First-day-of-school photos of ourselves

I’m starting a thread here showing us as first-graders, and I’ll go first.
I’d love to see your photos to admire. I’m sure it’ll be fun.

That’s such a nice idea! You look so well-behaved and full of anticipation. The little swinging monkeys and the doll on the school cone are cute. And what a lovely old-fashioned school satchel. These days, all you see are those huge backpacks.

All I have is a class photo. But I started school in 1970 too. And I had pigtails. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of just myself.

It’s a lovely memory.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a single photo from my first day of school. Back in 1962, people didn’t take photos nearly as often. What a shame!

Thanks, Ina, and everyone else. It can also be another photo of you as a kid. Doesn’t matter. Or a Halloween picture—yeah. I’m looking forward to seeing them.

That’s me (on the right) with my twin sister Renate on our first day of school. That was over 60 years ago now… Unfortunately, my sister is no longer with us; she died of a tropical disease at the age of 28.
The dresses we’re wearing here were our “school dresses.” We only wore them to school and took them off right at lunchtime so they wouldn’t get dirty. But that wasn’t a school uniform—back then, we just wanted to take good care of our clothes.

Thanks so much, ruthk, for sharing. I always find it interesting to see photos from other decades (especially before 1960). You look really chic. Back in my day, we still had pleated skirts and white knee-high socks—I really loved wearing them. Those were the good old days.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture from my first day of school either.
But I found this one—I was 5 years old (1959).

I also found this.
Did you guys have a chic stroller like this, too?

Great idea!
Me in September 1977: 

I started school in 1958. My mom sewed that dress for me back then—it was light blue with dark blue polka dots, and the bows were made of dark blue velvet. I had another one just like it in red, with white zigzag trim at the top and bottom of the dress.

  

First day of school, 1963. I loved that blue teddy coat and was heartbroken when I had to give it to my sister.

I’m still looking for the photo of me in the stroller.

It’s wonderful to see your old childhood photos—thank you so much for sharing them. I found another photo with my mom. I have no idea how old I was in it.

I always had these awesome bows in my hair that my mom still ironed for me.

@Bastelfan: Why do you have a lion next to you there??? 

@Libelle11 in the past, you could have photos like that taken at wildlife parks (unthinkable today). We have some like that too, but with baby cheetahs. Unfortunately, I can’t show you anything; my childhood photos are at my mother’s house.

Really nice pictures. And it’s amazing how clearly you remember such seemingly small details—like what you were wearing and what your hairstyle was. It’s nice to have these memories.

Thank you, Ina, maybe from time to time, especially at times like these, we all need to think about something nice.

Enjoy your free time in the sunshine




The first-grader with her little sister and the slate that was common back then (1950)

(Unfortunately quite blurry, since it was photographed years ago and I don’t have the original on hand right now.)

Looking cool in jeans and sneakers, 1985 😁

My cousin got to use the same school cone the following year 😁

I think the idea is great, and your pictures are really wonderful.
We were all dressed up so nicely :-)

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture from my first day of school, because my father mostly took slides at that time... they’re still lying dormant in boxes in the basement.

But I did find a few old family pictures.
Especially my father, peeling potatoes on the balcony for the family, is one of my favorite memories... afterward he always had time to play and romp around, while my mother cooked for us.
My mother had sewn most of the clothes herself back then, because there simply wasn’t much money. Back then, handicrafts were still cheaper than buying ready-made. That has completely changed today, too...
And then we always wore the older kids’ clothes until they were worn out; they were also swapped with cousins... 



This was my first day of school in 1984, wearing my favorite jacket, knitted by Grandma.
My little sister started kindergarten on the same day. And my big brother was starting 4th grade. 

Of all days, I had short hair for my first day of school 🙈🙈

I’m the little greedy-guts in the armchair. My sister is 4 years older❣️

Diana , thanks for sharing—those are lovely pictures of you. I really like the carnival photo.
I still have some carnival pictures of myself, too; I’ll upload them when I get a chance.
It’s pretty impressive to see what kind of clothes we used to wear back then, how different the school cones were, and the hairstyles. Every era has its charm.

Wishing everyone a lovely, sunny weekend—stay healthy and make the most of it.

Yours, Andrea

When I was in kindergarten (1975), there was a girl who always wore the most amazing crocheted dresses. Her name was Karin—strange that I still remember her name... I was always so jealous of those wonderful dresses. All kinds of colors, paired with her blonde braids.
Maybe that’s where the foundation was laid for my love of crocheting and knitting...?

What a great idea—it’s so much fun to go on a “photo trip down memory lane” here. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any old photos yet, but I’ll have a good look for them tomorrow.

