My first day of kindergarten in 1949 was all new to me. I had no conception of how to go to grade school. The other kids were strangers, who acted strangely in some cases. One girl poked me in the ribs with her elbow when she thought I was not observing the rules...as she understood them. The urinals in the boys room loomed higher than my head, and they called the boys room "The Basement." But I survived.