Old School Part One

My father George started kindergarten at Wheatley Elementary on Neal Street NE in the fall of 1921. His sister, Catherine dragged him to school by the hand, and he cried the whole way. The teacher kept asking him his name, and he kept telling her “Yorgo.” They both must have been mystified. "Yorgo" didn't speak English, and he remembers being the only Greek boy in the class. The only friend he can recall from those early days was Harry Chase who lived up the street and did scary shows in his basement. (Isn't there always one?)

Henry Cooke 1926 (Roger front far left)

Meanwhile, in Mount Pleasant, my mother Bebe and her little brother Roger attended Henry D. Cooke on 17th Street NW.  Cooke was unusually large and overcrowded for an elementary school in the 1920s, and Bebe was a shy little girl.  She didn't like going to school. She remembers being locked in a closet, but she doesn't remember why.

In 1929, the family moved to the brand new Broadmoor Apartments on Connecticut Avenue and Porter Streets in Northwest.  The children in the building had their own little bus which took them to John Eaton Elementary on Lowell Street. One of those children was John Hechinger who would grow up to be a hardware magnate and start a chain of stores in our area. Bebe’s only good memory of John Eaton was the bakery truck which came around at recess. She was always torn between the eclair and the cinnamon bun.

Roger and Bebe

My father’s family also moved to Cleveland Park in the 1920s. George, Catherine and their little brother Nick all attended John Eaton starting in 1926. George remembers at recess a truck came from Holmes Bakery to sell treats. My mother Bebe, who also went to John Eaton, liked the cinnamon buns, and George liked the eclairs.  George remembers that John Eaton was bigger than Wheatley and had a better playground. 



The Cokinos children walked the quarter mile from Macomb Street to school until George got a bicycle. Between owning a bike and getting a recommendation from his neighbor, Mr. Burka, of Burka’s Liquors, George became the first captain of the first boy patrol in the city. He remembers being in the sixth grade which would make the year about 1927. He kept his badge all his life.

His little brother Nick followed in his footsteps about four years later. Here's a picture of him and his fellow officers. (Click on the photo to enlarge)

Nick- 4th from right second row (1930s)

Most of the elementary schools went from kindergarten to the eighth grade in those days which would date this picture of Catherine's graduation sometime around 1929.

Catherine second row second from left