Slater School, Fresno, California. Her First Year in School



Nettle's first year

 It was Slater Elementary School.  Can you find her in this picture.  Front row second little girl with white ribbons in her hair.  She was such a cute little girl. Gosh, how the years have gone by so fast.  It feels like yesterday that I got her ready for this picture.  I remember how I kept telling her not to do what her older sister had done on her school picture.  It seems that Diana did not like the fancy hairdo that I had managed to do on her hair so when it came time for her to take the picture, she put on her hooded jacket.  I was upset and shocked when I saw the pictures.  Diana always had her own personal style going on and at that point in time I made a mistake by insisting the "Shirley Temple" look on her.  She was already in 4th grade when that happened.  So, naturally, I was hoping Jeannette would not take down her pigtails with pretty white ribbons.  She didn't let me down.  I bought every single picture from the school packet.  Her teacher died a year later from brain cancer and there was a big write-up in our local paper about the big PG&E power lines causing a cluster of cancer in our neighborhood.  We moved away from there and relocated to southeast Fresno and far away from the electric power poles.  Jeannette began to attend school at Easterby Elementary.  She soon made lots of friends.  After that she went to Ayer Elementary.  She excelled in school and was never in trouble except during one conference the teacher told me that Jeannette was "very sociable" and loved to visit each one of her friends before she actually sat down to do her work.  I remember coming home and telling her that she couldn't do that.  She looked at me and said, "Mom, I have to greet my friends and I can't just walk in and ignore them."  Now, as I reflect on that statement I know she had it in her from the start.  "She loved her friends. " She was a loving person. Such a kind heart.  My Nettle Poodle.