Which hand to use-Right Left-Left Right? Who knows! Especially if you were a child of the 50's and left handed. I'm from the fifties and proud of it, But school was kind of different.
We had 70 students, two teachers and a two room building and all stuck out in the country several miles from the nearest town. The one way to make this type of situation work was to do everything alike. You played the same games, you sat in the same room, same desk and even read the same books. This was all fine and dandy until someone came along who was different, the dreaded left-hander.
What a nightmare for any teacher who was already trying to teach four different grades all in one room. To have a lefty was unthinkable. To have school supplies or left handed products for this student was unheard of.
This was my case. I had the sweetest 1st grade teacher. She was old and very set in her ways. Everyone learned to do things the same way. So I learned to print right handed. I could do everything else left handed as long as I didn't need help. By the time I was in the 3rd grade, I had a teacher (same situation, two room school, etc.) who believed if you were left handed you should write left handed. What a trick to go from right to left now, believe me switching hands was just as hard as learning the other way, so I worked on that. Just as I thought I had it accomplished, I broke the knuckles on my left hand playing basketball with the big kids on our outdoor court. So it was back to writing right handed. By this time I was really mixed up on which hand to use for what! What was allowed, what was proper, who would let you get away with it and who wouldn't. When I was an 8th grader, I changed schools. I still held the pencil in my right hand and when the good Sister's saw how bad I wrote they made sure that it was corrected within the school year(Right handed)
So I was always looking for left handed products. Potato peelers, carrot scrapers, left handed mouse, keyboards you name it. The sad thing is I learned almost everything I do right handed. My granddaughter shouldn't have to. I should have been able to get a left handed bass guitar 20 years ago that didn't cost the moon. Things shouldn't cost an arm and a leg for left handed products. That is why I'm out there looking. It should all be easier.
