Blog Carnival..."All we want is fair hair"

In 1981, in the small suburban village of Mariemont, just outside Cincinnati, Ohio, I was 3rd grader at Dale Park Elementary School.

During the school year, the teachers at our school went on strike. I remember it was confusing. I also remember how strange it was walking by all of the teachers outside on the picket lines as we made our way to the school building. We had substitute teachers. Life went on but right outside the windows there was chaos....

The strike went on and on...it went for over 90 days before it ended, actually. And at some point, the children in our classroom came together in support of the teachers. All I can remember is that our parents we are all very supportive of the teachers.

The chaos seemed to manifest itself in the form of our own classroom strike. In our classroom we had had some type of cut n curl hairstyling salon. In Mariemont, at the time, a Cut n Curl Hair Styling Salon had opened at the square. I don't remember why/what we were working on in the classroom, though.

One day, I remember we were on recess and we all decided to go on strike from the salon. I recall making picket signs, acting out mini dramas and I have crystal clear memories of walking across the front of our classroom (which was an entire wall of windows) that looked directly out to the street where we could see our beloved teachers. There we were, as our teachers were striking, so were we. Back and forth and back again. We did this until the strike ended. Everyday.

We chanted, "all we want is fair hair"!

I'm not sure exactly why this memory is the one I thought of or the one I chose to write about...We had a small extremely creative class, in a tight knit community so it must have been far more of a big deal than I can even remember! Anyhow, there it is, in all it's glory:)