I think the pictures with the school cones are so cute! Back then, we didn’t have that at all where I lived, and I don’t think it’s a common custom today either, which I think is a shame (it would also be a great way to get creative!).
I have quite a few Carnival photos from my early school years—my mother came up with lots of imaginative ideas, like cleaning ladies, newsstands, Miss…
A very heartfelt thank you to you, Bastelfan, for the great idea!

Thank you so very much Wollbaerli, I also think it’s great that so many are joining in. A trip down memory lane like this is good for the soul, too.

Here are the carnival pictures I promised, from me; I think I was 3 and 5 years old there.





Did you have leather pants like these too? I loved them. :-)



Our mom made all the costumes herself (early ’50s)

:-) Wonderful—yeah, we had those carpet beaters, too. Awesome.
Your mom really did a great job with the costume.
The ingenuity back then helps many of us today be creative with wool and similar materials.

That was one of Karin's little dresses...

This visual retrospective is such a treat given the current situation—a big thank you to everyone who’s sharing their photos!

You all have such great photos. I think this trip down memory lane is awesome, too, and I love looking through my old photo albums as well. So I went looking and found a photo taken on my first day of school. Here I am standing in front of our house—but unfortunately without my school cone. My mom sewed the outfit herself, just like everything else I used to wear back then. A class photo was also taken that day—I’m sitting in the back row and I’m not very easy to see.




And here’s a photo that was taken even before I started school. I must have been about 5 years old there.



There are also some Carnival photos of me—I’ll try to find them. My mom always sewed really beautiful costumes for me—once even as a “Tanzmariechen.” I must have been about 14 years old then. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos from before that.

Oh, and I started school in 1960—and in my first year, I still had a slate, with the sponge hanging out of my leather satchel.

What a lovely idea.
While looking through my photos, I came across this one:
a needlework class. Around 3rd grade, so about 1968 or ’69


(the young teacher back then was still at that school 30 years later and became my son’s homeroom teacher).

Oh, right... I’m the second from the left up there.

and here’s another one on the playground, around 1963, 
I’m riding a tricycle and Mom is knitting on the bench. 

Oh man, needlework class! I loved it so much!
It’s a shame our kids don’t have that at all anymore. I’d even been thinking about offering one as an after-school club at an elementary school... 

I really didn’t like needlework class! It was always in the afternoon, and we weren’t allowed to talk during it. And what I found most unfair: the boys had the afternoon off!
I didn’t discover a love for needlework until later, after I’d left school.

I felt exactly the same way, Ruth. I always got a D in needlework. I never felt like making the things we had to reproduce there. And what I really didn’t like were those long metal knitting needles. They felt so heavy and clunky. That’s why I’m doubly glad that there are now circular needles made of wood or bamboo.

I didn’t like sewing in school either. That only changed when I started sewing clothes for my son. Money was tight back then, so he always wore nice, modern clothes.

Oh yeah, needlework class at school—I didn’t like it much, except for those embroidery exercises on canvas and crocheting pot holders.
Once we had to sew a skirt, and that stupid teacher threw mine on the floor because it wasn’t sewn right. That wasn’t very nice.
That’s right, the boys didn’t have to take the class.

I absolutely hated home economics in school, and then later, as a career changer, I trained to become an industrial seamstress. My mom got a fit of laughter when I told her; she said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” After about 7 months, she asked for the first time, “Could you please sew me a skirt out of this fabric?” I grinned and sewed it :-)
I made this needle case in 2nd grade, and it still serves me well today.

Oh, Akela, that brings back memories.
I made and embroidered a bag just like that back then, too. But unfortunately, I don’t have it anymore.

Yeah, me too. Mine was white, embroidered with red, and had colorful little stars on it.
Unfortunately, it’s gone missing too.

I also took another look through my photo album. 


I was still very young back then, but always zooming around at breakneck speed in my Bobby Car. The stairs were always locked whenever we were racing around. 


The kitchen was state-of-the-art back then 


The teddy bear with his original clothes is still alive today—he’s been mended a few times, but he’s still going strong. He’s now in my daughter’s walk-in “hidden object” room (her bedroom). 

A walk-through hidden-object picture—I’m laughing my head off :-)

Back in the day, we used to call this a “pigsty” ;-)

At some point I rephrased it as a walk-in hidden object picture; that sounds nicer.

She gets that from me—my room used to be such a mess, and my daddy always shook his head because I still found everything right away.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any first-day-of-school or carnival photos, so here are my treasures from the past :-)

Great idea and awesome photos :-).

I don’t have any first-day-of-school photos either, but I do have two from the year I started school (1975).

In the Soviet Union, we used to dress up for New Year’s—here I’m a snowflake.
In my hand—the obligatory New Year’s gift from kindergarten. Check out my ears, too :-D.



And here I am after a kindergarten performance sometime in the summer of 1975.