What school did you go to?

Parkway West Middle [and] High School. The elementary school [I went to], Manchester Elementary, is not there anymore. My kindergarten class is now a Maiden Voyage; that’s where I bought my wedding dress.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Photo courtesy of Nancy Sachtleben

Social studies teacher Nancy Sachtleben smiles for her school photo. Sachtleben was 15 or 16 around the time of the picture. “I didn't realize it was picture day, but I remember picking out my outfit; now that I look at it, it doesn't go together. At least my hair is combed,” Sachtleben said.

How was your childhood home life?

In my opinion, perfect, but then again, that’s the only [childhood] you know. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. Her number one job was to be a mom, and my dad worked two jobs in order for her to be able to stay home. 

What has changed, and what hasn’t?

We were involved in things — [me] playing on a softball team, my brothers’ Little League Baseball — but kids today, it seems like they’re being pulled left and right when they’re young, doing so many things to see what they’re interested in. There’s not a lot of time for the entire family to do something. This parent’s gone with this kid, the other parent’s taking another kid someplace else, and that’s all they know. It just seemed like [back then], we had a lot of our entire family doing something.

When did you know you wanted to be a teacher and teach this subject? 

I was interested in history because it came alive for me. I loved social studies in high school. I loved anthropology, geography, psychology and sociology. When I took those courses, I was not just reading facts and figures but about people’s lives. And I put it together with my family’s lives. My [great grandmother], we found out, can be traced back to some Native Americans. And my grandfather used to say how his mother, [who] was half [Native American] and half [white], wasn’t allowed to go into stores. She had to sit out on the porch while his dad went in. So, I started saying, ‘That’s my family members,’ and I started wanting to know more. It just took off from there.

Tell me a childhood story that always makes you smile. [I was] coming home from the bus on the last day of school. My house was the house in the neighborhood where other kids played. For part of my childhood, the bus stop was also in our driveway; because of that, when it was cold, the kids would wait in the living room. But on the last day of school, [we got] off the bus, and my mom [had] streamers on the patio [with] cupcakes and Kool-Aid. My mom went out of her way to do everything, not just for us but all the kids. Other kids would call her mom too, which was cute. 

What things make you nostalgic when you see/hear/smell/feel them?

Everything. I’m a very sentimental person so anything and everything. There’s some old Christmas candy called Ribbon Candy — a lot of people might not know what that is, but you’d find it at an old Ben Franklin store on Eureka. My mom would explain how, when she was a kid growing up during the Depression, they got an apple, orange and a couple [of] pieces of ribbon candy for Christmas. That was it. She would take hers and lick it a couple [of] times and then wrap it back up and save it. Just to think [about] that, compared to what they have given us, is pretty amazing. My memory is always making connections with so many things out there.

Tell me about being a student here at West High. 

The first time I came back to the school and started going up the main stairs, my feet were hitting those exact same floors. It was kind of surreal, and all these memories came back. I was really upset last year when they put the new classrooms out, and they removed the blue locker bays because that’s where we would sit. We would go out there, sit in the locker bay, look across the big window and have our lunch. Now, you walk across a solid wall where it used to be open, and it was just so much more bright and beautiful. When I went here, the balconies would be open in between your classes. Some kids could work out there if it was a nice day. The teachers would let you have a little more freedom back then. I also remember a smoking lounge. I was very fortunate because early on I was always a runner and respected my lungs so I couldn’t imagine putting something in your lungs. But, a really good friend from junior high went out with a guy that smoked, so she started, and for about one year of high school when we were still close friends, I had to go down to the smoking lounge between classes to find her. I knew that I couldn’t be absent during track season, so my attendance was great in the fall. But once in a while, I’d take a mental health day. My mom was always like, ‘You stay home with me, honey. I’ll take you to lunch,’ which didn’t help the situation. But, because I was a good student, and I always did my work, she would tell me I could stay home. Plus, I was the baby, so she always let me stay home.