William Penn Elementary School - Twirling

We first moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota from Kansas City, Kansas, in the middle of my first grade. We rented a home and then bought our house at 3655 Vincent Ave North. If I think of my childhood home, that is the home I think of!

I attended William Penn Elementary School for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade - and then we moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but that is another story!!!

I loved this school and enjoyed my studies but the fun part is what we did during recess. Since the girls were required to wear dresses, we wore shorts underneath them. Why? Because when we played on the monkey bars the boys would not be able to see our panties.

The monkey bars, not to be confused with a jungle gym, had three bars of varying heights, middle, high, and then low. Most of the time I stood in line for my turn at the middle but occasionally would be brave enough for the high one!

Twirling. That is what we did on the monkey bars. First we began with one leg hooked over the bar, then holding on tightly fall forward and twirl around to the beginning upright position. Next level of difficulty was falling backwards and twirling! Of course, there was also the "double" where you sat with both legs around the bars and twirled forward or backward. You held on with both your hands and the back of your knees! I loved doing this and had blisters and calluses on my hands. We would all count how many times we would go around!

This photo shows the monkey bars but not twirling. These children are just hanging or sitting.

We may have had other activities like hopscotch, but it was not the number one thing to do. In fourth grade, twirling at recess became less popular when a new girl joined our class. She was a natural leader and guess what? She did not play on the monkey bars; she RAN. All the 4th grade girls would run behind her to one end of the big field and back during recess. It is funny to think back at that time - running was okay for me but not as much fun as twirling.

Later, much later, as a young adult, I tried to twirl, and it was not the same. I did not have the calluses and it bruised the back of my knee! I did **one twirl** for old times sake.