7F

It was a big deal going from a rural school with only three grades, to the New Brighton Junior High School!  The relatively new Junior High School was a huge, multi-level building.  You no longer spent the whole day in one classroom;  instead, you moved from classroom to classroom.  It was intimidating!

On day one, we were all assigned to home-rooms and given a class designation.  I was placed in Mrs. Littell's home-room along with about thirty other students.  We were to be known for that year as the students of 7F.

Someone somewhere had taken all the incoming students and began placing them in groups:  7A, 7B, 7C, 7D, 7E, and 7F.  By the time they got to 7F, there weren't any decisions to make;  the remaining names on the list were simply the students of 7F. 

I pretty quickly noticed that most of our class was made up of students who might have been considered "undesirables".  It seems that the philosophy of the day was that it would be easier to handle these young people if you lumped them all into one group!

I know what you're thinking!  How did I end up in this group?  Obviously, I don't know the answer to that question.  There were several of us in the class who didn't seem to fit the motif of the selection process. 

It was a rough year.  At first, I was bullied by several of the guys.  Because I was one of the 'smart' ones, I was forced to share my homework with some of the 'tough guys' in the class.  There were attempts made to get me to help them cheat their way through tests.  I had my $.35 lunch money stolen too many times to remember.  Did I mention, it was a rough year!

But I survived. 

And the next year I was placed in 8B. 

PS - I made many new friends in eighth grade.  However, I maintained a unique friendship with the "undesirables" from 7F.  Often, throughout the remainder of my high school days, my new friends would make odd comments about my friendship with some of the 'hoods' of our class.  All I could do was to say, "We got acquainted in 7F."