Starting first grade so many years ago

It’s been 50 years since I started first grade at Dabbs Elementary School in Hulbert, a small community near West Memphis, in August of 1968.

Hulbert was later incorporated into West Memphis, and the Dabbs Elementary School building no longer exists, except for a few photos and in thousands of memories. It was an old building, even in 1968.

My only memories of the school are from first grade because, in 1969, my family moved back to Corning, where we were from originally, and it was there that I completed grades 2-12.

I drove by Dabbs Elementary School in the mid1980s and the building was no longer a welcoming place for children. Sadly, it was empty, and all boarded up. Later, the building was torn down completely.

It’s a shame that it is gone. It was the kind of building that would have been great as a museum. But, at any rate, an internet search for Dabbs Elementary School generates a photo and some comments about it on the Crittenden County Facebook page.

Dabbs Elementary was originally named Hulbert School and was a place where students could go all the way through high school graduation.

According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, Henry Dabbs set up a general store in a two-story brick building in Hulbert in the early 1900s.

Other historical records indicate that, in 1948, when a new high school was built in the area, Hulbert School was renamed Dabbs Elementary School in honor of the businessman who had been a part of the community for decades.

Dabbs himself lived from 1892-1984. Dabbs Elementary was a first- through sixth-grade school until it closed in 1978.

In 1968, when I was there, my first-grade teacher was Ms. Duck, and the building principal was Mrs. Faulk.

I remember how Ms. Duck taught us to read. She wrote the word “can” on the board and said, “I want you to remember this word because I’m going to ask you what it is tomorrow.”

I dutifully obeyed, and on the next day she gave us the word “and.” New words were added each day, and soon we were writing entire sentences and reading them.

The lessons resonated with me in a special way; I have been gladly reading and writing ever since.

In November of my firstgrade year, the country elected Richard Nixon as president, and I remember my Dad showing me his picture in the newspaper.

“Do you know who this is?” he asked. “He is going to be the next president.”

Then Dad and I had a short talk (a very short civics lesson, really) in which I learned that President Johnson was the nation’s chief executive and that Nixon would succeed him in January.

Soon after that, Ms. Duck told us in class that we were getting a new president, and she asked us who the current president was.

I remember speaking up and — armed with the information from the discussion with Dad — I proudly proclaimed, “President Johnson!”

It felt good to have the answer and to get the teacher’s approval. It was an early example in my life about how education is meant to be a joint effort between the home and the school.

And like any good school, Dabbs Elementary had activities to enrich the academic efforts.

There was a school-wide playday in which we had several different races. I got a blue ribbon for winning a

certain type of race called the lame dog. Participants in the lame dog event had to crawl forward on their hands and on one foot (like a lame dog on three legs).

There was also a huge Halloween Carnival in the fall — a very big production really — with the entire school decorated for the event.

There was a field trip in which we all got to go to the Memphis Zoo, and my mom was one of several who took a carload of students.

Such were the memories of 50 years ago, from a good school that is long gone.

In a certain sense, however, the influence of Dabbs Elementary School lives on in the lives of the young people who learned there.

And its memory lives on, in the annals of local history, in a few sentimental artifacts and in the minds of the students who spent many productive hours within its walls.

I’m glad I was one of them.

David Wilson, Ed.D., of Springdale, is a former high school principal and is the

communications director for the Transit and Parking Department at the University of Arkansas. His book, “Learning Every Day,” is available on Amazon. He may be contacted by email at dwnotes@hotmail.com. Opinions expressed are those of the author.