The church I went to as a child ran a small Christian school from 1977 to 1988.

When my family moved back to Albany in the summer of 1983, I started attending.

It was a very small school with only around 30 students total from kindergarten to 12th grade. There was a “headmaster” who was one of our pastors and then everyone’s family chipped in to help. While, it was small, it was the only thing I really ever knew. Even when we lived in California, we went to the church school out there.

One day I may write about my feelings regarding home schooling, private education and public education. Let’s just say that I know my parents and my friend’s parents felt they were doing the right thing.

Anyway. We met in an old house near downtown Albany. It was built in the late 1880’s and when we used it as a school it was peach with white trim. Needless to say, I think it looks better now:

The old school building on Tift Ave

It is now used as a woman’s shelter/rehab thing. They have refurbished it and it looks wonderful. I would love to get inside to see what they have done with the place, but the general public is not allowed.

More pictures of the school plus pictures of me at the school past the jump.

The next pictures were taken from old yearbooks that I had. Yes, we even had yearbooks.

This picture is of most of the elementary/middle school kids on the front porch of the school. We had just been given something else to sell for a fundraiser:

Me on the porch 1987

Recess is what I remember the most. There was and still is a vacant lot next to the house. We would play kickball, wiffle ball and football in the lot. When we played kickball or wiffle ball, we would use the front corner of the lot as home with first base being towards the house and so forth. The house itself was the right field fence so to speak. Actually, we made it a rule that if you hit the house in the air, it was a homerun. In wiffle ball, the only people who could do that consistently were those who could switch hit. Come to think of it, they also happened to be the best baseball players later in life.

When we played football, we played half the field with one chance at a first down. There were/are two trees at the far end of the lot that served at the goal line. Most of the time the “Headmaster” would be the quarterback for us. We had great times. I found a picture of a group of us during a game. The picture is from the end zone looking back to the street. Home plate would be at the back right and the house is off to the left of the picture:

On the gridiron

On a sad side note. The short girl in the front of that picture was the oldest daughter of the “Headmaster”, they had 8 kids. She was killed in a car accident when she was in her early 20’s. It was an odd funeral, because it was the first time many of us had seen each other since those days on the school yard.

Here is a current picture of the vacant lot. The patch of green grass in the middle left is where home plate was and the volleyball net is between the two trees that served as the end zone.

The Vacant Lot

On a fun note, I was in a play while I was at the school. Our city has a “Little” theater where they put on amateur productions. I auditioned for and got a part in Tom Sawyer. I played Alfred, the nerd who gets beat up by Tom Sawyer. I had a great little “Dandy” outfit. It was fun, but as you will see, I did not get many dates from my acting career:

WunderKraut as Alfred

Anyway, we sure had some good times. I went there 4th grade through 7th grade. I left to attend a much larger private school for a few years before ending up in public school for my last two years of high school. The little school imploded on itself the year after I left. It was weird. The year I left, many other families left not only the school but the church. The next 4 years were tough years for our little church. But, I do have some great memories of those 4 years attended the little school in the big house on Tift Ave.