Our lives changed forever when we came together from all over Nansemond County as 8th Graders

Article 2 Volume 15   The transition from elementary school to high school required some significant adjustments.

Thursday, July 31, 2025 

On September 6, 1955, the day after the Labor Day holiday, we all gathered together for the first time as 8th graders at East Suffolk High School.

The class totalled about 200 students.  We were assembled in the auditorium and divided into five home rooms, with approximately 40 students per room.

My homeroom teacher was Mrs. Evelvyn Jackson.

Bear in mind that some students came from areas where no bathrooms or indoor restrooms were available to them.  

The boy's restroom had a trough, like one used for feeding pigs. Also, regular toilet tissue.  

In my imagination, I can remember a boy in our class, on the second day, going to the restroom and staying for over 30 minutes.  The teacher asked me to go and check on him.  I went into the bathroom and asked him if he was okay and what was taking so long..He told me that he did not see any Sears magazines or newspapers in the toilet area.  I had to explain to him what he had to do.  The process was new to him.

The homeroom teacher explained to us that we would be required to go to 5 different classrooms a day for classes. The 5 classes were: English, Math, Science, History, and PE.

The girls were told that they could not come to school with: (1) their hair uncombed, (2) wearing pants without a dress covering them, (3) no stockings, and (4) no high-heeled shoes on their feet.

The image is from the ESH 1960  yearbook.  Girls dress 

Fashion was very similar in 1955.   The girl in the front row,

wearing a poka dot skirt, was a freshman in Mr Ben's class. 

The picture will be flipped later.

(to be continued on August 8, 2025)