My name is Margery Galle, I grew up in East St Louis MO. I have so many great memories from school, I guess the one that I always go back to is my walk from home to school. We had a long walk and I know people say that all the time. Rain or sleet, nothing stopped us. There was no calling off school! Whatever it did outside, you went to school. It was fine because we always picked up new friends along the way. We lived about a block away from a set of railroad tracks. On the corner there used to be what was called the “lagoons” which was part of a local park. It used to have water in it but dried up when I was kid. All the kids would gather there and that’s when we’d make up stories, each person added to the story. We did that for the longest time. On days I was by myself I ran every step of the way to school, I was so scared. I don’t know why I was scared. No one every bothered us. But most of the days, it was a lot of fun. On days we had a nickel (rarely) we’d buy a pickle along the way. It makes me smile when I relive it!

Margery shared her story at Southwestern Illinois College, Senior Programs, in Belleville IL, on June 13, 2018. Thank you Margery!