College Personality Badges: Fostering a Sense of Neighborhood

And so I look back to my early school years with fondness. The way the then-vast areas today seem so tiny. The walk about my son’s new college yesterday evening included a tour. I was hit by the elf-like bathrooms and the Hobbit-sized seats! I have memories of PE in jacket and knickers, creating tie-dye, enjoying kiss-chase in the playground, and assemblies in the hall. I don’t recall my mum getting me on the initial time, or leaving me, or any kind of trauma whatever. So School badges UK, like my father before me, time must have evaporated the poor memories and left me just with the sweetest scent of nostalgia.

Probably it absolutely was more than just time. Probably the love and interest of my parents placed an umbrella of security about me. Perhaps it’s not the area, the full time, or the material of the institution building which makes these thoughts so sweet. Possibly it’s more the collective memories of individuals in an idyllic youth and the heat of a warm household which endures.

Pulaski College No. 8 in Passaic NJ, in the early ’60s was an alternative time. You must be at least in the 4th rank and our rates had 18 Patrol Boys, two Sgt, one Lt, One Capt, and a Key, who manned the sides of urban Passaic in rain, snow, sleet, and hail. The Officers, Fundamental, Captain, Lieutenant, and Sergeants had yellow belts to tell apart them and needed to be 5th graders (the highest grade within our school) and their job was to test all the other articles to be sure we were there and doing our job. We also had a Quartermaster who needed attention of the apparatus, water equipment, flags, etc. He’d the conventional regular responsibilities and had a silver Patrolman badge BUT he used an orange Officers belt and was regarded an officer

In the school along with manning the roads, we had Patrol Boys at specific opportunities to open and shut them for the little kids, but we had “Monitors” in the school it self to watch the halls. The “Monitors” had the same plan to the Patrol Boys but much less prepared and managed.

I don’t know if this was distinctive to NJ, but we had a “Chief” as well as the other officers and whoever was Main made sure the other officers did their job. It had been a REAL chain of command! We use to go on trips, specifically for the patrol boys. One other Passaic schools we achieved on the visits had Patrol guys and THEY also had a Chief. The Patrol Guys were huge in those days, actually the Catholic Schools had Patrol Boys. While we could have, we didn’t have girls in the past and I can’t recall if our badges said “College Safety Patrol” or “College Child Patrol” but we called ourselves “Patrol Boys” ;.