A lot of folks know that 83-year-old Charlie is a devoted pack rat collector — especially his wife.

The other day I got out one of those treasures, all of my report cards from 1936 through 1948, the year I graduated from good, old DHS.

My first one was really just a letter to Mrs. Gill from Dorothy Lee. I would be embarrassed if you read what she had to say about me.

Over the many years, Dorothy was a good friend of Peg and me.

Many visits to her house and some at ours until she passed away at age 99. I’ve mentioned her in previous columns.

My first grade teacher was Neva Skinner. She wrote I was a fairly good manuscript writer.

My second grade teacher, Teresa Brechenser, said I was in reading club one, the best reading group.

I also had Teresa for third grade. She says I was still in reading group one.

She was also my friend for many years. And when I was manager of the liquor store, she would call me to bring her a couple of bottles of Taylor wine once in a while.

For fourth grade I had a Miss White. She says I enjoy writing stories and my spelling is excellent.

Miss White had a room at the Colby house. She once took us there, and I remember Miss Colby had painted a pretty red rose on the screen of a door there.

She gave me satisfactory in 11 out of 11 subjects.

In fifth grade, I had Herbert Tag. I did well in writing. I also had Mr. Tag for sixth grade.

I had a bad fall on the ice in front of the school’s front door. I hit my head and had a concussion.

Mr. Tag said I did almost perfect work and was exceptional in arithmetic.

I was out of school for many days due to my fall and said I didn’t want to go back.

Mr. Tag came to our house several times, but he said I was ready to go to seventh. I went back and he then passed me on what were called conditions.

I was always thankful for what he did for me.

Seventh grade I had Barbara Stauffer. She gave me lots of S+’s and H’s. Then in eighth grade, Carol Klett gave me H’s, S+’s and S’s and pushed me on to ninth grade.

I think my teacher was a Miss Julius. I got B+ in algebra, B in English, B in shop and B in civics.

My 10th grade teacher was a Miss Warren. She lived in the Gardner apartments. I got A’s from Bill Carey in geometry. I remember old Bill at his desk, brushing dandruff off his shoulders.

I got B+ in biology, B+ in woodshop and B+ for English in Rex Clark’s class.

In 11th grade, I got B+ for advanced algebra, B’s for U.S. history and B’s and A’s for English, B’s for trigonometry and B for world government.

In 12th grade, I only went to school for three classes that I needed to graduate. I then went and worked eight hours at the Heddon factory.

I got A’s in Latin, B’s in mechanical drawing and B’s in metal shop. I was fortunate to have good teachers at DHS in my years.

Besides the men with suits and ties, the women all wore dresses in those days.

Smoking and drinking were no-no’s back then for teachers, but I’m sure some of them did it.

I kept all these report cards in a type of folder given to Dowagiac High School to keep report cards in by Frank C. Rounds, O.D. (optometrist, Lee Bank Building, 1 to 5:30 daily).