Tables and Chairs

As the first day of school approached, that first year, we still did not have enough tables and chairs. It was the Friday before Labor Day weekend and still no tables and chairs. There were, of course, hundreds of unused chairs and tables in district buildings but we had no access to them.

At last I was told I could meet Bud at Madsion High School bleachers and he would see what he could find for us. Bud could not get over the idea that we were starting school Tuesday and had no tables and chairs. We walked through the warehouse at Madsion and found the old cafeteria tables from Madsion. Never mind that there was still food on them, they were tables and I excitedly said we’d take them. They were round and could be folded in half. Decades later they can still be found at Sunnyside. There were no chairs but I remember I grabbed a really big metal bowl. Bud loaded these things into a truck and took them over to Abernethy.

The teachers looked at me in disbelief. Six tables, no chairs and a big metal bowl! Bud who was watching this all play out said, “Well, maybe you could put tables and chairs on your back-to-school supply list. You know four pencils and a chair.” He laughed but a call was put out for tables and chairs and so old kitchen tables and spare chairs arrived. We used the folding chairs from the auditorium but had to return them if they were needed; the students carrying the chairs up and down the stairs.

I’ve never forgotten Bud and our time looking for tables and chairs a few days before school started. Later, as I gained experience, I learned that there was lots of unused furniture all over the district. Our area director for sure knew where it was, as did the person assigned to be the building principal. It was a game of survivor, and we were floating on an island while some looked on watching to see if we would make it.

I kept the kitchen table for years and used it as my principal desk, sharing many cups of tea and hard conversations at that table.

Parents and friends donated rugs so that class was often conducted with students sitting in a circle on the floor. We had sofas, easy-chairs and coffee tables. Middle school students piled onto sofas for book groups and class meetings. What started out as the only solution we could come up with, became the comfort and coziness middle schoolers felt most at home. Visitors thought we were a bunch of hippies with used furniture, and I guess if being a hippie meant doing with less and making do, it was a fair assessment. Besides we were heart-set, on creating curriculum, traditions and gardens. I don’t think we gave it much thought after the original surprise that the being a school, didn’t mean getting furniture.

Eventually the fire marshal found out, but that’s another story. I look forward to hearing about other people’s memories of the furniture the first few years.