Chapter 8 - Hillcrest Country Day School

The Hillcrest campus consisted of a quadrangle surrounded by an Administration Building, a Gymnasium and a Dormitory. It was the former home of the Pembroke Country Day School which had moved to a new location on the Plaza. The Administration Building housed the Headmistress’s Office, the Assembly Hall, the classrooms, the Kitchen and Dining Hall, the teacher’s living quarters, a girl’s and a boy’s dormitory.

There were two girls other than myself who slept in the dormitory. I had never slept in dormitory or in a bunk bed but wanted to try it. Jean chose to stay in the bedroom with our parents. Some students were from wealthy families but our financial status did not matter to anyone at the school. During the nine months that we lived there I was content with the arrangements for myself but sad that Mother and Daddy had to live in such poor quarters.

Getting to work and back from work, they had to walk along 75th Street from State Line Road to Wornall Road, a distance of about two miles, in weather that ranged from severe summer heat to winter snow and ice. I never heard them complain but I know that it was not easy for them.

We lived there until the end of the school year. When summer came the school closed for the summer so we had to set about looking for a house that we could afford to rent. For us the rent could not be more than $25 per month.