As is clear to regular readers of this column, I spend a good portion of my days reminiscing about the days when I was a young lad growing up in Napa.

Lately, because of the publicity about the beginning of the school year, I have been thinking about the schools during my time as a student.

The 1942-43 school year saw major changes within Napa’s education system. Napa Junior High School was established with grades seven, eight and nine. Napa Union High School had grades 10, 11 and 12. Napa Junior College, now Napa Valley College, was established with grades 13 and 14.

All three of those institutions were housed in the buildings on the corner of Lincoln and Jefferson streets, buildings that the previous year housed only the high school. To accommodate three schools at what had been a one-school facility required double shifts.

So the high school and junior college students attended class in the morning and the junior high students in the afternoon.

1942-43 was the year that I entered the seventh grade at the new junior high. It was high adventure because after finishing the sixth grade at Salvador School, where we had one classroom and one teacher (Mrs. Strohl), in seventh grade we changed classes and teachers with each subject.

Another new adventure for the new seventh-grader was school assemblies, where the entire student body gathered in the auditorium (now the District Theater) for programs, song sessions or guest speakers.

The main floor of the auditorium had three seating sections. The seventh grade sat on the left as you face the stage, the eighth grade on the right and the big shots — the ninth-graders — were in the center.

At the assemblies, we all sat quietly through the program and, when it was over, proceeded to our next class.

The following two school years were not very different for me. Two noteworthy things that did happen, however, were upon entering the eighth grade, my class moved to the right side of the auditorium for assemblies and, in the ninth grade, we moved to the elite section, the center. It was a big deal.

In June 1945, we finished junior high and anxiously looked forward to joining the big guys at Napa Union High School.

Finally, September 1945 arrived and we were sophomores. Other than the fact that we were the youngest students on campus, the school day was not a lot different from junior high days.

Then, shortly after the start of the school year, we had our first assembly. As in junior high, the youngest class (the sophomores) sat in the left section, the juniors sat on the right and the hot-shot seniors were in the center.

After everyone was seated, a senior from the front row jumped up and yelled something like “Let’s hit it.” With that, screaming one letter at a time, the entire center section loudly spelled out “S-E-N-I-O-R-S.” When they were done, the juniors jumped up for “J-U-N-I-O-R-S.”

The other two classes actually had cheerleaders! Nobody had warned our poor sophomore class that we should have a cheerleader. All we could do was look at one another and feel embarrassed. Of course, the other two classes enjoyed watching us squirm.

My buddies and I were sitting in the front row and not quite sure what to do. Finally, good old Earl Randol jumped up and proceeded to lead us in spelling out “sophomores.” Unfortunately, most of the class, including Earl, was not sure how to spell it. We half-heartedly limped through the ordeal and then the program began. It was a very humbling experience.

For the next assembly, our class was prepared, we had a cheerleader (I think it was Earl) and we knew how to spell “sophomores.”

Napa As It Was appears every other Monday, alternating with Betty Rhodes’ Senior Corner.