over – I couldn’t balance the bicycle! My dad and lots of other people tried to help, of course, but my lack of physical coordination prevented my success. Of course all of this was done in the full view of the neighbor kids, who never let me forget my failure. The bike was put away and never seen again. I got another bike for my 12th birthday and was finally able to ride it.

The pictures at left are from my primary school and preschool years. The photo on the left in the second row shows me concentrating on something. Apparently this was characteristic; I would study things quite intently, apparently figuring them out. The look on my face in the middle photo says that I don’t really trust this white-bearded gentleman; I am clearly on my guard.  

The Whittier News would sometimes print “essays” by school children – I’m sure they had to fill space – and this was probably the first writing I ever published. The drawing makes no sense at all and didn’t come from me. My relationship with my sister (at the time) was clearly edited for public consumption.

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